Background
Campus Eats, a start-up incubated by University of Toronto Hatchery Program, is on a mission to revolutionize the food delivery services for students and small local vendors in Canada.
2024.05 - 2024.08 (4 month)
Figma
Paid full-time Contract
My Major Contribution
Designed and executed User research with students and local vendors
Lead the Final Prototype Design for both User-end and Vendor-end
Lead the Usability Testing and Iteration on Vendor-end prototype
Build 0 to 1 Design Library
Product Overview
Challenges of Target user
Goal & Mission
User Goal:
Through scheduled group deliveries and centralized campus pick up, we aim to make food delivery more affordable, efficient, and accessible for [students] while helping [local merchants] increase sales and profitability.
Mission:
📍 Reduce food costs for students by offering group-buy discounts and eliminating high delivery fees.
📍 Support small restaurants by lowering commission fees and providing direct access to the student market.
📍 Optimize delivery efficiency by consolidating multiple orders into a single delivery run to campus pickup locations.
📍 Expand student dining options by creating a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional delivery platforms.
Project Timeline
Research
Provide evidence
Understand the Market
For Student:
Existing delivery platforms are costly and impractical for students due to high delivery fees, service fee and price markups
For Local Small Vendor:
Existing delivery platforms are unsustainable for small local vendors due to high commission fees and low visibility, forcing them to raise prices while struggling to attract customers.
What we must have?
Lower Costs for Students
Optimized Delivery Efficiency
HIgh exposure for Small Vendors
Customer Validation (Interview + Survey)
Method
User Survey
69 responses from students in GTA area
User Interview
12 interview from local small vendors in GTA area
Results
Insights
For Student
• Lower food quality
than dine-in
65% of students report the portion of food often gets cut when ordering from a delivery platform. The quality are not worth the price
• High additional cost
75% of student reported the top reason preventing them from ordering on platform is unreasonable service fee and delivery fee
🗣
"I only order delivery when there’s a promotion. Otherwise, the fees make it way too expensive."
🗣
“It just make no sense if I paid more but I end-up get less food and worse quality.”
🗣
"I’d order food more often if the extra costs weren’t so high."
For Local Small Vendor
• Low profit margin
75% of restaurants report that they must raise menu prices by 20-30% on delivery platforms to break even.
• High exposure cost
5 out of 12 vendors reported struggling with limited market reach. They spend significantly on advertising to attract customers
• Thirst for bulk order
2 out of 12 vendors mentioned actively looking for group order or event catering opportunities to boost sales
🗣
“I have to raise prices by 30% just to break even on delivery orders!”
🗣
“Willing to add promotion but can't afford for a long term.”
🗣
“We have experience preparing group orders but struggle to find more opportunities.”
Problem Redefine
Traditional food delivery platforms fail to serve students and small vendors effectively due to high costs, inefficient logistics, and limited market access.
Flow chart
Market Size Analysis
Define the Product
Take insights into Ideation
Our Solution: Order Intergration
Solution Diagram
User Journey Map
Customer Impact
For Student
Lower food cost
Group ordering and campus pickups reduce delivery and service fees, making meals more affordable.
More Flexible Dining
Scheduled pickups allow students to plan meals ahead, and access various meal options from local restaurants.
For Local Small Vendor
Higher Sales &
Customer Reach
Group orders and student demand increase order volume while reducing downtime during off-peak hours.
More Stable &
Predictable Revenue
Group orders and event catering create consistent sales opportunities, reducing reliance on seasonal peaks.
Design Principle
We build a “seamless user experience, system-driven optimization” approach with the most intuitive and automated order integration process.
Keep the experience familiar,
enhance efficiency behind the scenes.
• 70% of users persist a frictionless experience similar to existing delivery platforms without changing their habits.
• Our design will prioritize automatic order integration, bulk discounts, and group deliveries—all managed by our system, not the user. The interface will remain intuitive, ensuring users get the benefits of cost savings and efficiency without any extra effort or learning curve.
MVP Prototype
User-end Flow
Vendor-end Flow
User-end
Vendor-end
Vendor-End Iteration
From Usability Testing to Redesign
Methodology
Usability Problem
Solution
Change Navigation System by Time-based Workflow
Design Library
Fundamental for design
Emma Luo 2025
Toronto