Feastly
Planning shared meals with housemates made easier
My Role
Product Designer
Timeline
3 Weeks
Tools
Figma
Context
Feastly aims to help young adults living in shared homes easily plan and decide on communal dinners.
In many cultures, dinner is more than just food — it’s a moment of connection that helps build a sense of home. Living with housemates can be fun, but many young adults struggle to coordinate shared meals due to busy schedules. As a result, shared meals occur less often, diminishing the sense of belonging and togetherness that makes co-living meaningful.
How might we design a dinner planning experience that simplifies scheduling and decision-making among housemates?
Research
Method: Surveyed 54 young adults living in shared homes across the U.S to explore habits, pain points, and emotional needs around communal meals.
68% said they rarely eat with housemates due to timing conflicts.
28% said differing food preferences stop them from eating together.
83% wish they had more shared meals as a house.
Group chat stress: 72% users relied on group chats to coordinate meals, but found it frustrating to keep track of plans as conversations often shifted topics before any decisions were finalized.
Defining the problem
Housemates need an easier, low-effort way to plan dinner together that doesn’t rely on group chats or heavy coordination.
Ideation
I aimed to reduce the friction of meal coordination by introducing a simple daily poll that helps housemates quickly decide on dinner plans. This approach transforms what’s usually a messy group chat discussion into a seamless, one-tap decision-making experience.
Solution
Introducing Feastly, your dinner planning companion that makes it easier for housemates to decide what’s for dinner and who’s joining.
Why It Works
The poll allows housemates to express their dinner preferences in seconds. By limiting the number of steps and centralizing responses, the poll structure reduces decision fatigue and encourages participation.
The design intentionally avoids overcomplication decisions like tie-breaking. If there’s a tie, the app simply presents a random choice, keeping momentum and lowering the cognitive load.
Reflection
This project focused on quickly transforming insights into a functional prototype, so formal user testing was not included in this phase. Future testing with real housemates would help validate the flow, measure engagement, and uncover opportunities to make Feastly feel even more natural and collaborative.
Next Steps
✓️ Conduct usability testing with small groups of housemates to observe how they engage with the daily poll and decision-making flow.
✓ Explore adding lightweight social features, such as linking with social media and image sharing.