Summary
FreshBite is designed to bring lasting value to users' meal planning and diet by creating meaningful experiences that drive long-term engagement. The platform focuses on delivering personalization, transparent subscription, and easy meal management.
My Role
Product Design - user research, visual design, interaction design
Team
Cindy W.
Skye M.
Wing K.
Nathan H. (Me)
Tools
Figma
FreshBite
Building Engagements That Last For Meal Kits
HIGHLIGHTS
Personalized Experience
The homepage is designed to provide users with recommendations and meal updates for a personalized meal experience.
Managing Meal Delivieries
Flexible meal deliveries that fit the user's schedule, ensuring they receive meals when it's most convenient for them rather than having to wait or adjust their plans.
Meals For Every Lifestyle
Cross-filters to enable users to quickly discover meals tailored to their unique preference and lifestyles, making selection faster and more intuitive.
Track Meals In The Household
Helps users manage their meals with confidence, eliminating the guesswork about what's in their fridge and delivering consistent value for daily app use.
DISCOVER
Understanding The Market
Meal kit delivery services have been part of the U.S market since 2012, aiming to offer a more convenient and healthier alternative to traditional grocery shopping. These services were designed to save time, reduce food waste and support better eating habits.
However, there is a key problem that they are failing to address.
High Drop-Off Rate
Estimate % of User Who Canceled
40%- 50%
1 month
60%- 70%
3 months
70%- 80%
6 months
85% - 95%
12 months
Meal Kit Drop-Off Rates Over Time
With around 50% of users canceling after the first month and few staying engaged over time. Meal kits are struggling with long-term engagement with its users canceling their subscription at an alarming rate.
But, why are they canceling their subscription?
RESEARCH
Uncovering the Gaps
I wanted to uncover why users weren't staying long-term with these services to differentiate FreshBite from its competitors. So, I conducted interviews and a thematic analysis with former meal kit users.
I was able to uncover three major issues.
Forced Sign-ups
Users must subscribe before exploring the service, making it hard to determine if it aligns with their needs for a long time commitment.
Lack of Personalization
Meal kit services lack personalization, making it hard for users to find meals that align with their dietary needs and preferences.
Inflexible
Traditional grocery shopping is flexible but time-consuming, while meal kit services save time but lack flexibility.
Why is this a problem?
Meal kit services are too rigid to accommodate people’s day-to-day changes, leading users to engage only occasionally. For those wanting a daily solution, the service fails to provide consistent value.
How might we create a valuable, lasting experience that keeps users engaged daily?
HMW
IDEATE
What's the Recipe?
Since users only turn to meal kits occasionally, I set out to design a solutions that integrates seamlessly into their daily lives, providing consistent value and fostering long-term engagement. In order to design a solution I turned the issues that was uncovered into design goals and what I wanted to achieve with those goals.
01
Show Value Upfront
More Intentional Subscriptions
02
Adapt to Users' Changing Needs
Provide Value
03
Support Smarter Food Management
Encourage Long-Term Engagement
EXPLORATION
Show Value Upfront
Build Transparency & Trust For More Intentional Sign-Ups
During the competitive analysis, I noticed that users were required to pay for the service without aligning their needs for the product. I wanted to design a transparent subscription model that empowers users to make intentional sign-ups.
Subscription Hub
I improved how users manage subscription by designing an element on the header to provide users with information on their subscription.
Before Subscription: Push for more user sign-up by making sign-up accessible
After Subscription: Information on users' subscription
Before Subscription
After Subscription
Adapt to User's Changing Needs
Replicating Meal Decision Making System
In the interviews and thematic analysis, meal fatigue emerged as a key theme—users struggled to find meals daily. With so many varying preferences and meal attributes, I wanted to design a solution that addresses this challenge.
Cross Sampling of Filters
Meal decision involve two factors:
Lifestyle/dietary: rarely changes (ex., religion, restrictions, long-term diets)
Personal preferences: shift from meal to meal
I wanted to design a filter system that naturally fits with this decision making.
Flexibility Delivery
Our research uncovered that with perishable ingredients, many spoil if users aren’t home to receive them, making it hard for users to align their schedules with the meal kit delivery schedule.
I wanted to design an ordering system that helps users plan their deliveries.
Ordering System
I designed an ordering system that lets users select their preferred delivery date and time, allowing them to align meal deliveries with their schedule rather than rearranging their schedule to get their meals.
Support Smarter Food Management
Creating Lasting Value
To encourage consistent daily use, I designed a feature that delivers ongoing value by making FreshBite a meal hub where users can track the meals in their household.
Freshness Tracker
This feature lets users check their household meals while away, eliminating the need to second-guess what meals are in their fridge. By tracking meal freshness and inventory, it encourages users to order from FreshBite and using it more for consistent daily use.
RESULTS
Retention Beats Acquisition
Focusing our efforts into retention of users can dramatically increase profitability and even modest improvements in retention can translate into substantially higher revenue. By delivering value and focusing our product to fit into the users' lifestyle, they are more likely to maintain their subscription.
If Retention increases 5%
Profit can boost of 25%- 95%
Retained customers generate ongoing revenue without the high cost of acquiring new ones.
Less money used on constant acquisitions.
REFLECTION
The Secret Ingredient
Aside from all the new skills that I have learned from this project. I realized how important it is for a team to be aligned and ideate ideas off of each other.
The FreshBite Team
What I have learned
01
Improving The Users Experience Will Always Benefit The Business Goals
When the experience meets or exceeds user expectation, it naturally drives behaviors that align with the business goals. I've learned that if a a solution doesn't align with both user and business needs, it's not the right solution yet.
02
Diverse Perspectives Shapes Better Solutions
Collaborating with teammates allowed us to challenge assumptions, refine ideas and build on each other's strengths. I learned that the best ideas often emerge through open discussion, constructive feedback and a willingness to iterate.
03
User Testing and Validating Designs
Observing how people interacted with the product revealed pain points and behaviors I hadn't anticipated, leads to valuable insights for improvements. This process reinforced the idea that testing early and often is key to creating a product that meets the users' needs.