#OVERVIEW
Many environmentally conscious individuals want to eat in a way that supports both their health and the planet. Despite strong motivation, they often face barriers like overwhelming, conflicting information, emotional fatigue and the difficulty of making healthy and sustainable choices in their daily routines. This project aimed to understand these pain points and explore how design can help bridge the gap between intention and action.
TRUTH OR TOFU?
What We Discovered
77% are Concerned
According to BCG’s Climate and Sustainability Survey 77% of the respondents concerned About sustainability when making day-to-day decisions about food. Of all the product categories we surveyed, food has one of the highest percentages of respondents who are concerned about sustainability.
66% are Adopting
The respondents who are at this stage adopt sustainable behaviors, such as buying food directly from a farmer (although it is not necessarily sustainable food). This means that the food category has the highest percentage of stated adoption of all the categories surveyed.
20% are Acting
The respondents act on their sustainability concerns by exhibiting a sustainable behavior, such as purchasing sustainable food or limiting food quantities to avoid creating waste.
#CHALLANGE 1
Overwhelming
Many people who want to eat more sustainably feel lost in a sea of conflicting advice. Between buzzwords like “organic,” “local,” and “plant-based,” it’s often unclear what truly makes a food choice sustainable. This confusion discourages users from taking consistent action.
#CHALLANGE 2
Health and Sustainability
While plant-based diets are often seen as better for the planet, many users especially vegans express concern about whether their meals are nutritionally balanced. Doubts around protein intake, vitamins like B12, or overall variety create hesitation and can weaken motivation over time.
#CHALLANGE 3
Emotional Motivation
The desire to eat sustainably is often driven by strong emotional triggers especially animal wellfare. However, without reinforcement, this motivation fades. Users report guilt when they fall off track, and many lack tools that offer encouragement, validation or help turning intention into habit.
#USER INTERVIEWS
Behaviors, Feelings, and Pain Points
To better understand the real-life struggles behind maintaining a sustainable plant-based diet, we conducted interviews with 5 individuals -both men and women - who had previously followed a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle but eventually stopped. These conversations helped us uncover the deeper motivations, challenges, and emotional factors that influence long-term commitment to sustainable eating.
#AFFINITY DIAGRAM
Similarity and Relevance
To make sense of the patterns and hidden connections in their responses, we used an affinity diagram. We began by extracting answers, key quotes, behaviors, feelings, and pain points from each interview and writing them on digital sticky notes. These notes were then clustered into thematic groups based on similarity and relevance. This helped us move from raw data to structured insights.
HOW TO LOSE
MOTIVATION IN 1O DAYS
Insights from User Interviews
Motivational Decline
Users initially had strong reasons for choosing a plant-based diet (e.g. ethics, environment, health), but struggled to maintain it due to lack of progress or feeling like their efforts weren't making a difference. When users fail to follow their ideal lifestyle, they feel guilt, doubt and demotivation.
Health & Nutrition Concerns
Interviewees who had left vegan/vegetarian diets often cited nutritional uncertainty. They weren’t sure if they were getting enough protein, iron, or B12 led to anxiety and eventually dietary changes. They often mentioned feeling tired or unhealthy but didn’t have clear feedback on how to fix it.
Conflicting Information
A recurring pain point across both research methods was the overload of contradictory advice. In the interviews, people expressed confusion and decision fatigue, often resulting in just giving up and defaulting to convenience. The survey reinforced this: only 20% of respondents frequently research the environmental impact of their food.
Inconvenience
Across the board, users mentioned time, effort, and lack of variety as major blockers. In the survey, 72% cited cost and availability as challenges. Interviewees also complained about boring meals, cooking fatigue, and how hard it was to keep up with sustainable habits. These emotional lows often lead them to abandon the habit entirely
“I start off strong, then lose motivation halfway through the week.”
“I thought going vegan was enough, but now I’m questioning if I’m doing it right.”
“Health is always at the top and if something affects my body negatively, that’s a dealbreaker.”
“Sometimes I wonder if it even makes a difference… it’s hard to tell.”
“I’m trying my best, but sometimes I feel lost in all the information.”
DRAG TO SEE WHAT THEY TOLD US
#00
Meet Laura
Laura is a 30-year-old woman living in Germany with her partner. She’s been vegan for four years, driven by her deep concern for animal welfare, health, and the environment. While she initially felt proud of her lifestyle, she’s begun to question whether her diet is truly balanced and sustainable.
