When I was creating the Eatly application, from the start, I was clear that I wanted to include many valuable features for users, but I also understood that it was not enough to have good ideas if they were not well structured and aligned with their real needs. To put you a little more in context, Eatly is a conceptual app focused on the conscious and emotional feeding.
Before designing interfaces, I decided to focus on the phase of UX research. The objective: to connect with potential users, understand how they think, what they are looking for and how they navigate informationto build a solid, clear and empathic experience from the root.
Project objectives
Before designing any screen, it was essential to understand the user and validate the ideas from his look. This strategic phase was aimed at:
- Indepth research of target audiences from Eatly, its contexts and motivations.
- Define key functionalities of the app in a clear and prioritized way.
- Set content architecture: what to show, how to group it and how to name it.
- Validate organizational and navigation decisions by user-centred research techniques.
Tasks performed
This project was developed with a methodological approach based on UX Research. The tasks included:
- Analysis of potential users and profiling.
- Design of functionalities based on real needs.
- Exercise of card sorting face and digital to organize the information.
- Definition of a first navigable structure.
- Early validation of terms, groupings and accesses.
- Visual definition of the mark
Analysis of target audiences
Before the activity of card sorting, it was essential to perform a prior phase of analysis focused on identify and define potential user profiles that would consume an app like Eatly. This stage allowed me not only to list the type of functionalities to test, but also to ensure that architectural decisions were based on real needs.
I focused especially on understand who uses similar apps of the health, welfare or conscious feeding sector, observing common patterns and friction points in their experiences.
From that base, I defined five key profileseach with different needs and objectives.
| User Profile | Requirements | Target when using Eatly |
|---|---|---|
| A person in psychological therapy with TCA | Keep an emotional and food record, detect patterns and learn to better relate to food. | Use the journal as a therapeutic tool, identify triggers and follow up. |
| Person who wants to improve their weight | Be aware of what you eat, when and why; gain control without following strict diets. | Observe and modify eating habits from consciousness and compassion. |
| Professional with little time to cook | Find fast and healthy recipes, according to energy level and time available. | Save time in planning without giving up eating well. |
| Person with occasional anxiety or sadness | Have soft accompaniment on difficult days, with easy and comforting suggestions. | Feeling accompanied and validated, with recipes adapted to your emotional state. |
| Father / mother who wants to educate their children in healthy food | Have balanced food ideas that you can share in family, teach healthy habits without obsessions. | Educate through the example, know healthy and accessible alternatives for the whole family. |
To this end, I combined a comprehensive review of competing products with exploratory interviews, which allowed me to identify key motivations, barriers and objectives of the different profiles. This information was essential to properly structure the test cards and validate their logic from the point of view of the end user.
Card Sorting: order before designing
Having clear the universe of functionalities I wanted to include, the next step was understand how users would group and name them for themselves. This is where the card sorting He played a key role.
What is the card sorting?
Card sorting is a research technique that allows you to know how users group and interpret different content or functions. In this case, I wanted to know:
- What functionalities do you consider related?
- What terms are most intuitive?
- How would they structure the navigation?
Online and face-to-face card sorting dynamics
I designed a face-to-face session with different users in which I handed them cards with key features and asked them to group them as they found it more logical. It was a total of 20 users who carried out the activity, of which 4 were from the online version.
On the other hand, with the help of tools such as UXtweak, I conducted the same study online in order to expand the range of people who carried out this activity. The Eatly's study is available in open so that users can do so.
In this activity, a number of features representative of the content EATLY could include, for example:
- See summary of day
- Search a meal
- See food history
- Undertake mindfulness exercises
- Search recipe by mood
- Change personal goals
- Save recipe as favorite
- Access to mini-guides
- Watch expert videos
- Review weekly habits
To do this, the user had a complete list of the functionalities on the left and then different sections possible to create and move the cards as shown on the right:
This tool, specialized in card sorting, allowed me to:
- Measure times, response patterns and levels of agreement.
- Visualize how functionalities were grouped.
- Identify coincidences or contradictions between participants.
