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MealMate
Designing a smarter way to plan meals on a student budget.
MEALMATE
Smarter meals for students.
Welcome to
Mealmate!
Hello Chris!
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Breakfast
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Trending
Shakshuka
30 MIN
Difficulty
Red Sauce Pasta
25 MIN
Difficulty
Based on your last meal
Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Crunchy Vegetables
40 MIN
Difficulty
Vietnamese Chicken Glass Noodles
1 HOUR
Difficulty
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History
Smashed Beef Burger
September 12th, 2024
Chicken Pho
September 11th, 2024
Philly Cheese Steak
September 9th, 2024
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
September 7th, 2024
Burrito Bowl
September 6th, 2024
Korean Rice Bowl
September 4th, 2024
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ROLES
Lead Product Designer
Product Ideation
Research
TIMELINE
2 weeks
TOOLS
Figma
Context
Moving into university exposed a common pain point shared by many students: eating well is difficult when you're balancing limited budgets, little time, and unfamiliar routines. MealMate was designed to simplify meal planning, helping students make healthier, more affordable food choices with confidence.
The Ask
How might we make cooking more accessible, engaging, and manageable for students with varying levels of experience and resources?
/
The Time-Strapped Beginner
CHRIS, 19 — FIRST-YEAR STUDENT & PART-TIME BARISTA
GOAL
Cook quick, affordable meals that fit between classes and shifts — without falling back on instant food.
NEEDS
Simple, low-effort recipes with step-by-step guidance, built around ingredients he already has.
PAIN POINTS
Limited time and energy, low confidence in the kitchen, and boredom with the same processed meals.
User Research
We built the research around Chris — a 19-year-old Waterloo undergrad who studies full-time, works part-time, and cooks with limited skills and even less time. Across four peer-reviewed studies the pattern held: students don't skip cooking because they don't care, but because it's effortful, intimidating, and repetitive.
80%
found meal prep easier when working with simple ingredients
4,845
students surveyed — those who cook regularly report more confidence and stronger skills
6 weeks
of cooking classes lifted food agency — but cooking frequency stayed flat
The opportunity wasn't teaching students how to cook. It was removing the friction of deciding what to cook.
Solution
MealMate turns whatever is already in the fridge into something cookable. Scan your ingredients, follow a recipe built for a student kitchen, log what you made, and share it with the people cooking alongside you.
Everything starts on the home screen
Trending recipes, categories, and picks based on your last meal — so there is always somewhere to start.
Scan what you already have
Point the camera at your ingredients and MealMate suggests recipes you can actually make tonight.
Cook along, step by step
Ingredients up front, timed steps, and a how-to video for the parts that are easy to get wrong.
Cook alongside your community
Friends shows what the people you know are making. Community opens it up to the wider school, so you can discover cooks beyond your own circle.
Keep a record of every meal
Everything you have cooked, logged automatically, so the wins are easy to repeat.
Key Takeaways
Building MealMate taught us that even simple daily decisions — like what to cook — can feel overwhelming for students navigating independence for the first time.
01
Small decisions carry real weight.
For a student living alone for the first time, “what’s for dinner” is rarely just about dinner.
02
AI, community and accessible design compound.
Blending the three turned an everyday chore into an opportunity for connection and confidence.
03
Food is infrastructure for belonging.
It was never really about ingredients — it’s about supporting each other, learning together, and feeling a little more at home in a new stage of life.
Key Takeaways
Building MealMate taught us that even simple daily decisions — like what to cook — can feel overwhelming for students navigating independence for the first time.
01
Small decisions carry real weight.
For a student living alone for the first time, “what’s for dinner” is rarely just about dinner.
02
AI, community and accessible design compound.
Blending the three turned an everyday chore into an opportunity for connection and confidence.
03
Food is infrastructure for belonging.
It was never really about ingredients — it’s about supporting each other, learning together, and feeling a little more at home in a new stage of life.
POWERED BY POKE BOWLS
&& MANGO JUICE