CONTEXT
Task: Design a digital application addressing an undergraduate challenge.
Competed in Rice University's 2024 Design-a-thon, a 3-day nationwide event with 300+ participants from
56 universities.
ROLE
TEAM
TIMELINE
SKILLS/TOOLS
UI/UX Designer
3 UI/UX Designers
Jan 26-28, 2024
Figma
User Interviews
Prototyping
Market Research
Design System
OVERVIEW + AWARDS
Awarded "Most Inclusive Design" for Pan.try and Top 8 Finalist!
Pan.try is an AI-powered application that addresses food insecurity among college students by optimizing meal planning through an intuitive virtual pantry system and scanning mechanism
PROJECT PROCESS
01
02
03
05
Research
Design
Final Deliverable
Reflection
01
RESEARCH
With such a broad challenge, first, we brainstormed challenges on FigJam to narrow our focus. We determined that we wanted to explore food insecurity more.
We conducted a survey of Rice undergraduate college students with 87 participants:
Task: Design a digital application addressing an undergraduate challenge.
79%
Depend on
meal plans
61%
Never cook
on campus
75%
Depend on campus
dining/ meal prep
38%
Food and Nutrition
Concerns
ON CAMPUS
OFF CAMPUS
Off-campus students prioritized price, timing, accessibility, and nutrition but relied on off-campus dining (readymade food) and cheap sources due to busy schedules and lack of motivation to cook or seek fresh produce.
1.1
INTERVIEW CONSOLIDATION
We found on-campus students rarely
cooked or bought groceries.
4 Major Themes
Price
Time
Accessibility
Money
When asked about cooking at home:
When asked about cooking experiences:
"I always have leftover ingredients that go to waste because I don't have time or know what to cook with it." - Student B
"It's expensive and hard to find time to cook. Although I enjoy it, my work comes first." - Student A
This helped us consolidate what features are important and how Pan.try compares.
1.2
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I conducted a competitive analysis of current food resources and their features.
1.3
USER PERSONAS
Introducing…Busy Betty and Healthy Henry!
To conceptualize the problem space, we came up with 2 user personas. Busy Betty and Healthy Henry helped us ensure each design decision intentionally addressed identified needs from our research.
02
DESIGN
Napkin sketches in a cafe—User flow
We were working on the clock, so we quickly sketched together key features and mapped our a user flow.
2.1
WIREFRAMING
Efficiency was at the heart our lo-fi prototype.
We wanted to keep in mind the time and budget constraints of users like Healthy Henry and Busy Betty.*
The Lo-fi design prioritized placing the main feature, the scan mechanism, at the forefront of the navigation menu for efficient and easy access.
Main Goal:
Efficient access to scanning mechanism, the priority feature
Implementing a storage "pantry" of current ingredients
Personalizing the experience to users' individual buying habits
I worked on the scanning mechanism and created a mobile wireframe to allow quick identification of ingredients.
Healthy Henry now can easily scan his curated list of healthy ingredients for quick recipes.
Busy Betty can maximize her schedule by having on demand recipes and immediate access to the camera feature.
*
2.2
STYLE GUIDE
We wanted to prioritize high contrast for quick readability and accessibility.
In creating our style guide, we employed a color contrast tool to ensure the design met accessibility standards.
The design achieved a contrast ratio that not only complies with WCAG 2.1 guidelines but also enhances readability and usability for users with visual impairments.
I designed this branding with soft warm colors as these are associated with freshness, health, and vitality. The black serves as a good contrast for readability.
**Now, Busy Betty can take a quick glance and locate recipes with ease!
2.3
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
The intention behind each design decision
We wanted to tie each each design decision to our problem statement of optimizing users' accessibility, time, budget, and knowledge.
Quick Access to Primary Scanning Mechanism
Clarity in Information Display:
Shows the system has registered the input
Real Time Feedback
Proximity
Group related ingredients spatially
Group popular filters together with button indicators
Fitt's Law +
Minimal Clicks
Recipe Suggestions with AI Goals:
Reduce the required steps
Fitt's Law: Most frequently accessed scanning element in easy-to-reach area
Button Hierarchy
Saved Button: Gray outline indicates disabled state, solid state indicates enabled.
High contrast ratio ensures readability
Playful and natural branding
Contrast + Affordance
03
FINAL DELIVERABLE
Video Demo
Listen to my amazing team member, Cecilia, walk you through our final deliverable in our team's video demo!
04
REFLECTION
Takeaways
This 3-day experience from ideation to development was truly an exhilarating journey and grew both my passion for design and the user journey. Starting from scratch also fueled entrepreneurial spirit as I learned to design a product that meets specific user needs.
I learned about the impact of having an aligned team and prioritizing accessibility from the start.
I also learned about the importance of structure in a fast-paced environment with initiating a design system and style guide from the start.
Our team was awarded "Most Inclusive Design" and placed 4th out of 50+ teams across different universities nationally with over 250+ participants.
However, our journey did not end at the Design-a-thon. We pitched Pan.try at the Napier Rice Launch Challenge: Check out our pitch deck below! We are still passionate about pursuing further development. Currently, we have attained startup funding and are working on developing our design!
trekking in the rain
all-nighter with our friends bringing us food
1 sleepless night later,
pan.try came to life!
once upon a time, there were three college students…
a flower for stopping by ᵕ̈
<< sowed with love, jo anil © 2025
