Flexible Meal Planning with ZenZen
Redesigned ZenZen’s meal planner to help expecting mothers with gestational diabetes plan realistic meals with real‑time carb insights.
My Role
UX/UI Design Intern
Project Duration
2 months
Team
2 UX/UI Designers, 1 Developer
About ZenZen
ZenZen Pregnancy Guide (https://zenzen.me) is a mobile app designed to support expecting mothers in their pregnancy journey by providing nutrition guidance, health tracking, and personalized meal planning tailored to different pregnancy needs.
Context
Pregnant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes must carefully monitor their carb intake to maintain stable blood glucose levels. Fluctuations in blood sugar can lead to complications for both the mother and the baby, making precise meal tracking essential for maternal health.
Problem
ZenZen's meal planner, before redesign, was limited to single-course meals, making realistic multi-dish eating difficult to track. While the app had a working meal planner, the experience still lacked the clarity, flexibility, and ease of use needed for effective meal planning.
Solution
Multi-Dish Meal Slots
I redesigned meal slots to allow multiple dishes (e.g., main + sides) instead of limiting users to a single item
Automatic Carb Calculations
I updated carb values automatically as users plan meals and adjust portion sizes
Carb Tracking
I also introduced a fixed carb progress indicator that shows total carbs in real time as users plan their meals
Outcome
20% of logged meals included multi-course options, highlighting the diversity in meal planning preferences.
Planning a realistic meal went from a mental math exercise to a few taps.
The newly implemented analytic system enables data-driven decision-making for future improvements.
Research Insights
To validate our assumptions, I surveyed participants with gestational diabetes to assess meal tracking habits and carb counting challenges.
77.8% found manually calculating carb values challenging.
66.7% emphasized the importance of tracking daily carb intake goals.
66.7% preferred multi-course meal planning.
44.4% manually calculated carbs.
Design Strategy
Pregnant mothers with gestational diabetes are often encouraged to eat smaller, balanced meals made up of multiple dishes to help maintain stable blood sugar levels. I designed a structure where they can add multiple courses to a meal. This aligned with real eating patterns.
Before
Users could only plan single-course meals, limiting flexibility.
After
The planner now supports multi-meal structuring, allowing users to add main dishes and side dishes seamlessly.
I introduced a fluid, linear flow that enables users to view all meals at a glance without extra clicks.
Carb Progress Indicator in Planner - Making carb management more accessible
I reorganized the planner around a simple mental model: "Plan your meal step by step, and see carbs update automatically."
Before
The carb progress indicator in the planner was placed at the bottom, requiring users to scroll to the last meal to check progress.
After
I moved the carb indicator to a fixed position at the top and switched to a horizontal bar for clarity and space efficiency.
As users add dishes, carbs update in real-time - both overall and per course, helping them understand how each part of the meal contributes to their daily carb limit.
Automatic Carb Calculations - Reducing manual effort and minimizing errors
Users can now enter a portion size, and the app automatically calculates the carb value, reducing cognitive load.
Supporting Mothers with Simple Meal Logging
The home screen meal cards serve as an after-meal check-in. Mothers can see the meals they had planned and quickly log what they ate without navigating through multiple screens. This reduced the mental load of tracking carbs while managing gestational diabetes.
Measuring Impact Using Analytics
Since the app had no analytics, I proposed implementing a data-driven approach to measure design impact. I identified key metrics that needed to be monitored and worked closely with developers and stakeholders to ensure technical feasibility and compliance alignment.
Final Results
The redesign resolved key pain points: testing showed that allowing multi‑dish meal slots, real‑time carb updates, and simplified logging created a noticeably smoother, lower‑effort planning experience.