UI/UX Design
Blūm: Designing a Habit-Driven System to Reduce Food Waste
Prototype
Project Detail
Solo Capstone Project
Case Study
Role
Product Designer
Mobile Designer
UX Researcher
Duration
Nov 2025 - Jan 2026
(12 weeks)
Tools
Figma
Miro
Adobe Illustrator
Brief
Young adults want to eat healthier, save money, and reduce food waste, but busy schedules and mental overload make consistency difficult.
Overview
Food waste often happens due to friction which includes forgetting items, over-purchasing, or disrupted routines. Blūm reduces cognitive load and reinforces progress for sustainable habits.
Solution
I designed Blūm as a low-friction mobile system that combines pantry tracking, meal logging, and visual progress, encouraging small, repeatable actions that build consistency without guilt.
Research
Problem
Young adults want to eat healthier, save money, and reduce food waste, but busy schedules and mental overload make it hard to stay consistent. Key challenges include:
Forgetfulness
Users often forget what’s in their pantry, leading to over-purchasing or wasted food
Lack of planning
Grocery organization feel overwhelming without a simple system
HMW Statement
Routine disruption
Busy lifestyles and changing schedules break healthy habits, reducing consistency
How might we help young adults stay aware of what’s in their pantry and make meal choices that reduce waste?
Target Audience
Young adults (18–30) who are budget-conscious, health-aware, and want to reduce food waste but struggle with planning and consistency.
Secondary Research
77%
77% of Americans waste food simply because items are forgotten or lost in cluttered refrigerators, showing that poor visibility is a key factor driving household food waste
(Bosch Home Appliances / OnePoll, 2019)
Core Insight
133 billion pounds
Food wasted per year
30–40% of the U.S. food supply is wasted, equating to roughly 133 billion pounds of food each year. That represents 1,249 calories per person, per day.
(Bosch Home Appliances / OnePoll, 2019)
Young adults (ages 18–34) report some of the highest rates of food waste, 71% more food than older generations, often due to overbuying, lack of planning, and forgetting items in refrigerators or pantries.
(Natural Resources Defense Council)
Food waste is not an awareness issue. It is a visibility and planning systems problem, particularly among young adults who lack structured support for managing groceries.
Competitor Analysis
By analyzing existing food waste, pantry tracking, and meal planning apps, I identified key patterns in how current solutions attempt to reduce food waste and where they fall short for young, busy adults.
BitePal
AI pantry & food tracking
Key Analysis
Too Good To Go
Surplus food marketplace
Duolingo
Gamified habit-building platform
Tracking Over Behavior
Most food waste apps focus on logging and expiration tracking, but rely heavily on manual input.
Weak Motivation Systems
Food waste apps focus on organization, but unlike Duolingo, which uses streaks, progress tracking, and rewards to drive consistent habits, they lack strong motivation systems to sustain user behavior.
Not Integrated Into Daily Routines
Current solutions feel like separate tools rather than part of grocery planning and everyday life.
Empathy Map
This user is motivated to reduce food waste, save money, and build healthier habits, but struggles with consistency due to busy schedules, shifting routines, and cognitive overload. Food waste happens when pantry visibility is low and planning feels overwhelming.
The gap between intention and action stems from a lack of a simple, lightweight system that supports everyday decision-making without adding complexity.
This opens an opportunity for Blūm to directly addresses this user’s needs by increasing pantry visibility, reducing cognitive load, and reinforcing small, consistent actions, transforming good intentions into sustainable daily habits without adding complexity.
Persona
Mindful Maddy
The Intentional Improver Student
Practical Ben
The Reactive Multitasker student
In developing Maddy and Ben, I realized the problem wasn’t grocery knowledge or motivation, but it was behavioral sustainability. Both personas demonstrated that habit breakdown happens during routine disruption, not during moments of intention. This led me to design Blūm as a flexible system rather than a rigid planner. Instead of enforcing strict meal prep structures, I focused on micro-interactions, low-commitment logging, and positive reinforcement to support imperfect routines. Their behaviors influenced my decision to prioritize adaptability, emotional reinforcement, and lightweight daily engagement over feature-heavy tracking.
Core Insight
Young adults do not waste food because they lack awareness or care, they waste food because their routines are inconsistent, and without a lightweight system to maintain visibility and reinforcement, good intentions collapse under cognitive load.
User needs
Clear visibility of what’s expiring
Simple, low-effort tools
Motivation to stay consistent
User goals
Reduce food waste
Maximize groceries pantry
Build better planning habits
User frustrations
Forgetting food until it expires
Overbuying due to poor planning
Feeling guilty about wasting food
See what food is expiring soon
Pantry Inventory highlights
near expiration items
Need & Solution
Stay motivated to reduce waste
Meal logging with streaks and rewards
Goal
Save time entering groceries
Receipt upload to auto-add items
Help young adults reduce food waste, save money, and make healthier choices by providing simple, actionable tools that fit seamlessly into their busy daily routines
Strategic Opportunities
UI/UX Design
Informational Architecture
45 screens
Goal
I structured the information architecture to help users easily manage their pantry, reduce food waste, and access recipes and insights without feeling overwhelmed.
