EAT FOR

EAT FOR is a new way of finding food and recipes. The experience users get from using EAT FOR should be simple and straight forward. Food, recipe or health apps in the current market are often overloaded with unnecessary features. Overloaded content results in complicated navigation systems. I wanted to stay away from them. It was also important that I embrace the new and practical process of looking for a menu.

The information presented in the app are a result of my research and are sourced from reliable public data that has been collected, but this doesn’t mean eating the suggested food by EAT FOR will guarentee improvement or cure diseases, rather it is a guideline to get users to think about food in a more healthy manner. EAT FOR will not be offering any medical advice provided by practiced medical professionals either. The main goal of the project is to make a behavioral change on the meal finding process and give women better reasons to eat without feeling guilty.

As EAT FOR embraces a new way to find menus and recipes, in order to use the app, users need to recognized their current health or beauty concerns. To Help users point out their concerns, the app organized topics under three parent categories: Look, Performance, and Feel.
By opening the app, users land on the ‘Look’ page by default. Users should tap on the menu accordingly to her needs. ‘Look’ lists topics such as hair, nails, teeth, skin, muscles, anti-aging, and weight. Tap on ‘Performance’, and the menu will show topics such as brain, heart, vision, bones, joints, gastrointestinal health, immune system, pregnancy, healthy breasts, and energy. The third menu is ‘Feel’ and it contains topics good sleep, relieving PMS, less stress, hormonal balance, brighter moods, detox, and treating anemia.

Once users decide on a topic relevant to their needs, they can tap on the topic and next screen and it will list various dishes which may prevent / will help ease their condition. Dishes are nested under different meal types for the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert / snack. They can swipe left or right to browse through dish options. Once users find the one that they like, they may tap on the name of the dish to see the next screen. The bolder typeface used in the dish names indicates the hero ingredient in dish that is beneficial to the condition the user is concerned with.

The next screen shows an appetizing picture of the dish selected. The top left corner has two buttons. The upper one is to go back to the parent category screen and the lower one is to go back one screen. The name of the dish is written clearly with the hero ingredient in a bolder typeface. The key nutrient of the ingredient can be found underneath the dish name. Users will also notice two black buttons logos. The buttons offer users two options for the chosen dish: dine out, or cook at home. If one chooses to dine out, she may tap on the button with the Yelp logo. The Yelp button is preloaded with a list of restaurants that carry the relevant dish. However, if one chooses to cook at home, her option would be to tap on the button underneath the Yelp button, which shows recipes for the dish she has chosen. The recipe source varies by dishes. The last feature on the screen is the detailed nutrition benefits of the hero ingredient. The information presented is extracted from original content, if users wish to read more, they may tap on paragraph, at which time the app will open another window to direct users to the original source.

Users are encouraged to use EAT FOR throughout their day, since the app covers various topics from stress relieving snack options to brain boosting breakfast options to dinner ideas for good night’s sleep. The users options are broad, the app currently lists over 300 dishes with valuable information and solutions. The joy of looking through appetizing food photographs is a plus, 70% of the pictures are my own work and the rest have been collected from relevant recipe sources.

The app introduces a new and practical way of food finding to users. Whether one choses to eat out or cook at home, EAT FOR users get educated on the nutrition information of food and its ingredients by using the app. Once users being to us the application on a regular basis they will begin to learn which ingredients have what benefits for their particular conditions. They also have the ability to filter through the content based solely on the core ingredient they know has nutritional benefits for them, discovering which dishes can bring the best value to them. This is beneficial not just by increasing awareness for healthy eating, but also helps users eat smart and make better decisions during all eating occasions. Users can also help others make better decisions more easily on a menu. If users begin to focus on the nutritional benefits their food brings to their body rather than just the taste and caloric intake, they can stop feeling guilty about eating. Society can them expect healthier relationships between women and eating, which will prevent unhealthy cravings and eating habits. Eventually resulting in a healthier demographic. Using EAT FOR can be the catalyst to begin all this, by changing our habits and listening to what the body wants.