Nom Appetit: Elevating Dining Experiences with Effortless Dining Decisions 🍽️
Community Project • 4 min read
*UBC Launch Pad is UBC's leading student-run software engineering club, focused on building software projects in a collaborative, professional environment.
My Role
UX Designer
Overview
"So… where do you want to eat?"
"Hmm, I don't know..."
Sound familiar? This common dilemma is exactly the problem Nom Appetit is here to solve. Whether you’re overwhelmed by too many choices or struggling to meet the preferences of a diverse group, finding the perfect dining spot can be a challenge. Nom Appetit takes the stress out of this decision by offering personalized restaurant recommendations that cater to everyone's tastes, moods, and budget. With Nom Appetit, choosing where to eat becomes an easy and enjoyable experience for everyone involved, making dining out fun again.
"Hmm, I don't know..."
Sound familiar? This common dilemma is exactly the problem Nom Appetit is here to solve. Whether you’re overwhelmed by too many choices or struggling to meet the preferences of a diverse group, finding the perfect dining spot can be a challenge. Nom Appetit takes the stress out of this decision by offering personalized restaurant recommendations that cater to everyone's tastes, moods, and budget. With Nom Appetit, choosing where to eat becomes an easy and enjoyable experience for everyone involved, making dining out fun again.
Timeline
Sep 2023 - Apr 2024
Team
1 Tech Lead, 10 Developers, 3 Designers
Tools
Figma, FigJam
A Quick Overview
Background
Dining decisions made easy 🍽️
Choosing where to eat can be a real headache. You’re hungry, your friends are hungry, but no one can decide. It’s not just annoying—it’s a missed chance to enjoy time together. Nom Appetit is our way of turning frustration into fun, making every dining experience feel simple and exciting.
Problem
Too many options, too many opinions 🤔
With so many restaurants and everyone having their own preferences, deciding where to eat often leads to arguments, wasted time, or settling for an unsatisfying choice. We set out to make this process easier, designing a solution that transforms stress into delight.
Target Audience
Hungry individuals and groups seeking dining harmony 👥
We made Nom Appetit for people like us: food lovers who hate wasting time on decisions. Whether it’s a family dinner, a group of friends, or coworkers on a lunch break, we wanted to help everyone find a spot that feels just right.
Goal
Effortless dining decisions, happy diners 😊
Our goal was simple: make picking a restaurant easy and fun. We wanted to take the pressure off, so you can focus on the good stuff—spending time with people you care about and enjoying a great meal.
Solution
So we bring to you...
01
Personalized Suggestions
Made for groups and individuals.
Whether dining solo or with friends, Nom Appetit uses everyone's preferences to suggest the perfect spot. No debates, just easy choices.
02
Wishlist and Visits
Save and relive your favorites.
Keep track of where you’ve been and where you want to go. Dining out becomes more meaningful when memories are just a tap away.
Prototype
Introducing Nom Appetit...
Interact with the prototype
Design Process
How Did Nom Appetit Come to Life?
01 MVP Scoping
User Research;
Competitive Analysis;
Ideation;
User Flow
Competitive Analysis;
Ideation;
User Flow
02 Interface Design
Low-Fidelity Wireframes;
Branding;
High-Fidelity Prototype;
A/B Testing
Branding;
High-Fidelity Prototype;
A/B Testing
03 Dev Hand-Off
Design Documentation
MVP Scoping—Starting Small
We focused the MVP on solving the biggest frustrations with dining decisions that came up throughout our research process:
Group Decision-Making
We’ve all been in that situation where no one can agree on where to eat.
Tracking Visited Places
Because we all forget the name of that delicious restaurant we loved.
Finding Suggestions
Choosing a place to eat shouldn’t feel like a chore.
We then created an MVP scoping board on FigJam to map out our approach. This included user research, competitive analysis, feature brainstorming, and user flows to ensure design decisions aligned with research insights and user needs.
Interface Design
Before diving into visuals, we mapped out the basic flow of Nom Appetit. This helped us see if the journey from preferences to recommendations felt natural.
We chose a panda as our mascot because pandas are fun, friendly, and everyone loves them—just like a good meal. Our colors, shades of green and yellow, bring a fresh and cheerful vibe, making the app feel inviting. These choices were about creating a space where users feel happy and relaxed.
Once we had the basics, we brought in color, animations, and accessibility tweaks. Every detail was about making the app easy to use and enjoyable, from the smooth sliders to the panda cheering you on as you choose. After initial feedback revealed the navigation design didn’t feel intuitive enough, we conducted further research and testing. We iterated on the information architecture and design, then ran A/B tests. We found that the new iteration, where features are more centralized, proved more intuitive, resulting in a 21% increase in task completion rates. Below are the two navigation versions we tested.
Previous Navigation
New Navigation
Once the navigation A/B tests were complete, we finalized key interactions and polished the user experience. Below are the four primary interactions.
Saved Restaurants
Survey
Restaurant Page
My Friends
Dev Hand-Off
To make sure the app worked as we imagined, we stayed close to the developers. We gave them clear design files and examples of how things should look and feel. It wasn’t just about handing things off—it was about working together to bring the app to life.
Personal Reflection
Looking Back...
Nom Appetit is a way to bring people together. It transformed how users make dining decisions—turning a frustrating task into a seamless, joyful experience for both individuals and groups. With Nom Appetit, every meal starts with a smile. This project reminded me why I love design: it’s about making life a little easier and more joyful for everyone.
