Nibbil | Calorie Tracking App

Product:

Nibbil

Role:

Product Designer

Try it:

Project vision

Nibbil enables users to quickly and accurately track their eating habits, preserving the joy of eating without the burden of obsessive logging.

Challenges

Make the process of tracking calories simple and motivating.

Provide accurate nutritional information.

Avoid language, and visuals that may trigger obsessive eating habits.

Uncovering user frustrations

In this project, I mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods. I conducted an online survey and a competitive audit of other calorie tracking apps. The goal of the foundational research was to answer three questions:

How do participants currently track their calories?

What problems do participants face when tracking calories?

How do participants feel during the process of tracking calories?

Survey highlights

50% had stopped tracking calories due to a lack of motivation.

The most common frustrations were accuracy and the time commitment.

62.5% of respondents said it is "very important" that tracking is quick and easy.

Competitive audit summary

I decided to dive deeper into five direct competitors to get a better understanding of their features and the user flow for tracking a meal. Some common themes from the audit include;

What competitors did well:

A variety of ways to track food items

What competitors could improve:

Complex UI

Intrusive upsell ads

Food must be in the database or added manually

Nibbil has an opportunity to capitalise on these themes by building an ad-free, streamlined UI and a curated database of natural foods that users can supplement using nutritional labels.

Meet the users

Name: Jessie

Age: 31

Job: Marketing manager

Jessie started using a calorie tracking app to support strength training. They love scanning barcodes and seeing macro breakdowns, but the app often returns inconsistent results, especially for packaged foods. Over time, the pressure to log everything perfectly caused stress. Jessie now wants a more flexible, accurate way to track that supports consistency without guilt.

Ron dressed in a lab coat with a stethoscope.

Name: Ron

Age: 44

Job: Nurse

Ron used to track religiously but fell off when life got busy. Now, he wants to rebuild the habit, but only if it’s simple and helpful. He doesn’t care about every micronutrient but appreciates calorie summaries and long-term trends. He wishes the app would celebrate small wins and offer feedback like “You’ve stayed consistent 5 days — nice work!”

Ideation

I created a user journey map to understand the various paths users can take to achieve their goal, and how these paths may overlap. This was a vital step to help me simplify the journey for each calorie tracking method, and define the pages to be designed.

The user journey to track a meal on Nibbil.

This was followed by an iterative wireframing process. With the target users in mind, I explored a variety of ways to present information on paper, before refining the wireframes into a low-fidelity prototype on Figma.

A selection of paper wireframes created for Nibbil.

Testing with users

I conducted a usability study with 3 participants. Each participant tracked a meal three different ways; using the photo function, using the dictation function, and using manual tracking. The main insights derived from the usability study were:

All users wanted guidance on meal quality, therefore we should offer nutritional insights.

The meal breakdown before changes from usability testing insights. The screen displays a macronutrient breakdown of the meal.

The meal breakdown after changes from usability testing insights. The screen displays a some advice on the meals nutritional value.

2/3 users found their calorie surplus/deficit more useful, therefore we should lead with this number.

The Nibbil dashboard before changes from usability testing insights. The screen displays a total calorie count for the day.

The Nibbil dashboard after changes from usability testing insights. The screen displays the users calorie deficit.

2/3 users confused creating meals and tracking calories, therefore we should separate the meal and recipe flows.

The add a meal section before changes. Users had to save a recipe to add it to their daily tracking.

The add a meal section after changes. Users can now save a recipe before adding it to their daily tracking.

Addressing challenges

1. Make the process of tracking calories simple and motivating

Nibbil offers photo-scanning and meal dictation which allows users to quickly track a meal using an AI calorie estimate.

A short gif demonstrating the journey to track a meal with a photo.

2. Provide accurate nutritional information

Nibbil does not rely on a user-generated database. Instead users can search a database of whole foods, or add new items by scanning the nutritional label.

A short gif demonstrating the journey to track an ingredient using it's nutritional label.

3. Avoid language, and visuals that may trigger obsessive eating habits

Nibbil deliberately does not use red to avoid negative connotations with food groups, eating habits or goals. Daily overviews provide a motivational message and adjust targets without guilt.

Style guide

The colour palette for Nibbil was chosen to help users identify macronutrients at a glance. I chose a separate brand colour to highlight actions users can take. The fonts were selected to be easily readable and create an obvious visible hierarchy.

Colours:

#FF974F

#5BA870

#61A3F3

#F4B860

#1C1C1E

#6E6E73

#FAFAF7

Type:

AaBbCc

24px - Bold - DM Sans

AaBbCc

20px - SemiBold - DM Sans

AaBbCc

16px - Regular - DM Sans

Label

AaBbCc

10px - Bold - DM Sans

Buttons:

PrimarySecondary

Logos:

Takeaways

Fitness and nutrition is a passion of mine, so the calorie tracking space has always interested me. However, I was surprised at the vulnerability participants showed in the survey results. There is a negative mental impact of current calorie tracking apps that I was unaware of. This drove me to pursue a solution that would help users who suffer from obsessive eating behaviours to achieve their goals without guilt or pressure.

Having gone through the design process before, I was able to design Nibbil much faster than previous projects. My biggest learning from this process was that for some people, the impact of inclusive, intentional design can be profound. I will carry that user focus into my future projects.

Other projects

Megged

TickIt