TiffinFIT is an app that helps South Asians build stronger relationships and community around healthy nutrition through gamification.
YEAR
2024
ROLE
Research, UX, UI
PROTOTYPE
INTRODUCTION
With high rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes among South Asians, something needed to change.
TiffinFit blends the goal of achieving health with the preservation of cultural culinary traditions.
With high rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes among South Asians, this app provides practical guidance on maintaining traditional dishes while making subtle, health-oriented modifications through gamification.
CHALLENGES
The South Asian community faces unique health challenges rooted in cultural traditions, knowledge gaps, and genetic predispositions.
Many South Asians aspire to lead healthy, active lives but struggle with a lack of accessible knowledge about how to achieve these goals.
Traditional cultural dishes, often rich in carbohydrates and fats, hold deep sentimental and generational value, making it difficult to adjust eating habits for improved health.
Genetic predisposition contributes to these conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, which are disproportionately prevalent in the community. Together, these barriers create a pressing need for solutions that balance cultural preservation with healthier lifestyles.
RESEARCH
With general health management always being a struggle, research was conducted in order to break down the problems.
In-depth user interviews were conducted to uncover the unique needs and challenges faced by the South Asian community when balancing cultural culinary practices with health goals.
The goal was to gain a comprehensive understanding of users' eating habits, health challenges, and attitudes toward their health.
Nutritional
South Asian food, often unhealthy, was considered too important to give up or change
Physical
All participants knew how important physical fitness was
Mental
All participants have felt negative consequences that poor mental health can cause
PAIN POINTS
Although health is interconnected, nutrition was found to be an underlying stress.
Unique perspectives were found—such as balancing family traditions with health concerns, managing specific health risks like diabetes, or navigating limited time for meal preparation.
These personas guided design decisions, ensuring the app addressed real user motivations and barriers effectively.
IDEATION & PLANNING
Personalization and gamification were key aspects that were wireframed and tested.
Low-fidelity wireframes were created to quickly visualize and iterate on the app’s layout, focusing on the placement and flow of essential elements without getting bogged down in design details. These wireframes allowed validation of the app’s structure.
DESIGN SYETEM
Nostalgia and tradition were key elements used to bring the visual design to life.
Branding for TiffinFit was crafted to evoke a sense of South Asian nostalgia, connecting users to the familiar warmth of home-cooked meals while promoting a health-conscious lifestyle.
This branding was essential to build trust and resonance, as it anchored the app in cultural identity, making users feel seen and understood in their journey toward healthier eating habits.
DESIGNS
High-fidelity wireframes for TiffinFit created a culturally familiar, health-focused prototype aligned with user expectations.
When designing the high-fidelity wireframes for TiffinFit, the branding elements were incorporated to resonate with South Asian nostalgia, such as traditional colors, to create a visually engaging and culturally familiar experience.
These wireframes brought together refined visual details, intuitive layouts, and accessible navigation, allowing testing a realistic prototype that aligned with user expectations and conveyed the app’s health-focused purpose.
USABILITY TESTING
Usability testing was conducted to ensure that TiffinFit was intuitive and met user needs effectively.
Testing provided insight into how users navigated the app, accessed features, and interpreted cultural health tips.
Testing helped identify any potential usability issues, ensuring that the final design was seamless, culturally resonant, and aligned with users’ health and wellness goals.
SUMMARY
Closing reflections & future outlook.
TiffinFit underscored the importance of blending cultural empathy with user-centered design, especially for communities with deeply rooted culinary traditions like South Asians.
By balancing respect for tradition with health-focused innovation, the app successfully addressed the challenge of promoting a healthier lifestyle without compromising cultural identity.
In the future, increasing the scope of usability testing would be a priority to capture a wider variety of user interactions and refine navigation further in order to enhance alignment with user needs and improve overall usability.
© 2025 Neer Patel