Transforming a Struggling Food-Tracking App into a Regional Success Story
Health tecch
Mascot design
AI
Fitness Mobile App Rewamp
THE CHALLENGE
Zorest AI had solid technology but a broken user experience. The app could track food calories, nutrients, gut health, fasting, workouts, water intake — all powered by an AI coach that provided weekend feedback. On paper, it was comprehensive. In reality, users were leaving before they even got to the good stuff.
The client came to me in 2023 with a clear problem: the app wasn't working, and they knew why.
The Real Issues
People dropped off during onboarding. The app demanded extensive personal data upfront — health history, fitness level, dietary restrictions, goals, medical conditions. It felt like filling out a medical form, not downloading an app. Users left.
The visual identity didn't communicate purpose. The logo didn't look like a food app. The UI felt generic and clinical. There was no reason to feel emotionally connected to tracking your food.
Feature bloat without clarity. The app did everything, but users couldn't find what mattered. Navigation was confusing. Information architecture made sense to the developers, not the users.
No engagement loop. Users were just logging data into a void. No achievements, no social sharing, no reason to come back tomorrow.
Cultural blind spots. As they expanded into Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Dubai, they needed design that felt right across diverse regions. Their target audience was professionals 25-45 years old across the GCC region.
The Ask
Completely redesign the UI/UX
Fix the onboarding nightmare
Add a journaling feature where AI suggests meals for the week
Let users create custom recipes with AI-calculated macros
Build an achievement and badge system
Create shareable success cards (like Strava)
Design a mascot to be the app's personality and coach
Rebrand the entire visual identity
Design custom, beautiful widgets
Handle the paywall problem — people were hesitating at pricing
Timeline: 3 months to complete everything.
RESEARCH & STRATEGY
I didn't start designing. I started researching.
I studied apps that worked beautifully:
Duolingo — how a mascot encourages without being annoying
Reddit — character design that feels human and approachable
Go Club — minimalist widgets that don't overwhelm
Strava — making social sharing feel like celebrating, not bragging
Other health apps — how they streamlined onboarding without losing critical data
The Key Discovery
Gender-neutral mascot design worked better across regions than any gendered character.
This wasn't obvious initially. But when testing concepts with the target audience across different regions, a gender-neutral mascot got consistent positive responses. A clearly male or female character created subtle friction with some users. Neutral? Universal appeal.
This insight became foundational to everything that followed.
The Strategy
Get users to the paywall 80% faster. Stop asking for everything upfront. Ask for essentials only. Progressive profiling — learn more about users as they engage, not before they've seen the app's value.
Inject personality through a mascot that feels like a friend, not a nag. The mascot isn't there to judge. It's there to coach and celebrate.
Gamify with genuine achievement systems. Awards feel earned, not gimmicky. Share-friendly success cards that users actually want to post.
Make journaling and recipes the centerpiece. Don't just log food — let the AI guide you through meals and help you create your own.
Design custom, purposeful widgets. Not generic charts. Beautiful enough that users check them on their home screen by choice.
Solve the paywall friction with a scratchcard gamification. Give users a way to earn or unlock offers before they commit to paying. Remove the price barrier through a fun mechanic.
THE REDESIGN
MASCOT DESIGN — The Purple Cat
This was the most challenging and most valuable work.
The Decision:
A purple, gender-neutral cat with expressive eyes and a personality that reads as encouraging, not pushy.
Why this worked:
A cat feels approachable and friendly in nearly every culture. A mascot (not a human) removes gender associations that could create subtle barriers. Purple signals creativity, health, and premium quality — perfect for a wellness app. The expression is warm but not threatening. The mascot could be your friend, not your gym teacher.
The mascot appears throughout the app:
Onboarding: Introduces the app and builds immediate trust
Empty states: Makes blank screens feel less lonely
Daily tips: Sends nudges that feel like advice from someone who cares
Weekend coaching: Provides feedback that feels personal
Success celebrations: Genuine praise, not robotic achievement notifications
Error states: Helpful and understanding, never scolding
The mascot has multiple expressions and poses — happy, encouraging, celebrating, thinking, listening. It's animated in key moments, not overly so. The goal was personality without distraction.
ONBOARDING REDESIGN — From Barrier to Gateway
Before:
10+ screens. The app wanted your age, weight, height, fitness level, dietary preferences, health conditions, fitness goals, and more before you could even see the food-tracking feature. Users bounced.
After:
4 screens. Name, basic goal (lose weight / get fit / track health), dietary preference, and one optional health note. Then you're in.
What changed:
Screen 1: Warm welcome from the mascot. Show what the app does (visually, not text-heavy). 3 key benefits.
Screen 2: What's your main goal? Simple options. No sub-options or complications.
Screen 3: Any dietary preferences? (Vegetarian, vegan, keto, etc.) Optional. You can skip it.
Screen 4: Let's get you to your first meal. Take a photo of what you're eating.
The result:
Users hit the core feature (food logging) within 2 minutes instead of 10. Conversion to paid improved noticeably. The data collection moved to progressive profiling — the app learns more about you as you use it.
THE GIFTING SCREEN — Solving Paywall Friction
Here's the thing about paywalls: they stop momentum.
