a research-driven redesign of hospital food systems that restores patient dignity, reduces caregiver burden, and transforms sustainability into measurable care outcomes.
award-nominated master’s capstone | MS information design & strategy
my role
product designer & researcher
end-to-end systems ownership (solo)
timeline
aug – dec 2025
scope
systems UX · neurodesign · behavioral research
multi-stakeholder healthcare platform
tools
Figma · Prototyping · Miro/Mural ·
Academic + Industry Research
↦ “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."
-Hippocrates
↦ the system failure
In today's system, hospital food systems are designed for logistics, not healing.
And, on multiple layers too -patients often lose autonomy during recovery, caregivers manage fragmented nutrition workflows, and hospitals waste up to 30% of prepared meals. In women’s hospitals, these failures are amplified even more by sex-specific nutritional needs tied to hormones, pregnancy, surgery, and emotional vulnerability.
This results in food — one of the few remaining moments of comfort and control — has been reduced to a logistical output rather than a therapeutic touchpoint.
This system is failing patients:
Research across neuroscience, nutrition, and behavioral medicine consistently shows that choice, emotional safety, and sensory calm directly influence recovery, adherence, and satisfaction. When these factors are ignored, hospitals unintentionally increase anxiety, reduce appetite, and generate unnecessary waste.
When patients regain even small forms of control, measurable outcomes shift:
Anxiety decreases as cognitive load is reduced and dignity is restored
Appetite and nutritional adherence improve
Food waste naturally declines
Sustainability, satisfaction, and cost efficiency become traceable within the same system
Food isn't just nourishment — it is medicine for both body and mind. By merging psychology, empathy, and sustainability, this framework positions nourishment as both care and stewardship, demonstrating that healing people and healing the planet are complementary, not competing goals.
where the system breaks down
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the routinely overlooked needs of patients
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how inclusion is defined
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↦ understanding
the system
a mixed-methods foundation for system-level insight
I used a mixed-methods research approach, combining lived experience with academic and industry evidence. Before prototyping anything, I needed to understand not just what hospital food systems do — but how they shape emotion, behavior, and trust during recovery.
Research across interviews, literature, and environmental analysis consistently pointed to the same truth: hospitals don’t fail to nourish people because they lack nutrition. They fail when systems designed for logistics replace moments that require connection.
Research revealed that the core issue isn’t only what we serve, but how we serve it. The system doesn’t fail for lack of nutrients — it fails when it’s designed for process, not people.
The consequences are both material (plate waste, cost) and emotional (frustration, anxiety, loss of dignity). My opportunity, then, is to reimagine food as a way to restore control and comfort — not as an abstract promise, but as a concrete design strategy.
And these goals don’t have to compete! Hospitals sit at a powerful intersection, balancing patient satisfaction (which directly affects outcomes and funding) with the need to reduce costs and waste. The tension between healing individuals and harming ecosystems defines the problem I’m working to solve — and the design opportunity within it.
To understand how these breakdowns play out in real hospital systems, I turned to the people working inside them — clinicians, designers, researchers, and innovators — to see where empathy and operations collide.
Figure 1. How layered research
translated complexity into design direction
how insight was generated and translated into design decisions:
stakeholder constraints that shaped the system
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what patients actually respond to (beyond nutrition metrics)
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patterns that emerged across systems, emotions, and behavior
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how emotional states drive engagement, adherence, and waste
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research takeaway
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↦ the system:
designing to align care, operations, and stewardship
I designed a three-part, EHR-integrated dashboard ecosystem that unites neurodesign, behavioral science, and sustainability to reframe hospital meals as an active contributor to healing - and not just a logistical service.
Rather than optimizing a single user experience, this system aligns three interdependent perspectives — patients, caregivers, and administrators — so that emotional experience, clinical workflow, and environmental impact reinforce one another.
Introducing Healing Patient & Planet (HP&P).
One system. Three perspectives:
The Patient Dashboard: Restores dignity through calm, choice-driven meal ordering that reduces cognitive load during recovery.
The Caregiver Dashboard: Provides real-time visibility into nutrition, symptoms, and dietary safety — without adding workflow friction.
The Administrator Dashboard: Surfaces system-level insight into waste, cost, satisfaction, and sustainability ROI.
The system integrates directly into existing EHRs (Epic/MyChart), prioritizing adoption, scalability, and trust over disruption (a major stakeholder requirement.
Figure 6: Three Perspectives, One Interdependent System
core objective (why it matters)
What if something as ordinary as hospital food could heal more than hunger?
