Link to final report can be found here
Summary
Our project, We Ate, is a behavior-change app designed to help busy college students eat more consistently in ways that feel realistic, supportive, and low-pressure. We began by studying the eating habits of university students who often struggle with irregular meal times due to packed schedules, academic stress, extracurriculars, and limited time to prepare food. Through a five-day diary study, we found that skipped meals and inconsistent eating patterns were common, not because students did not care about their health, but because their routines made eating easy to overlook.
Based on these findings, we explored several design directions, including meal-planning reminders, motivational quotes, and portable snack support. A key insight from our research was that reminders alone are not enough when students simply do not have time or easy access to food. Because of this, our final concept combines context-aware meal reminders with a ready-to-eat snack box system. The app can sync with a user’s calendar to suggest realistic eating windows, send lighthearted motivational reminders, and reduce planning friction, while the snack box helps solve the convenience barrier directly.
Our intervention study further confirmed that time scarcity and food access were the biggest drivers of inconsistent eating. Participants were more likely to eat when snacks were physically available, and reminders were most effective when paired with convenience. Overall, We Ate is designed not to enforce perfection, but to gently support students in building more sustainable eating habits within the realities of busy daily life.
