a collaborative study uncovering the barriers and motivators of college students who want to eat healthy, but face real-world constraints:
time, cost, stress and environment.
my role
Led the research design, recruitment strategy, and screener creation.
Conducted field studies, interviews, and survey analysis.
Synthesized findings into insights and helped translate them into app concepts.
timeline
september - december 2024
tools
Figma, Google Suite
↦ background
Transitioning into college life means juggling classes, jobs, and social commitments — and nutrition often falls to the bottom of the list. Even students who care about eating well find it difficult to sustain healthy habits on campus.
With obesity rates nearly doubling for young adults in the U.S. (WHO, 2024), unhealthy eating in these formative years is a critical concern.
Our research team focused on Nutrition-Conscious Undergraduate College Students (NCUCS): students who value health and nutrition but face real barriers in making those choices day to day.
Prior studies show that despite understanding concepts like balanced meals or the food pyramid, most students fail to consistently practice them (Yun et al., 2018). We wanted to dig deeper into why - and identify strategies that could make healthier eating not just possible, but sustainable.
Identify potential barriers to healthy meal access for nutrition-conscious undergraduate college students (NCUCS)
What are the key barriers preventing NCUCS from maintaining healthy eating habits?
What barriers are preventing access to healthy food options?
Does the campus environment limit or impact their choice of healthy options?
How do NCUCS make food choices in social settings?
What personal factors influence food choices (e.g., health, budget)?
Assess the effectiveness of existing nutritional access and resources
What resources are NCUCS currently using to access meals?
How effective do they find existing resources in supporting healthy eating?
What amount of prior knowledge do they already have surrounding healthy eating habits?
How well do current resources align or motivate their prior knowledge?
Evaluate behavior and change strategies to motivate and guide NCUCS to adopt and sustain healthier eating habits
What motivates students to make healthier choices?
What behaviors are they displaying around how they feel about healthier choices?
What strategies can better support behavior changes for NCUCS to make healthier choices?
Understand NCUCS preferences and habits to better align solutions with their needs
How do NCUCS prefer to learn about nutritional education and meal preparation?
How can we use students' habits and preferences with learning to better expand access to healthy meal options?
the stakeholders
We considered both the students themselves and the broader ecosystem that impacts their food choices:
Students (NCUCS): The primary participants, sharing lived experiences that shaped our insights.
University Administration & Dining Services: Responsible for food options, wellness initiatives, and student life programs.
Local Food Suppliers & Grocery Stores: Influencers of access, affordability, and variety near campus.
Nutrition & Dietetics Faculty: Potential advocates and partners for further research and student support.
Parents & Families: Often financial and emotional supporters of student health.
Student Organizations: Nutrition and wellness clubs with potential to amplify solutions.
Design, Finance, and Marketing Teams: Future collaborators in developing and scaling interventions like NutriLink.
↦ participant profile
targeting criteria
To keep our study focused and insights meaningful, we narrowed our participant pool to Nutrition-Conscious Undergraduate College Students (NCUCS) — undergrads who already care about eating healthy but struggle to do so in practice. This allowed us to avoid broad, surface-level findings and instead dive deeper into the unique behaviors, frustrations, and motivations of a health-aware group.
Our criteria required participants to be:
Currently enrolled as undergraduate students (ages 18–24).
Self-identified as nutrition-conscious, with a genuine interest in improving health through diet.
Living in or near a campus environment, where campus dining and student routines shaped daily food choices.
ideal research particpants
To align the team around our target audience, we created a composite persona:
Violet Johnson, a 20-year-old student who values health but struggles to balance nutrition with time, budget, and social pressures.
Violet helped us keep our focus on students who are motivated to eat well but encounter systemic and emotional barriers along the way.
participant limitations
Like all qualitative research, our participant pool came with boundaries:
sample bias:
Our outreach leaned on campus forums, peer networks, and personal introductions, which may have favored students already more engaged in health discussions
self-identification
Because “nutrition-conscious” was self-reported, participants may have overestimated their commitment to healthy eating.
representation:
The group wasn’t intended to represent all undergraduates- only those who fit our niche definition. While this gave us more relevant insights, it also limited generalizability.