The objective of both activities, both present and online, was to find out how they interpreted and connected each function, in order to define an intuitive structure, thought from its logic and not from design assumptions. This dynamic allowed me to observe natural patterns of grouping, detect functionalities that generated doubt or that overlap conceptually, and also see how the perception varies according to the user profile.
This diversity of interpretations is key in building an experience that works for different profiles.In addition, the exercise allowed understand which elements users consider priority, what they need to have more accessible and what flows they expect to find grouped. All this was essential to lay the foundations for clear, consistent and adapted navigation to the real context of use.
Validation of Card Sorting
Once the activity of card sortingI considered it key to combine both qualitative and quantitative insights. In this case, I worked with a version remote using the UXtweak tool, which made it possible to obtain objective metrics that complement direct user observation.
Combined methodology: presence vs online
I have used this technique both in presence dynamics as in online environments. The main difference lies in the type of feedback which is obtained:
- In the format presenceusers often take the opportunity to ask questions or verbalize doubtswhile they group the cards. This behavior allowed me to identify confusion or misunderstandings about functionalities in real time, something very valuable to readjust labels, content or hierarchies.
- The environment online offers more detailed metricssuch as the time spent, the number of categories created or the drop-out rate. Although there is no direct dialogue, data analysis allows identify grouping patterns and evaluate consistency between users.
Metric products obtained (UXtweak)
To objectively assess the effectiveness of the proposed architecture, I used the tool UXtweak in its online version, which allows to measure the behaviour of users in card sorting tasks. This approach offered me a quantitative view complementary to qualitative insights, with data such as completion times, grouping patterns and coherence among participants.
The first thing we can observe within this tool is the overview screen with information on the activity carried out:
With this we can see that the online study involved 4 users (3 complete and 1 abandonment). The key results were:
| Metric | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Users who completed the task | 3 of 4 |
| Average time of realization | 2 min 7 s |
| Total single categories created | 9 |
| Categories per user (average) | 3 |
| Location of all participants | Spain |
In addition, it was observed that one of the users did not group any card, so it was excluded from the analysis. The rest generated consistent clusters, with coincidences in categories such as:
- Home
- Recipes
- Registration and monitoring
- Education and support
- Profile / Training / Other
These groups coincide with the key functionalities that we had defined in previous phases, which both value the general structure as the language used. It is also interesting to see how some cards were grouped under "others" or without a name, indicating that they might need a review in their writing or in the context where they are presented.
The categories which the users defined from the card sorting activity have been as follows:
Relevant findings of the card sorting process
This research phase was key to defining a solid and coherent architecture in Eatly, based directly on the logic of those who will use it. Through the card sorting, I got a real perspective on how users understand, group and prioritize functionalities, which allowed me to make informed decisions from the start.
Among the most relevant lessons would be:
- Validate before designing allows to detect conceptual errors and improve the final experience from the root.
- People group the information in a different way than we could expect as designers, which underlines the importance of observing without assuming.
- The card sorting, although simple in its execution, results very powerful to structure complex products intuitively.
- I identified confused terms and labels that, thanks to the test, I could redefine in time to ensure greater clarity and understanding.
Thanks to this early exploration, the app not only integrates useful features, but also has a structure accessible, natural and aligned with the user's mental model.
First steps in the visual definition of the brand
After validating the architecture with real users, I started working on the first visual elements of brand. I looked for Eatly's graphic universe to transmit closeness and clarity, in line with the product values. The logo combines rounded shapes with a tone Vibrant orange (F97324) on a fund soft and warm (FDF9ED), creating an accessible and optimistic atmosphere.
One of the most representative elements is the initial "E," which takes the form of a stylized fork. This decision directly reinforces the idea of food, maintaining a friendly and easily recognizable aesthetic. From here on, we started to build the visual identity that would accompany the app in its next design phases.
This research and conceptualization project for Eatly allowed me to validate decisions from the start, deeply understanding how future users think and what they need. Winning for a solid structural base not only optimized future use experience, but also facilitated an aligned and meaningful visual design. It has been a key phase in building a coherent, accessible and truly people-centred app.
UX / IU Designer and Digital Marketing Specialist
Creating intuitive experiences and effective strategies.
