Yogi

PHYSICAL + DIGITAL PRODUCT

A portable cooker and companion app for busy student schedules.

Connected meal prep

Role: UX/UI and product design
Team: 4 designers
Duration: Spring 2026

Overview

A portable cooker and companion app connect meal planning, preparation, and eating on the go. Developed by a 4-person student team. My work spanned research, conceptual mapping, and metaphors, along with constructing the physical lunchbox and creating the low- to high-fidelity digital prototypes.

Problem

Time, cleanup, and planning fatigue disrupt meal prep. Students simplify meals to cope, but repetition and changing schedules can lead to uneaten food.

Solution

Pair a modular cooker with ingredient logging, recipe suggestions, and cooking controls to connect planning, preparation, and eating on the go.

Research

Time pressure and cleanup shaped how college students approached meal prep. We studied students aged 18–24 who currently meal prep or had done so before. I drafted the interview script, helped refine questions, and interviewed and summarized 1 participant. I also contributed a key finding and helped turn the research into design implications.

Quantitative research16survey submissions

Qualitative research4student interviews

Contextual observation2observations of 1 participant

Data Analysis

Affinity mapping and questionnaire analysis connected recurring frustrations with reported meal-prep habits. The images show the team’s synthesis; select either to enlarge.

Affinity map grouping meal-prep research into time, cleanup, workload, food waste, transport, and planning themes — Affinity Map

Questionnaire analysis comparing meal-prep difficulty, ingredient-buying factors, and preparation days — Questionnaire Analysis

Findings

Time drives decisions

Busy, unpredictable days push students toward convenience food.

Direction: Fit the routine rather than add more planning.

Cleanup adds friction

Washing up can make meal prep feel like more effort than it saves.

Direction: Prioritize removable, easy-to-clean components.

Less effort, less variety

Students simplify meals, but repetition and cravings can leave food uneaten.

Direction: Suggest meals using ingredients already on hand.

Ideation

Design Direction

We selected a modular lunchbox and companion app from 3 design directions. I helped refine the direction and prioritize portability, intuitive controls, and predictable heating over optional features.

Selected modular smart lunchbox and companion-app design direction sketch — Modular lunchbox + appChosen direction

Early portable cooking-top design direction sketch — Portable cooktop

Conceptual Mapping

I mapped actions and feedback between the person, cooker, and app to clarify which controls belonged where.

Task Flow

The app flow connects ingredient logging, recipe selection, and cooking controls into one meal-prep path.

Prototyping

Prototyping followed 2 parallel paths: physical and digital. Developed side by side, they connect how the lunchbox is handled with how its app is used.

Physical

I constructed the lunchbox using 3D printing and sewing, with a shoulder strap, zip opening, and removable lid and containers.

Digital

I created the low- to high-fidelity screens and refined the final interactive Figma prototype, connecting ingredient logging, recipes, and cooking controls.

Low-fidelity wireframes

My low-fidelity screens establish hierarchy, navigation, and cooking feedback before visual styling.

Yogi low-fidelity ingredients wireframe — Ingredients

Yogi low-fidelity recipes wireframe — Recipes

Profile

Yogi low-fidelity cooking status screen in the same grayscale interface style — Cooking status

Visual Direction

Lime accents and rounded forms connect a wellness-inspired app with an approachable portable cooker.

Moodboard

Wordmark

Metaphors

Picnic baskets and bento boxes informed portability and modularity, appliance controls informed feedback, and cookbooks informed recipe guidance.

I named the concept Yogi after the picnic-basket-loving bear, a nod to our starting metaphor.

Testing

Think-aloud tasks with 3 participants surfaced navigation, readability, and physical-handling issues. The team used follow-up interviews and a 1–5 usefulness survey to understand the feedback.

Participant trying the Yogi app prototype — **App think-aloud tasks**Log ingredients, find a recipe, and start cooking.

Participant handling the physical Yogi prototype — **Physical task observation**Choose a layout and remove containers to eat.

Affinity mapping of testing observations and interview feedback into physical, digital, and overall experience themes — **Affinity mapping**Grouped observations and interview feedback into themes. Select to enlarge.

Findings

Affinity mapping surfaced navigation and readability issues in the digital prototype.

Navigation

The ingredient flow was confusing to navigate. Feedback called for clearer meal-preparation instructions and blank states instead of “0” for ingredients not in stock.

Readability

Feedback called for clearer ingredient details and a more prominent macro-tracking link.

Still to refine: Container fit, hot-part handling, portability, and the complexity of the full system require further physical iteration.

Study scope: 3 participants, a short timeline, and 1 physical model; some sessions used images. Cooking safety and long-term use were not validated.

Final Product

The cooker and companion app bring planning, carrying, and cooking into one connected concept.

Portable cooker

A modular concept with a carrying strap, removable containers, and an app-connected cooking interface.

Product concept render

Open Yogi cooker concept with its modular containers

Removable Yogi lid floating above the cooker

High-fidelity Prototype

Four key screens connect daily meal prep, ingredient tracking, recipe choice, and cooking status.

Yogi high-fidelity home screen — **Home**Keep recent meals and prep progress in view.

Yogi high-fidelity ingredients screen — **Ingredients**Find ingredients and track what is already in the fridge.

Yogi high-fidelity recipes screen — **Recipes**Compare meal options with categories and preparation times.

Yogi high-fidelity cooking screen — **Cooking**Check cooking status and access pause or stop controls.

Takeaways

Consider the whole routine. Saving effort means addressing meal planning, cooking, and cleanup together.
Connect physical and digital feedback. Developing the lunchbox and app together made it important to align handling, controls, and cooking status.
Separate UI changes from physical constraints. Task-based feedback pointed to navigation and readability changes, while container fit and hot-part handling needed further physical iteration.

Student concept with a physical model and app prototype; not a launched cooking product.

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