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Overview

Context

Insights

Problem

Solution

Outcome

Your dining hall can’t be your friend. Gutty can.

TIMELINE

Oct 2025 - Dec 2025

ROLE

Product Designer

STATUS

0 to 1 Concept

TEAM

2 Designers

TOOLS

Figma

Canva

Notion

Slack

TIMELINE

Oct 2025 - Dec 2025

STATUS

0 to 1 Concept

TOOLS

Figma

Canva

Notion

Slack

ROLE

Product Designer

TEAM

2 Designers

OVERVIEW

A gut health companion that connects what students eat to how they actually feel, without counting a single calorie.

CONTEXT

Stress eating, on repeat.

Most students destress through carbs, heavy fats, and whatever tastes good at 11pm. Dining halls list allergens but not nutrition, so people pick food by how it looks.

MARKET ANALYSIS

We found Gutty’s unique value in the current market by analyzing the current pros and cons of already existing physical and mental health apps.

Gutty is the only solution that connects: Food → Mood → Digestion → Campus Access → Emotional Reinforcement. That makes it the perfect wellness app for students.

KEY INSIGHTS

Four things kept coming up.

Dining halls don’t share the nutritional information students need.

Repetitive dining hall menus bring fatigue

Repetitive

Stress drives irrational food decisions

Stress

Mood issues stem from what you eat every day

Mood

Students lack nutritional knowledge

Knowledge

PROBLEM

How might we help students pick food that feeds both their body and their mood?

BRAINSTORMING

We wanted Gutty to feel like a companion rather than a tracker.

From our key features and opportunity areas, we developed an information architecture that maps out how the product functions and how students will navigate through it.

SKETCHES

Sketching the first glimpses of Gutty.

By focusing on layout and flow rather than details, we rapidly tested concepts, compared approaches, and built a shared understanding of how Gutty should feel from the very beginning and in the end we stayed with these sketches.

USER TESTING

After user testing, we found some problems.

We redid some flow architecture and then modified some screens to reflect what users want to see in a more fun and clear way.

Users want to see and feel how their choices affect their gut.

A more visual approach to seeing gut score.

A more clear flow to input meals & moods.

A clearer user journey.

SOLUTIONS

A gut buddy that learns your diet, reacts to what you eat, and points you toward food nearby that helps.

Meet!

Tell Gutty your patterns, allergens, and restrictions during onboarding.

Check in.

Poke Gutty for a reaction and a recommendation for the day.

Explore~

Find gut-friendly food near you and in the dining halls, and save your favorites.

Level up!

Watch your gut score climb as your choices add up.

Level up!

Watch your gut score climb as your choices add up.

OUTCOME

Concept work, tested with 7+ students

Interesting but confusing at times, consistent usage yields the best results since Gutty builds off diet patterns. Might be inaccurate in the beginning.

What I learned!

Gutty was fast, messy, and the most collaborative thing I’d done. Understanding user goals, providing intuitive experiences and managing tight deadlines taught me to divide work early and scope out ideations. Thanks to our TAs, whose honesty sharpened the product and how I think about it.

Have a cool idea or a question? Here’s my email:

Check out my other works!

Jerry

Your dining hall can’t be your friend. Gutty can.

TIMELINE

Oct 2025 - Dec 2025

ROLE

Product Designer

STATUS

0 to 1 Concept

TEAM

2 Designers

TOOLS

Figma

Canva

Notion

Slack

TIMELINE

Oct 2025 - Dec 2025

STATUS

0 to 1 Concept

TOOLS

Figma

Canva

Notion

Slack

ROLE

Product Designer

TEAM

2 Designers

OVERVIEW

A gut health companion that connects what students eat to how they actually feel, without counting a single calorie.

CONTEXT

Stress eating, on repeat.

Most students destress through carbs, heavy fats, and whatever tastes good at 11pm. Dining halls list allergens but not nutrition, so people pick food by how it looks.

MARKET ANALYSIS

We found Gutty’s unique value in the current market by analyzing the current pros and cons of already existing physical and mental health apps.

Gutty is the only solution that connects: Food → Mood → Digestion → Campus Access → Emotional Reinforcement. That makes it the perfect wellness app for students.

KEY INSIGHTS

Four things kept coming up.

Dining halls don’t share the nutritional information students need.

Repetitive dining hall menus bring fatigue

Repetitive

Stress drives irrational food decisions

Stress

Mood issues stem from what you eat every day

Mood

Students lack nutritional knowledge

Knowledge

PROBLEM

How might we help students pick food that feeds both their body and their mood?

BRAINSTORMING

We wanted Gutty to feel like a companion rather than a tracker.

From our key features and opportunity areas, we developed an information architecture that maps out how the product functions and how students will navigate through it.

SKETCHES

Sketching the first glimpses of Gutty.

By focusing on layout and flow rather than details, we rapidly tested concepts, compared approaches, and built a shared understanding of how Gutty should feel from the very beginning and in the end we stayed with these sketches.

USER TESTING

After user testing, we found some problems.

We redid some flow architecture and then modified some screens to reflect what users want to see in a more fun and clear way.

Users want to see and feel how their choices affect their gut.

A more visual approach to seeing gut score.

A more clear flow to input meals & moods.

A clearer user journey.

SOLUTIONS

A gut buddy that learns your diet, reacts to what you eat, and points you toward food nearby that helps.

Meet!

Tell Gutty your patterns, allergens, and restrictions during onboarding.

Check in.

Poke Gutty for a reaction and a recommendation for the day.

Explore~

Find gut-friendly food near you and in the dining halls, and save your favorites.

Level up!

Watch your gut score climb as your choices add up.

Level up!

Watch your gut score climb as your choices add up.

OUTCOME

Concept work, tested with 7+ students

Interesting but confusing at times, consistent usage yields the best results since Gutty builds off diet patterns. Might be inaccurate in the beginning.

What I learned!

Gutty was fast, messy, and the most collaborative thing I’d done. Understanding user goals, providing intuitive experiences and managing tight deadlines taught me to divide work early and scope out ideations. Thanks to our TAs, whose honesty sharpened the product and how I think about it.

Have a cool idea or a question? Here’s my email:

Check out my other works!

Doodled with love © Jerry Chen 2026