By recognizing these limitations, we were able to interpret our findings more thoughtfully and highlight where future studies (like diary studies or expert interviews) could expand perspective.
↦ research methodology
research plan & phases
To keep the project focused and actionable, our team built a phased research plan:
PHASE ONE - Discovery: Clarified objectives, problem statement, stakeholders, refined our research plan for recruitment, selection and finalization of research methods.
PHASE TWO - Development: Finishing off our identification of target participants, we moved into data collection, including creation of framework for our qualitative data, conduction of interviews and survey release. Following this, data analysis revolved around field study, survey and interview data. Finally, organizing data was prioritized through developing insights and themes,
PHASE THREE - Refinement: Within this short phase, partial report writing and finalization of research were prioritized.
PHASE FOUR - Execution: We presented our research and insights, gained important social presentation skills and most importantly, received vital feedback from peers and experts.
This framework helped us move systematically from broad exploration to specific, research-backed opportunities.
Click on the Google Sheet to your right to read more about the details!
screener
To confirm fit, we created a short screener with three key questions:
Are you currently enrolled as an undergraduate student in a college program?
How important is maintaining a healthy diet to you?
How challenging do you find it to maintain healthy eating habits with your current schedule and lifestyle?
This ensured participants were both nutrition-conscious and actively navigating the barriers we wanted to study.
recruitment strategy
We wanted a diverse but focused participant pool that accurately reflected our niche: nutrition-conscious undergraduates. To do this, we used a multi-channel approach:
Campus Forums & Platforms: Outreach via Reddit, Slack, and Facebook student pages.
In-Person Introductions: Direct conversations in dining halls, cafes, and wellness spaces.
Personal Networks: Leveraged peers and friends, while ensuring participants matched screening criteria.
To reduce sampling bias, we balanced recruitment across online, in-person, and personal channels.
methods used
field studies
Observed student behavior in dining halls, campus cafes, and farmer’s markets.
Captured details like dining hall layouts, peak-hour choices, and social group dynamics.
Example finding: salad bars tucked away in low-traffic areas → reduced visibility and selection.
interviews (n=8)
Conducted semi-structured interviews to capture personal stories, motivations, and frustrations.
Revealed emotional dynamics, like stress reducing motivation to eat healthy, or friends shaping food choices.
survey (n=57)
Gathered quantitative data to validate and scale findings.
Provided statistical weight: 81% cited time as their biggest barrier; 72% were dissatisfied with campus options; 37% named cost as a moderate to major barrier.
Together, these methods gave us both depth (qualitative) and breadth (quantitative) — allowing us to see not just what students did, but why.
↦ key findings
Our research uncovered that the challenges NCUCS face go far beyond simply “making better choices.” While students genuinely value healthy eating, their decisions are shaped by a mix of structural barriers, social dynamics, emotional influences, and learning preferences. By analyzing field observations, interview narratives, and survey data together, four themes emerged:
Barriers to Healthy Eating
Social and Peer Influences
Motivations and Emotions
Knowledge and Education
These themes gave us a holistic picture of not just what gets in the way, but why — and how design can step in to close the gap between intention and reality.
barriers to healthy eating
When it came to maintaining healthy habits, students weren’t lacking motivation — they were running up against structural roadblocks. Across all three methods, the same challenges surfaced: limited time, unappealing campus dining environments, and the added weight of financial pressure. These barriers consistently forced students to compromise, even when they wanted to make healthier choices.
time constraints
Time consistently came up as the biggest barrier. Students admitted that when schedules got busy, convenience always won out over nutrition.
In field studies, we saw students bypassing salads or fresh options in favor of pizza and grab-and-go snacks during peak dining hall hours.
Interviews echoed this: “Between classes, work, and activities, I don’t have the energy to cook or stand in line for the healthy stuff.”
Survey data confirmed the pattern: 81% said time often or always prevented them from eating healthily, and only 13% regularly meal-planned.
campus environments
Healthy food options existed — but they weren’t visible or convenient. Farmer’s Fridge machines and salad bars were often tucked away in low-traffic areas, while Starbucks and pizza stands dominated entrances.
Students expressed dissatisfaction with quality and variety: “I don’t want to eat a salad every day.”
