TL;DR
The Problem
The campus canteen was the easiest way to eat, yet it was riddled with issues: long lines, noisy menus, mostly oily or artificially coloured food, and no sense of calories or protein—just as students were trying to eat “healthier” on tight budgets.
The Research
Observations and student conversations surfaced four clear archetypes who all behaved the same way, and designing for these archetypes seemed like the best option.
The Solution
A four‑option meal‑plan layer that sits alongside the canteen, with transparent calories/macros, predictable pricing, and small swappable components prepared by the existing kitchen.
Type of project
Passion project to solve a problem I noticed my brother was facing while going to college
Timeline
4–6 weeks
Concept evolution from generic ordering app to canteen‑partnered meal plan.
Context & Constraints
Where does this problem live?
The canteen trap
The canteen is convenient and familiar, although most meals are chosen under time pressure, from an overloaded board, with almost no sense of how healthy or filling they actually are.
As a student I never realised this while I was placing my own orders, this taught me how researching as an unbiased third party helps you learn a lot more than you think.
Context & Constraints
Within these constraints, the challenge wasn’t to reinvent the canteen from scratch, but to wrap it in a structure that made better everyday decisions feel just as easy as grabbing the usual.
Could work with
The existing canteen kitchen and staff.
Digital flows for planning, payment, and pickup.
Students’ growing interest in “eating better” and “more protein”.
Could not change
No new buildings, vendors, or extra kitchen lines.
No turning the canteen into a strictly “health food” outlet.
No expectation that students count every gram or track every meal.
Had to respect
Tight student budgets and fixed monthly allowances.
Short meal windows between classes.
The canteen’s role as a social, sometimes “cheat‑day” space.
Personal Learning
Starting off, I was under the bias that we would have to create an app where students had access to the menu, ability to place an order directly to the canteen without the hassle of coming and waiting in line in the canteen. But the research opened up the possibility that this was not what was needed.
Personal Learning
Instead of another food‑ordering interface, the situation called for a different idea entirely: fewer, better‑defined meals that took the thinking out of everyday choices. Sometimes it is not a design based change, it is often a system based change that suits the solution the best.
Solution
What does the solution look like in practice?
The insights turned into a few focused screens rather than a giant feature list. Each one is designed to remove a specific bit of friction without changing how students naturally use the canteen.
Impact & Learnings
What would success look like?
For students
The lineup on the home screen narrows lunch down to a few clearly annotated options, so choosing a meal takes seconds, not a full scan of the menu.
Weekly schedules, history “add to lineup”, and the veg‑only toggle help them stick to a pattern that fits their budget and basic health goals without overthinking.
For the canteen
Pre‑selected lineups give the kitchen a stable demand picture, making batch prep and portioning easier and cutting waste.
A separate pickup flow for planned meals thins peak‑time queues without new counters.
Impact & Learnings
What did I learn as a designer?
For students
Reframing from “fix the ordering UI” to “fix the decision” led to a more honest, useful solution than just polishing a menu.
Limiting visible choices to a small set of strong defaults can respect students’ time and energy more than exposing the full menu.
Treating the canteen as a partner, kitchen, staff, pushed the work from screen design into system design.
A few sharp observations and conversations were enough to justify a pivot. The value was in how clearly each insight translated into a design move.