Making healthy, personalized meals accessible : anytime, anywhere

The Challenge

Instant Meal is a futuristic food delivery company in 2048. They offer nutrient-packed meals in the form of compact cubes. These cubes come in pre-made recipes, but the company wanted to allow users to customize their own recipes for a more personalized and engaging experience.

The goal:
Design a mobile app allowing users to easily create, save, and order their own meal cubes, ensuring the experience remains quick, flexible, and delightful for busy people.

Target Users

• Active professionals (20-40 y/o) needing quick, reliable meals while commuting or working.
• Health-conscious users with specific diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free), requiring clear nutritional information and ingredient control.
• Users seeking speed, convenience, trust, and personalization in their meals.

‍

Research & Insights

I analyzed user needs and key behaviors:

✅ Need for easy customization while ensuring speed.
✅ Desire to save and reorder favorite meals easily.
✅ Value clear ingredient and nutritional transparency.

Example scenario:

Léa, 29, a marketing consultant, arrives at Bordeaux train station with 15 min before departure. She wants a quick, healthy meal but finds her favorite combo out of stock. The app suggests a new combination she has never tried before, turning an inconvenience into an opportunity to discover new flavors.

Ideation

Based on the research, the app needed to:

• Let users create and save personalized meal cubes.
• Enable quick ordering and pickup from Instant Meal stations.
• Allow exploration of new recipe combinations.
• Display nutritional details clearly for each customized cube.

I started with low-fidelity wireframes to map the user flow from meal creation to pickup while ensuring the process remained seamless under time constraints.

‍

Design solution

I designed an app icon that captures the joy of eating, using a playful smile with a tongue sticking out. To reference the edible cube concept, I added a small bite mark on the corner of the icon.

I then created high-fidelity mockups illustrating the user journey previously described, showcasing the app’s key features:

✅ The ability to choose and build personalized meal cubes.
✅ Detailed nutritional and ingredient information for each cube, including dietary compatibility.
✅ An easy way to reorder favorite meals or combinations.
✅ A Shuffle Mode to discover new, unique combinations at random.
✅ Quick ordering and pickup from nearby Instant Meal stations.

These designs aimed to deliver a fun, clear, and intuitive experience while ensuring that customization and speed remained at the heart of the app.

Impact & Results

✨ 🏆 Won 1st place at the Luni Design Contest.

The jury’s feedback:

“It was the most realistic proposal, something we could actually see and use in our everyday lives.”

“Even though the concept was futuristic, the way users interact with food delivery would remain similar, and this app captured that perfectly.”