FlavorHunt
FlavorHunt is a mobile app that recommends lunch specials from spots suggested by friends or neighbors. Users can invite friends to get lunch together, and add their recommendations to a food album to refine personalized suggestions to other users.
Tools Figma
Miro
RoleUser Research
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
How might we reimagine the experience of finding lunch specials?
- affordable options for lunch
- feel tired from cooking at home
- want to try dishes they cannot easily prepare themselves
A mobile app that recommends various restaurants with lunch specials at lunchtime, selected from a pool of spots recommended by the user's friends or neighbors. Users can easily invite friends to join them for the meal, and after dining, they can add their recommendations to their food album, further refining the app's personalized suggestions.
What makes a lunch special special?
Lunch specials offer a variety of courses at a discounted price, providing a complete meal with shorter wait times. These offers also have the potential to foster customer loyalty by encouraging repeat business.
During the ideation phase, I conducted four user interviews to gain insights into students' lunch habits at school. I explored whether they typically eat in the cafeteria, bring their own lunch, or go off-campus for meals. For those who dine out, I delved into their typical budget, the distance they're willing to travel for a meal, and their familiarity with lunch specials around campus. I also tried to understand how much they trust online reviews on platforms like Google Maps.
“The only way I hear about lunch specials is if I’m walking down the street and there’s a sign or if one of my friends mentions a lunch special”
“It’s never lunchtime when I find out about lunch specials”
“Recommendations from friends encourage me to try new places and I think it’s the most effective way of spreading information”
The results helped me identify the critical needs of the stakeholders, revealing that the majority use their phones—particularly map-based apps—to find lunch spots. On average, students are willing to spend $15 on lunch, and 70% prefer to get lunch with friends.
70%
of students weren't familiar with lunch specials offered in their neighborhood
80%
think convenience and price are the most important factors for lunch specials
90%
of students prefer map-based apps to discover restaurants
This competitive review examines five prominent food-related apps by analyzing key features that enhance discovering restaurants. While Yelp and Google Maps provide robust review and ranking systems, Foursquare and Beli focus more on social networking and personalized recommendations. Grubhub, on the other hand, focuses on delivery and takeout options.
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88% of respondents use navigation systems like Google Maps to find restaurants.
The onboarding process asks for your preferred neighborhood, travel distance, notification settings, lunch budget, and whether your food album is public or private to other users.
The home page invites users choose their desired cuisine and sets a countdown to their lunch break.
They can also reveal a recommendation anytime by selecting the ‘I want to get lunch now’ option.
When the countdown ends, three personalized lunch recommendations appear curated from friends’ and neighbors’ food albums. Users can generate more options if unsatisfied and bookmark restaurants in their ‘Saved for Later’ album.
SHARE RECOMMENDATIONS
Once a decision is made, the app offers the option to invite friends to join the meal, notifying them to walk over together. After visiting a restaurant, users are additionally asked to share if they would recommend that spot to others. If so the restaurant will be added to their ‘food album’
Here you can find the profile page of the user which consists of restaurants that they would recommend to others and restaurants that were suggested to them but they want to try it some other time.
What if the user doesn’t have any friends on the app?
Recommendations can not only be drawn from friends' food albums but also from other locals in their neighborhood who have decided to keep their 'Food Album' public to everyone.
- How many times per week do students take advantage of lunch specials?
- How many restaurants have they discovered through the new app?
- How often do users end up going to recommendations from friends?
- What cuisines are the most popular options?
- Special discounts offered by restaurants for students
- Repeated going as automatic recommendations for friends
- 'Saved for Later' restaurants pinned on Google Maps
- Other options to pick from besides cuisine on the home page