#01
Behaviours
She frequently experiments with new plant-based recipes, but struggles to maintain variety, nutritional balance, and satisfaction. She also spends a lot of time researching food products, only to be left uncertain about their ethical or nutritional quality. This constant second-guessing makes cooking feel like a chore and contributes to a loss of motivation.
#02
Pain Points & Frustrations
She struggles with the overwhelming amount of contradictory advice regarding nutrition and sustainability. She sometimes feels guilty when she can’t maintain a perfectly sustainable lifestyle, which affects her confidence in her decisions and makes it harder to stay consistent.
#03
Goals
She seeks emotional reinforcement to stay on track when doubts or fatigue arise. She wants to get all the essential nutrients she needs without sacrificing her values.
She’s looking for reliable, science-based information that covers nutritional needs and helps her avoid having to dig through conflicting sources.
MISSION: UX
POSSIBLE
Defining the Challenge
How Might We…
To guide the ideation phase, we used the How Might We (HMW) framework to reframe insights gathered during user research. After identifying key user challenges such as feeling overwhelmed by conflicting information, struggling to stay motivated, and lacking confidence in their ability to eat both healthily and sustainably, we translated these into open-ended How Might We questions. This helped shift the team’s mindset from focusing on problems to exploring opportunities and possibilities.
Problem Statement
As more people seek to adopt sustainable eating habits for ethical and environmental reasons, they often face overwhelming challenges: confusing information, lack of clear guidance, and low long-term motivation. Environmentally Conscious Consumers who wants eat in a way that supports their health while maintaining sustainable food choices because they often face barriers like unclear information, cooking fatigue and concerns about getting enough nutrition.
FIFTY SHADES OF GREEN
During the ideation phase, we brainstormed ways to introduce light, non-intrusive game elements that could reward progress and reinforce positive behavior such as weekly sustainability challenges, streak tracking, achievement badges for balanced nutrition, and a progress journal that visualizes environmental impact. This gamified approach aimed to make the experience feel supportive and rewarding, without overwhelming the user with excessive rules or competition.
I AM ROOT!
Feature Overview
Emotional Connection
Root isn’t just another meal planner, it’s your wellness companion. We combine nutrition, sustainability, and emotional support into one engaging experience that empowers users on every level. To foster emotional connection, we introduced a supportive avatar that mirrors the user’s journey and celebrates milestones to create a bond that goes beyond food choices.
Gamification
With gamified motivation, users watch their avatar thrive and a sustainable garden grow and that makes progress feel visible, playful, and personal by rewarding. Root helps users eat smarter and greener not by preaching, but by playing.
Two Key Visuals
The garden represents sustainability. Every healthy choice plants a seed or nurtures growth, symbolizing the user’s positive impact on the planet. Meanwhile, the avatar reflects body health. Evolving with progress, it mirrors the user’s physical well-being and builds an emotional connection to their journey. Together, they turn abstract goals into visible, meaningful growth that make sustainability and self-care feel tangible, rewarding, and personal.
GAMER OVER (OR JUST THE BEGINNING)
Designing for sustainable eating is about more than simply providing information, it’s about supporting real people as they navigate change, self-doubt, and shifting habits. Throughout this project, we saw how much users value clarity, encouragement and progress they can actually feel. It reinforced that UX can play a powerful role in helping users not only know what to do, but feel good while doing it. By combining emotional connection, visual feedback, and simple guidance, this concept aimed to turn the challenge of sustainable eating into an engaging and empowering experience.
NEXT LEVEL LOADING…
From Concept to Real World
Usability Testing
Once the prototype is ready, usability testing with real users will help validate key assumptions. Does the connection between actions and feedback (avatar + garden) make sense? Is the experience motivating or confusing? These insights will uncover pain points and shape the next iteration of the design.
Defining Impact Metrics
To measure whether the product delivers real value, it’s important to set clear success metrics. These could include increased sustainable food choices, engagement rates with avatar features, or self-reported motivation and confidence levels. These benchmarks will guide product decisions and help measure long-term behavior change.
MVP Planning
With insights from research and feasibility in mind, the MVP should focus on delivering the most impactful features first. This could include the avatar, the garden progress tracker, simplified food logging, and basic personalized feedback.
Onboarding
To create an experience that feels supportive from the start, onboarding and tone of voice are crucial. Root (the avatar) should feel approachable, warm, and encouraging that guide users through their journey without pressure. The brand voice should reflect the values of growth, sustainability, and self-compassion.
