99kcal - a recipe app for mindful eating
The outcome

A companion app users could search, save and shop from.

3

Data-driven personas built from 6 structured interviews.

10

Participants sampled across ages, genders and nationalities.

4

Design iterations shipped directly from guerrilla-testing insights.

Project Overview

The user problem

The 99kcal website let users locate recipes but was fairly restrictive in the flexibility it gave them: no way to save recipes conveniently, no control over their own data on-device, and no way to customise the experience to their tastes.

The business objective

Extend the 99kcal.com lifestyle project into a companion app where users could easily find recipes tailored to a low-calorie diet, save them conveniently, and understand which ingredients suited a calorie-restricted lifestyle.

My role and scale of ownership

I designed the 99kcal.com lifestyle brand and experience owning research, information architecture, user flows, wireframing, prototyping, guerrilla testing and final mockups, including the app's photography and content.

How I got from insights to product value

01

Discover

Heuristic evaluation of competitor apps and 6 structured interviews shaped 3 core user personas.

02

Define

Expressive scenarios captured user needs and shaped the sitemap and user flows.

03

Design

Hand sketches evolved into high-fidelity wireframes and an interactive prototype.

04

Deliver

Guerrilla-tested mockups, iterated on findings, and produced final photography and content.

Tools used
Hand sketching
Photoshop
Photo editing
Sketch
Mockups
Marvel
Prototypes
Craft & skills applied
Heuristic evaluationStructured interviewsUser personasExpressive scenariosInformation architectureUser flowsLow & high-fidelity wireframingInteractive prototypingGuerrilla testingMockups & style guideContent & photography curation

Execution

The problem with the website

The website let users locate recipes, but gave them little control: no way to save data on their own device, personalise the experience, or keep coming back for more than one lookup. The app needed to solve three things: recipes tailored to taste, easy return to what they'd already found, and a reason to open it again.

Who we designed for

A heuristic evaluation of competitor recipe apps set the baseline for table-stakes features. From there, 6 structured interviews on weight-loss routines and recipe habits shaped 3 user personas and the needs behind them.

99kcal user personas: Mario, Sandra and Mary

3 personas, each with traits, frustrations, motivations and current behaviour.

The clearest signal: users wanted to search by ingredient or diet, not just recipe name, and to return to recipes they'd already found. Calorie-swapping ingredients and a running shopping list came up just as often. Each need became an expressive scenario, feeding directly into the flows and later testing.

99kcal user stories, organised by feature

User stories, each paired with an expressive scenario written for that feature.

From sketch to flow

The needs research set the entry points for a sitemap covering every feature, with deep linking connecting related journeys across the app.

99kcal information architecture sitemap

Information architecture: sitemap.

User flows, drafted from the expressive scenarios, mapped every use case and decision point across the app.

99kcal user flows diagram

User flows.

From there, hand sketches materialised the concept fast and cheap, before moving to high-fidelity wireframes and a working prototype to test the interactions directly.

Hand-sketched low-fidelity wireframes for 99kcal

Hand-sketched low-fidelity wireframes.

99kcal high-fidelity wireframes

High-fidelity wireframes.

Evaluating with real users

Sample: 10 participants across age brackets, genders and nationalities.

Guerrilla testing on navigation, feature definition, CTA placement, affordances and UX copy surfaced four concrete iterations:

Guerrilla testing iterations

01

Grid and landscape views for the calorie count, surfacing more items at once.

02

Deep linking from the ingredients list back to the recipe that needed it.

03

Sharper UX copy on calls to action.

04

Snapping a picture to extract a calorie count, instead of searching for an ingredient.

99kcal final mockups on phone devices

Final mockups, incorporating the guerrilla testing iterations.

The photo-based calorie counter became the strongest signal for what to build next: it addressed a real point of friction guerrilla testing exposed, not a guess.

99kcal recipe screen and shopping list mockup closeup

Mockups closeup: recipe screen and shopping list.

Results & Business Impact

Overall impact

Validated against the needs it was built to serve.

Usability testing confirmed the experience catered for the main user needs around searching, finding and saving a recipe, while also surfacing the next round of enhancements to design for.

3

Research-backed personas built from 6 structured interviews across geographies and demographics.

4

Design iterations shipped directly from guerrilla testing feedback, from grid views to deep linking.

User & experience outcomes

Core needs, validated

Testing confirmed the app served its core purpose well: users could search, find and save a recipe with ease, and additional quick-win enhancements to the ingredients list and calorie count experience were folded into immediate design iterations.

A clear future direction, uncovered

Testing participants were content with both a text and visual search for the calorie counter, useful for non-native speakers, but felt restricted by needing to search within an existing ingredient library. This surfaced the need for a future, image-based calorie counter, addressing the "user control and freedom" heuristic.

Business & team impact

A path beyond the website

The app gave 99kcal.com a companion experience with the flexibility, data control and personalisation the browsing-only website could not offer.

Research-backed personas

Three data-driven personas, built from structured interviews across geographies and demographics, gave a shared reference for every design decision from IA through to content.

A backlog grounded in evidence

Guerrilla testing translated directly into a prioritised set of design iterations, from grid/landscape views to deep linking and an image-based calorie counter, rather than a backlog based on opinion.

Recommendations

From LinkedIn

What people say about working with me

ATAna TeixeiraSenior Principal Product Manager @ Oracle | PhD in Computer Science | Nurturing products at the interface of biology and technology
“Inês is an exceptional user experience researcher and designer. Her dedication to creating a seamless and intuitive experience coupled with the relentless explorations and optimisation of the use of existing design patterns has not gone unnoticed.I worked with Inês on the development of an interface and user flow for a brand new product to support complex research processes for genomics data processing. Her work was crucial in triggering discussions on the technical implementation and her prototypes made several conversations much easier. Inês did not limit herself to just design a like-to-like user experience based on the product team prototypes, she wanted to understand the user needs and translate that into an interface that not only met the needs but exceeded expectations. Inês would iterate over and over again with feedback from product, from users, from engineers and from her own team, I've never seen Inês frustrated by this. Inês was a quick responder, acting fast with a basis for our work and then iterate over and over until we were all satisfied with the result. We worked at the transition between design systems, Inês embraced the challenge with both arms and always ensured constant feedback back to other teams about challenges or usability findings.Inês led the work without ego and made it truly a co-design experience while putting users at the centre. Inês was always prepared to cover for others and putting additional effort at the cost of her own personal time to drive the work forward. Moreover, the collaborative spirit and professionalism demonstrated throughout the design process have been invaluable for me personally. Inês was always very transparent in her communications and ensured she brought all stakeholders and cards to the table so that the best decisions could be made collaboratively.Inês is an inspiration for me and for the colleagues in her team, she truly cares about her work and doing better everyday.”
JBJared BaumPrincipal User Assistance Developer at Oracle
“Any software development team fervently hopes for a UX designer like Inês. I was very fortunate to work with her in the early stages of a project, where we were defining and adjusting the UI text for several different workflows. Frequently, our conversations led not only to the best placement of in-application content, but enhancements to the design itself.Inês' superpower is the ability to simultaneously hold deep technical nuance of the product, consistency of design standards, and the ability to improvise, while making it all look effortless. She is a great communicator, and conveys her ideas gently, thoughtfully, and thoroughly. She is also an excellent leader who brings people to her understanding by showing, not just telling.I would relish the opportunity to work with Inês again, and cannot overstate my informed opinion that she would be an incredible asset to any organization.”
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