Survey results showed 72% dissatisfied with healthy food availability, and 77% found campus dining ineffective at supporting nutrition.
budget limitations
Cost was less universal but still impactful. While some students downplayed it, 37% reported affordability as a moderate to significant barrier.
Cross-analysis showed students with tighter weekly budgets were most affected.
Interviewees captured the tension: “Quick options are either unhealthy or too pricey.”
social & peer influences
Food decisions weren’t made in isolation. Group dynamics often led to indulgent choices (pastries, fast food runs), while students dining solo leaned healthier (salads, fruit).
One student admitted: “I tend to prioritize convenience over health with friends.” Another said: “Healthy roommates inspire me to make better choices.”
Survey data reflected this duality: 76% said their social environment influenced their choices, though most rated it as a moderate impact.
Living arrangements amplified the effect: students with roommates (on or off campus) reported stronger peer influence than those living alone.
motivations & emotions
Students were highly aware of how food affected their energy and mood: “If I’m sad, I’ll try and eat better since food has a big impact on how I feel.”
Yet stress and fatigue disrupted intentions. 61% said they were unmotivated to eat healthy when stressed or busy — even though 72% reported confidence in their nutrition knowledge.
The takeaway: awareness wasn’t enough. Without structural and emotional support, motivation broke down under pressure.
Positive environments (like the campus farmer’s market) encouraged healthier, more intentional choices, showing how setting shapes behavior.
knowledge & education
Students weren’t short on knowledge — they were short on engaging, accessible formats.
Social media dominated: 79% reported that TikTok or Instagram influenced their food ideas, with quick, visually-engaging recipes preferred over traditional resources.
Interviews reinforced this preference: “Social media is where I go for quick meal ideas – it’s fast, easy, and fits into my routine.”
The insight: educational interventions have to meet students where they are — fast, visual, and community-driven
insights to action
key findings
Through field studies, interviews, and surveys, our research surfaced several consistent themes:
time constraints
Time constraints are the single most significant barrier — 81% reported they often or always sacrifice nutrition for convenience.
budget pressures
Budget pressures impacted a subset of students — 37% identified affordability as a moderate to significant challenge.
social dynamics
Social dynamics play a dual role, with friends sometimes encouraging indulgence and other times inspiring healthier choices.
motivation & emotional wellbeing
Motivation and emotional well-being were tightly connected to eating habits, with stress and fatigue often undoing good intentions.
campus dining environment
Campus dining environments don’t set students up for success — 72% were dissatisfied with healthy food availability, and healthier options were often hidden in low-traffic spaces.
education & awareness
Education and awareness weren’t lacking, but the preferred channels were digital, visual, and fast-paced (TikTok, Instagram).
reccomendations
Our research points to several opportunities for deeper study and applied solutions:
Future Research
Diary Studies: Capture daily eating decisions and emotional triggers over time.
Expert Interviews: Ground student insights in evidence-based nutritional practices.
Focus Groups: Explore the social dynamics that influence food decisions in real time.
Conceptual Solutions
NutriLink App Prototype: A digital hub connecting NCUCS with peer nutrition mentors, personalized meal planning, and a supportive community.
Peer-to-Peer Guidance: Consultations with nutrition students.
Social Media Integrations: Quick, shareable tips in formats students already use.
Campus Dining Feedback Loops: Channel student input directly into dining services.
Wellness & Motivation Tools: Challenges, reminders, and stress-management features.
business goals & impact
For Students: Make healthy eating accessible, affordable, and socially supported.
For Universities: Improve dining programs, wellness initiatives, and student satisfaction.
For Partners (suppliers, nutrition faculty, student orgs): Provide new pathways to engage, educate, and support students.
For Design Teams: Translate insights into actionable products and services that prioritize real barriers over surface-level awareness.
↦ from here
in reflection
Working on NutriLink reminded me that eating well isn’t just about knowing what’s healthy - it’s about navigating the realities of time, stress, money, and social influence. Our research showed that awareness wasn’t the problem; students already understood nutrition. What they lacked were systems and supports that made healthy choices easier and sustainable.
For me, this project was a turning point in my growth as a researcher. It pushed me to balance qualitative nuance with quantitative validation - listening deeply to student stories while also grounding insights in data. That balance not only made our findings more credible, but it also taught me how to translate human context into actionable design opportunities.
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