Approach
I designed the information architecture to center pantry management while supporting recipe discovery, goal tracking, and rewards.
I organized the app around core user needs: tracking food, adding groceries, discovering recipes, and monitoring progress.
I separated these actions into clear primary sections to help users move naturally from logging items to taking action.
This structure supports building sustainable food habits through simple, repeatable interactions
User Flow
Uploading Groceries
Why
Users need a simple way to keep their pantry up to date and reduce food waste
What I Did
Designed a flow with two options: upload a recipe or add items manually. For manual entry, users can type the item name and set an expiration date via calendar or manual input, or select from recommended suggestions. Users can review their pantry inventory at the end to confirm all items are tracked
Results
Offering multiple input options and a final review reduces friction, making it easier for users to maintain an accurate pantry and build consistent, sustainable habits
Design
Ideation and Iteration
40 screens
Process
I explored multiple user flows, including onboarding, home navigation, grocery shopping, and food waste reduction, to understand how users might interact with the app across different moments. After reviewing these concepts with my mentor, I narrowed my focus to the reduce-waste flow, as it aligned most strongly with user goals and stood out as the most compelling and impactful experience during my presentation.
Wireframe
Categorized Users Flow
Flow #1
I selected three core onboarding screens to show how I collect dietary preferences, allergies, and values. I designed this experience to personalize recommendations while keeping it lightweight and skippable so users are not overwhelmed at the start.
Upload Recipe Flow
Flow #2
I presented this flow step by step, starting from the entry point and ending with ingredients being synced to the pantry. This flow demonstrates how I reduced manual input by allowing users to upload a recipe and automatically track available and expiring items.
Home Screen
Screen
I showed one to two key home screens to highlight how users get a quick overview of their pantry status, progress, and suggested next actions. This screen helps users stay aware of expiring items and food waste goals at a glance.
Design System
Logo
Font
Color
Primary Colors
Shades of Black
Moodboard
Tone of Voice
Background
Friendly
Gentle
Motivating
Thoughtful
User Feedback & Iteration
I conducted two rounds of usability testing with young adults to refine both clarity and motivation within Blūm’s core flows.
1st Round Usability Testing
The first round validated the visual tone and overall concept. Users found the interface clean and intuitive, particularly the pantry tracking and recipe features. However, testing revealed friction in discoverability, users hesitated when logging meals and struggled to locate the goals and rewards section.
In response, I:
Renamed “Log a Day” → “Log Activity” for clearer intent
Strengthened the primary CTA through hierarchy, size, and contrast
Added a more visible rewards entry point
Clarified how daily actions contribute to points and streaks
Introduced quick expiration date presets to reduce input friction
Iteration 1: Meal Logging Discoverability
Before testing
Result
Logging became more immediately discoverable and aligned with daily habit formation.
Before testing
1st Iteration
Problem 🧐
Users hesitated when trying to log a meal.
The “Log my Day” label felt vague, and the primary action was too small as it‘s not immediately visible within the first few seconds of scanning the home screen.
Solution ✅
Renamed “Log a Day” → “Log Activity” for clearer intent
Increased CTA size and contrast
Repositioned the action to strengthen hierarchy
Improved visual prominence to support quick recognition
Iteration 2: Rewards & Motivation Visibility
2nd Iteration
Before testing
Problem 🧐
In the first round of testing, users couldn’t find the rewards section because it was hidden inside a navigation tab. As a result, they were unclear how their actions contributed to earning points or building streaks.
Final Iteration
Solution ✅
Surfaced rewards progress directly on the Home Screen
Added a visible streak tracker for immediate feedback
Introduced microcopy connecting logged actions to earned points
Strengthened post-action visual confirmation
Problem 🧐
Some users felt that manually adding grocery items one by one took too long, especially after larger shopping trips. The process of entering items and selecting expiration dates created friction.
Final Iteration
Solution ✅
Before testing
Add a screen to introduce a receipt upload option
Used AI to auto-generate detected items and suggest possible expiration dates
Kept manual entry available for small purchases
Added quick date presets (e.g., Today, 3 Days Left, 1 Week Left) alongside the calendar view
Result
By moving rewards visibility to the Home Screen, the connection between action and progress became immediate, reinforcing the motivation loop and encouraging consistent engagement.
Iteration 3: Reducing Item Entry Friction
Problem 🧐
Solution ✅
Result
The process became significantly faster and more flexible, allowing users to choose between automation and manual control while reducing overall effort.
Result
2nd Round Usability Testing
After implementing changes from the first testing round, I conducted a second usability test to validate whether the updates improved clarity, motivation visibility, and task efficiency.
