BulbaBites
ROLE
UX / UI Design
Frontend Dev
TEAM
Two Designers
Two Developers
TIMELINE
4 Months
06/2023 - 09/2023
TECH STACK:




Overview
Working at the San Diego Super Computer center as an intern, my colleagues and I worked to create a meal planning application called 'BulbaBites'. This application was designed to cultivate custom meal plans and recipes based upon the users preferences, dietary restrictions, budget, and fitness goals. Consequently, I was able to gain insight into the dynamics of a comprehensive design and development team.
Problems
- A noticeable bias toward specific demographics, cuisines, and lifestyles.
- Poor integration of dietary preferences, restrictions, or medical needs.
- Difficulty scaling recipes in relation to individual health goals.
After extensive user research during our daily FigJAM sessions ;) we noticed recurring frustrations among users of meal planning apps:
Goals
- Create an app approachable for users with varying levels of nutrition knowledge, from beginners to experienced planners.
- Design flexible features that support both casual meal prep and highly structured nutrition tracking.
- Build an experience that is sensitive to eating disorders, avoiding triggering language or hyper-fixation on numbers.
- Ensure inclusivity across cuisines, dietary needs, and lifestyles so users feel seen and represented.

Scrum 1–2: What does flexibility look like in design?
My first challenge was simplifying the complexity of meal planning without stripping away functionality. Working closely with our cross-functional team, I led the visual language and structure of the app, ensuring the branding carried a sense of warmth and approachability.

Low Fidelity
Stemming from my favorite Pokemon, Bulbasaur, the name Bulbabites was coined hopefully adding playfulness to sometimes a tedious daily practice. My fellow designer and I hypothesized as to how we could manifest conceptual branding into useable artifacts like a website:
Scrum 3–4: How can we make meal planning feel less overwhelming?
Once the foundation was set, I focused on creating adaptability within the interface. With input from developers and nutrition experts, I iterated on responsive layouts and frontend interactions that allowed recipes, preferences, and health goals to scale fluidly.
Reflection
On BulbaBites, I applied full-stack development and systems design methodologies to create a responsive, interactive web application optimized for both performance and accessibility. My contributions spanned front-end engineering, To UX/UI, to branding, and even some backend! Overall, I worked with an incredible team of engineers and designers to not only create this web app but to find my foundation as a developer and my philosophy as a designer.