Foodi

Curated Restaurant Recs from People You Trust

UX Case Study | Mobile App | General Assembly

‍Overview
Foodi is a mobile app concept designed to help food-lovers discover and share trusted restaurant recommendations—cutting through the noise of crowdsourced review platforms. Inspired by my own search for authentic, memorable dining while traveling, I led end-to-end design: from research and strategy through prototyping and usability testing.

Tools used: Figma, Maze

1

DISCOVER

2

DEFINE

3

IDEATE

4

PROTOTYPE

5

REFLECTION

DISCOVER

The challenge: In a sea of online reviews, how might we design a platform that connects users to trusted recommendations from real people they value—friends, locals, and culinary experts?

Research Goals

  • Understand how foodies currently discover restaurants
  • Identify gaps in trust, usability, and knowledge-sharing

Key Insights

  • Foodies rely heavily on personal networks and trusted industry voices—not anonymous reviews
  • Users rarely leave reviews themselves unless negative
  • There was strong enthusiasm around curating and sharing lists within their own circles

These findings pointed to a trust-first, socially connected solution—not another review platform.

DEFINE

Users didn’t want more information—they wanted better information. I reframed the problem as:‍

"How might we help food lovers discover and share trusted culinary experiences with their network?"‍‍

IDEATE

‍I sketched several concepts and prioritized features using an impact/effort matrix. The MVP centered on:
  • Creating personal “City Lists”
  • Sharing lists with others
  • Adding restaurants from friends’ lists

PROTOTYPE + TEST

Low-Fidelity Testing (Round 1)

  1. Share a city list
  2. Add a restaurant from a shared list to a personal list

Findings

✅ Users understood the core functionality of “add to list” and “share” icons

❌ “Shared Plates” label was confusing and unclear

❌ Profile-based navigation was underused and unintuitive

Iterations

  • Renamed “Shared Plates” to simply “Shared”
  • Removed profile menu entirely
  • Surfaced “Shared” and “Your Lists” in the bottom nav
  • Added onboarding to better personalize the experience

Visual Design

Inspired by neon-lit food stalls in Hong Kong, the UI uses bold color and contrast to reflect a sense of discovery and energy. A feedback session highlighted areas for layout clarity and accessibility, which I incorporated into revisions.

High-Fidelity Testing (Round 2)

‍Mission 1: Share Barcelona list with your coworker via text message

Issue: Users tried to share from within the list, not thelist directory

Severity: Minor

Solution: Add a share button within the city list view

Mission 2: Add a restaurant from a shared list to an existing San Francisco list

Issue: Users looked for the restaurant via the search function, not the shared list tab

Severity: Serious

Solution: Streamline by removing the in-app “Shared” tab—focus on external sharing only

Final Prototype

VIEW PROTOTYPE

REFLECTION

This project was a full dive into UX—from ideation to iteration. While I came in excited about UI, I left with a deep appreciation for research. Synthesizing qualitative data into actionable insights was especially rewarding and validated my interest in user-centered design. Balancing this project with a full-time job taught me the value of timeboxing, prioritization, and iteration.

Get in touch

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like to learn more about me or if you're interested in working together. Shoot me an email at annaleightc@gmail.com

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