Focus Areas
Visibility of rewards and streak progress
Ease of logging meals from the pantry
Efficiency of adding grocery items (manual vs. receipt upload)
Key Findings
Rewards Visibility Improved
Participants immediately noticed points and streak progress on the Home Screen. Unlike Round 1, no users struggled to locate the rewards system.
They clearly understood how logging actions contributed to points.Faster Item Entry
The receipt upload feature significantly reduced friction after larger grocery trips. Users appreciated having the flexibility to choose between AI automation and manual entry.
Clearer Behavioral Loop
Participants verbally connected their actions (logging meals) to progress (streak growth and rewards), showing stronger awareness of the motivation system.
Reflection
The second round confirmed that visibility drives behavior. By surfacing rewards and reducing input friction, the experience shifted from task-based tracking to a motivational feedback system.
By aligning system feedback with user action in real time, the design strengthened the behavioral loop and increased perceived value without adding complexity.
UI Layout Logic
Onboarding Flow
Sign In
Categorize Users
Generating Personalization
Why This Layout?
I kept onboarding minimal and outcome-focused to reduce cognitive load. Instead of explaining features, users categorize themselves (e.g., eat healthier, reduce waste) and select a primary goal, creating immediate relevance and personal motivation.
Problem-solving
Young adults want to reduce food waste but often lack structure, visibility, and a clear starting point. Without defined goals, motivation remains abstract. The onboarding process helps users identify their priorities and frames Blūm as a supportive system rather than another overwhelming tracker.
Key Design Decision
Letting users choose their main goal personalizes the experience from the start. Progress tracking and rewards align with what matters most to them, reinforcing sustainable behavior through small, repeatable actions.
Pantry Inventory
Why This Layout?
The pantry is the primary screen because visibility drives action. Items are automatically sorted by expiration date and organized by food categories, making freshness and urgency immediately scannable. Users can also edit or remove items and adjust expiration dates to keep their inventory accurate and flexible.
Expiration Alert
“Food waste often happens when users are unaware of urgency”.
I intentionally avoided aggressive warning language. The goal is proactive awareness, not shame-based motivation.
Problem-solving
Users forget what they already own, leading to overbuying and expired food. The pantry dashboard increases visibility so users can quickly see what needs to be used first.
Key Design Decision
I prioritized clarity over density. Color cues and hierarchy draw attention to expiring items first, while allowing lightweight editing ensures the system stays adaptable to real-life changes, reducing friction in everyday decision-making.
Add Item Flow
Upload Receipt Route
“Add Items Manually” Flow
Why This Layout?
I streamlined the process with flexible input options to match real-life behavior. Users can upload a receipt and use AI to estimate expiration dates, or quickly add 1–2 items manually. Recommended date tags and a calendar view allow fast adjustments without adding complexity.
Problem-solving
If logging groceries feels tedious, users will stop using the app. The flow reduces effort so tracking becomes sustainable.
Key Design Decision
Reducing input friction was critical. By offering flexible logging methods and smart expiration suggestions, I minimized manual effort while maintaining pantry accuracy, making the system fast enough to use consistently.
Log Meal/Activity Flow
Logging Meals → Updating Inventory
Rewards & Streak Reinforcement
Users log meals directly from their pantry items
Inventory updates automatically after confirmation
Reduces duplicate entry and manual tracking
Increases awareness of what’s being used
Turns meal logging into a quick, low-effort habit
Logging meals contributes to daily streaks
Users earn points and milestone badges
Progress is visible and measurable over time
Uses positive reinforcement instead of guilt
Encourages long-term consistency through small wins
Why This Layout?
The meal logging flow connects directly to pantry inventory, allowing users to select items they used instead of re-entering information. This keeps logging fast while updating inventory automatically.
Problem-solving
Tracking groceries alone doesn’t ensure food is used. Without logging consumption, users lose visibility into their habits and progress.
Key Design Decision
Logging meals contributes to rewards and streaks, reinforcing consistency and motivation. By linking daily actions to visible progress, the system closes the loop between intention, action, and positive reinforcement, strengthening long-term habit formation.
High Fidelity Prototype
48 screens
Why This Structure Works
Log Action
Inventory Update
Long-Term Motivation
Streak Growth
Reward
Core Insight
This creates a complete behavioral loop designed to reinforce sustainable habits through small, repeatable actions.
Mobile Design
Video Prototype
Click me!
Check out the live prototype for mobile device!
Discovered
Through research, I discovered that food waste is rarely intentional. Users genuinely want to waste less, but forgetfulness, low visibility, and busy routines create a gap between intention and action.
Learned
I learned that behavior change happens through small, consistent nudges, not large feature sets. Simplicity and visibility matter more than complexity.
Takeaway
I developed greater discipline in separating personal bias from user needs, using research to guide strategic decisions and design systems that drive measurable behavior change.