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Work Experience

🥗 My Smart Pantry: Beyond Budgeting

Scan your pantry with AI to optimize your grocery habits and simplify your life

🧠 TL;DR

Role: Solo UX/UI designer, researcher & content writer
Tools: JotForm, Lovable, GIT, HotJar, Notion
Scope: Solo UX case study from ideation to MVP prototype, including user interviews, testing, and business strategy.

What I did:

Led user research and information architecture
Used Lovable to build and test the product with real behavior
Set up Hotjar to gather insights and iterate based on real usage

This isn’t just another pantry app, it’s a people-first tool designed to reduce food waste and support seniors, busy families, and users with disabilities. Built with empathy to be tested with real users and iterated with care.

👀 Curious?
📖 Explore the full journey in my Notion case study
📱 Try the live app

👇 Skim the highlights below

🔍 Finding the Real Problem

Most grocery-related apps focus narrowly on budgeting or price comparison. But my user research, through interviews, surveys, and competitor analysis, revealed deeper frustrations:

Food Waste & Time Loss: Users weren’t just overspending, they were forgetting what they had, leading to waste and last-minute stress
Exclusion Through Complexity: Many apps didn’t consider the needs of seniors or users with disabilities. Poor contrast, tiny buttons, or missing guidance made them unusable
Underused Potential: People didn’t want to micromanage, they wanted a smarter way to make the most of what they already had, not just start from scratch every week

This wasn't just a UX problem, it was a human problem. That’s when I realised the app needed to go beyond budgeting

👇 Here's what some of them shared

🎯 The Solution: Meeting Real Needs

AI-curated Recipes: Based on what’s in your pantry and your preferences
Visual Pantry Tracker: Scan items, get expiry alerts, reduce waste
Smart Shopping Lists: Synced with recipes, avoids duplicates
Accessible by Design: Large buttons, contrast-aware UI, future testing with seniors

👉 Want to see it in action? Check the live app or read the full case study in Notion

🌱 Learnings & Reflections

Design means listening: I traded assumptions for real voices. People told me they needed clarity, ease, and a sense of being truly supported
Inclusivity needs to be real: Adding an “accessibility” button isn’t enough. I want to co-create with seniors and people with disabilities, so they help define how inclusive design really works. That’s my goal for the next phase
UX + Dev + AI = Superpower: I pushed beyond design tools to understand code, connect Git + Lovable + Hotjar, to analyze real usage data. It made my process stronger, faster to iterate and way more insightful
Being open to surprise: Sometimes the idea you start with… isn’t the one people need. And that’s OK! Being adaptable is not a flaw, it’s UX gold

What I did:

Led user research and information architecture
Used Lovable to build and test the product with real behavior
Set up Hotjar to gather insights and iterate based on real usage

👀 Curious?
📖 Explore the full journey in my Notion case study
📱 Try the live app

👇 Skim the highlights below

🧠 TL;DR

🌱 Learnings & Reflections

Design means listening: I traded assumptions for real voices. People told me they needed clarity, ease, and a sense of being truly supported
Inclusivity needs to be real: Adding an “accessibility” button isn’t enough. I want to co-create with seniors and people with disabilities, so they help define how inclusive design really works. That’s my goal for the next phase
UX + Dev + AI = Superpower: I pushed beyond design tools to understand code, connect Git + Lovable + Hotjar, to analyze real usage data. It made my process stronger, faster to iterate and way more insightful
Being open to surprise: Sometimes the idea you start with… isn’t the one people need. And that’s OK! Being adaptable is not a flaw, it’s UX gold

✨ What’s Next

Hotjar Testing: Validate meal planning flow with general users - Already started!
Accessibility Enhancements: Larger text, color contrast, voice input for scanning, etc
Senior Usability: Conduct targeted user tests with older adults to ensure clarity and ease of use
UI Polish: Refine color palette, typography, and iconography based on feedback
Language Expansion: Explore adding a Spanish version

Hello Bots and Humans! 🚀

If you’re searching for:

UX/UI Design · Inclusive Design · Accessibility · Food Waste App · Pantry Scanner · AI-Powered Recipes · Meal Planner UX · Usability Testing · Heatmap Analysis · Hotjar · Git · Lovable · Mobile-First Design · UX for Seniors · Human-Centered Design · UX Portfolio Case Study · UX Growth · Empathy-Driven Design · Research-Based UX

...you’ve found the right designer! 😄

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