A user logs their breakfast, logs their lunch, starts feeling the app's value — then hits the "Upgrade to Premium" wall. Price hesitation kills conversion.
Instead of a hard paywall, I designed a scratchcard/spin mechanic that appears periodically as users engage with the app. While they're scrolling or spinning, they unlock a specific offer — 7 days free, 30% off annual, 1 week at $0.99, etc.
Why this works:
It's interactive and fun. Hitting a paywall feels like friction. Winning an offer feels like luck. The psychology is different.
It removes the "I'm being forced to pay" feeling and replaces it with "I found a deal."
Users can spin multiple times, but the offers are limited — creating urgency without being aggressive.
It also collected data on which offers worked best with which users, allowing the client to optimize their pricing strategy.
The result:
Paywall friction decreased significantly. More users tried premium. The gifting screen felt like a feature, not a sales tactic.
JOURNALING + AI-SUGGESTED MEALS
Logging food is passive. Being told what to eat and then tracking that is active engagement.
The journaling feature works like this:
User gets a meal plan for the week. On Sunday evening, the AI suggests breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the upcoming week based on their goals and preferences. No guessing.
User marks meals as completed. As they eat through the week, they tap "Done" on each meal. It's not passive logging — it's intentional commitment.
The app tracks consistency. How many meals did you follow? The achievement system rewards this. The weekend coach feedback celebrates it.
If a user skips a suggested meal, they can log what they actually ate. The system learns and adjusts recommendations.
This turned the app from a passive tracker into an active coaching experience.
RECIPES & CUSTOM MACROS
Users wanted to create their own recipes and understand the nutritional breakdown.
The recipe creation screen is simple:
Add ingredients
Specify quantities
The AI instantly calculates total calories, protein, carbs, fats, fiber
Save the recipe for future use
The recipe becomes part of their food database
This feels like magic. Users create a dish at home, add it to the app, and instantly know if it fits their macros for the day.
The customization keeps people in the app longer. They're building their personal food library, not just consuming the app's data.
ACHIEVEMENT BADGES & SHAREABLE SUCCESS CARDS
Motivation comes from progress visibility and social celebration.
I designed 12 achievement badges for different milestones:
First meal logged
7-day streak
30-day consistency
Macro goal hit
Weekly plan completion
Mascot interaction milestones
Goal weight reached
And more custom ones
Each badge has its own visual design — they're not generic trophy icons. They feel earned.
When a user completes a major milestone (weekly plan, goal weight, streak), they can generate a shareable success card. It's designed like an Instagram story:
Their progress visualization
The mascot celebrating with them
The app's branding (subtle, not aggressive)
A call-to-action ("Join me on Zorest AI")
Why this works:
Users want to share wins. Strava proved this. The card is designed to look premium enough that posting it feels good, not spammy. It's also free marketing — every shared card is a potential new user.
CUSTOM WIDGETS & VISUAL DESIGN
The widget design was inspired by Go Club's minimalism but purpose-built for health tracking.
Instead of cramping data into small spaces, widgets show one thing beautifully:
Progress Widget: This week's consistency (4/7 meals followed)
Macro Widget: Today's macro breakdown at a glance
Streak Widget: Current consistency streak
Next Meal Widget: What the AI suggests next
Each widget has the app's color system, the mascot's personality, and clear hierarchy. They're designed to be on users' home screens by choice, not necessity.
Visual Identity System
OUTCOMES & IMPACT
The redesign shipped in 3 months — a genuinely aggressive timeline for this scope.
What Happened:
The new design went live, and the metrics told the story:
Onboarding completion improved significantly. Users reached the core feature (food logging) 80% faster. More users made it to the paywall instead of bouncing.
Premium conversion increased. The gifting screen solved paywall friction without being pushy. Users tried premium because they felt like they'd won an offer, not because they were being forced.
Weekly active users grew. Users came back to see their AI coach on weekends. They came back to follow their meal plans. They came back to track their achievements.
User feedback highlighted the mascot specifically. In app reviews, people mentioned feeling supported, not judged. They looked forward to weekend coaching.
Regional expansion succeeded. The gender-neutral design worked across Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the UAE. There were no cultural missteps.
Social sharing increased organically. Success cards were posted to Instagram and TikTok without incentive. Free marketing.
Retention improved. Users came back week over week. The engagement loop (logging → AI suggestions → weekly completion → weekend feedback → achievement celebration) worked.
PROJECT TIMELINE
Month 1: Research, mascot design, visual system, onboarding redesign
Month 2: Feature design (journaling, recipes, achievements), widget design, gifting mechanic
Month 3: Refinement, component library building, handoff, launch support
Launch: Successful deployment across iOS and Android
Expansion: Regional rollout to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Dubai
THE RESULT
An app that was bleeding users became an app users actually looked forward to using. The redesign didn't just fix problems — it created an emotional connection between users and a health-tracking app.
That's the difference between a functional product and a beloved one.
Project: Zorest AI — Complete App Redesign
Scope: Visual identity, UX/UI, mascot design, feature design, design system
Timeline: 3 months
Status: Live and growing across multiple regions
