Summary

A UX project to understand why users don’t return to the TGTG app after first use, and how improving the homepage experience, re-engagement triggers, and food preference setup can boost retention.

Introduction

TGTG is a food-saving app offering discounted unsold meals. I worked with a team of 2 product designers to improve user retention by creating a more personalized experience for low-engagement users.

What is the problem?

Why Users Lose Trust and Don’t Return

Users often lose trust and fail to return when meal options appear unreliable, poorly timed, or misaligned with their lifestyle and dietary preferences

Our Assumptions

Stepping into the user’s shoes

As TGTG users, we started by outlining some assumptions about why people might not return after their first order. These early thoughts helped shape our research and guide the next steps.

User Interviews

Barriers to Returning: Trust, Timing, and Friction

After speaking with 8 users, we found that the biggest blockers to returning were low trust in food quality, unclear expectations, and rigid pickup logistics. Pointing to a need for more control, clarity, and personalization.

Defining Personas

Who Leaves and Why?

Exploring how frustration shows up across different lifestyles.

HMW Statements

Reframing insights into opportunities

We turned our research findings into actionable How Might We questions to spark solution ideas around trust, personalization, and re-engagement.

Brainstorming

Turning Pain Points into Product Ideas

Building on user journey breakdowns and HMW prompts, we brainstormed actionable ideas to solve the most painful and disengaging moments. These ideas became the foundation for our solution directions.

Prioritizations Matrix

What Should We Build First?

To guide our design direction, we used an Effort–Impact Matrix to prioritise ideas that addressed the most critical barriers to user retention. This approach helped us focus on high-impact, low-effort solutions that would deliver the most value quickly.

Final UI Design

Personalized Onboarding Flow

A step-by-step setup flow that helps users define their dietary preferences for smarter, more relevant food recommendations.

From Old to New: Redefining Core Screens

We redesigned the Home and Profile screens to fix clarity, personalization, and utility gaps found in user feedback.

Home - Before

Locked clear CTA or
personalization

Crowded categories
with little hierarchy

Home - CTA Version

Clear CTA for setting
preferences

Home - Personalized View

Tailored content based
on user preferences

Proactive Personalization with Location-Based Alerts

We redesigned the Home and Profile screens to Delivering timely recommendations based on proximity and preferences to increase engagement and conversion.clarity, personalization, and utility gaps found in user feedback.

User test

Did we solve the problems?

To understand how clear and intuitive our design was, we asked users a few quick questions right after a 5-second exposure to the screen.

User Feedback

Validating Our Design Decisions

We gathered feedback to understand how users perceived the new design. Their responses show clearer value, improved relevance, and a more satisfying experience overall.

Growth & Learnings

Keeping a Balance Between Surprise and Clarity

We learned that users stop trusting the app when the surprise bags feel too unclear or unrelated to what they want. But if we show too much, the “surprise” feeling disappears.This helped us realize something important: we don’t have to reveal everything to make people feel safe. Even simple things like letting them set their food preferences can give them more trust and control.Instead of full transparency, we learned to focus on the right kind of transparenc, just enough to help users feel comfortable without ruining the surprise.