By integrating food-as-medicine with sustainable, emotionally intelligent design, HP&P aims to nourish people and the planet at the same time. This work isn’t about fixing a process, it’s about modeling the balance healthcare should embody beyond its walls.
HP&P Dashboard #1: The Patient Dashboard
How might we restore patient dignity — without asking more of patients when they have the least to give?
Designing calm, guided choice into one of the most vulnerable moments of care.
When patients are already nauseous, foggy, medicated, or exhausted, even small decisions can feel overwhelming. The Patient Dashboard reframes mealtime from another obstacle into a moment of agency, allowing patients to order through a guided flow, see what’s actually available, and avoid the familiar “phone call → confusion → nurse as translator” loop that quietly drains dignity and energy.
Design goal: reduce cognitive load while increasing autonomy.
System goal: improve intake accuracy and decrease waste by aligning food with real appetite and symptoms.
Rather than offering more choice, the dashboard offers safer choice — structured, contextual, and responsive to how patients actually feel in recovery.
Key outcomes this view supports:
Faster, clearer ordering with fewer errors or missed meals
Higher likelihood that patients eat what they order (lower plate waste)
A lightweight feedback loop that informs caregivers without requiring repeated self-advocacy
Figure 7: Patient Dashboard
core design principles
I had three non-negotiables when designing the patient dashboard:
Guided autonomy
Patients have real choice, but within a structure that feels supportive — especially when cognition is compromised.
Emotional safety
The interface should feel like a quiet exhale, not a clinical workflow.
No extra work for patients
The system adapts to dietary constraints and recovery needs, without stressing the patient.
neurodesign decisions
It was important to me when designing this dashboard that it's intentionally quiet — visually, cognitively, and emotionally. Every interaction was designed to reduce friction and stress, keeping decision-making intuitive even under fatigue, pain, medication, or anxiety.
visual calm + predictable hierarchy:
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chunking to reduce cognitive load:
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low-stimulation microcopy that removes pressure:
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what patients can see and do
1) guided meal builder with safety built-in
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2) appetite-based timing (real human rhythms)
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3) one-tap post-meal feedback (kept intentionally simple)
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4) “your journey so far” summary
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inclusive & clinically sensitive by default
This interface adapts to real medical needs without moralizing food or forcing patients to decode clinical logic.
examples of support built into the system:
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accessibility support:
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impact on patient experience
This dashboard doesn’t just streamline ordering. It changes what food means during care.
More autonomy: choice becomes a small but meaningful return of control
Better alignment to symptoms: fewer meals patients can’t stomach, less waste
Less advocacy burden: feedback becomes a signal caregivers can act on
More emotional safety: calm visuals + warm language reduce anxiety and shame
Sustainability as a byproduct: when people order what they’ll actually eat, waste drops naturally
Figure 11: Patient Dashboard Design Features
Take a look at the patients’s experience by viewing a prototype of the experience process, where you can chose a meal yourself, give satisfaction feedback, and have it delivered at a custom scheduled time:
HP&P Dashboard #2: The Caregiver Dashboard
How might we support caregivers without adding to their cognitive or emotional load?
Reducing fragmentation and surfacing insight—without disrupting care delivery.
If the patient dashboard restores choice, the caregiver dashboard restores clarity. It’s built for nurses, dietitians, and care teams who are already juggling context-switching, alarm fatigue, and the emotional labor of caring for people at their most vulnerable.
The goal is simple: surface the right nutrition + safety signals at the right time without forcing caregivers to hunt across systems, reopen tabs, or manually cross-check contraindications.
Design goal: reduce cognitive load and documentation friction.
System goal: improve dietary safety, care coordination, and responsiveness to symptoms.
Figure 12: Caregiver Dashboard Overview
core design principles
Glanceable first, detailed second
Start with shift-level clarity, then allow a focused patient deep dive when needed.
Alert caregivers, don’t activate them
Priority is signaled without creating urgency noise or alarm fatigue.
Consistency across roles
Intentionally echoes the patient UI patterns so the system feels unified and learnable.
Clinical meaning, humane tone
The interface stays calm and respectful while still being clinically useful.
what caregivers can do here
1) at-a-glance clinical insight (shift entry point)
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2) real-time meal selections + safety checks (no scavenger hunts)
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3) neurobiological indicators (context, not extra responsibility)
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4) patient-specific deep dive (slow down, focus on one human)
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5) care communication + coordination (built for handoffs)
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Figure 20: Bidirectional Data Sync
seamless EHR integration: complementary, not competitive
HP&P is designed to embed into existing workflows and systems like Epic/MyChart, not replace them. In the prototype, an EHR Sync module supports bidirectional updates every 15 minutes.
Synced data includes:
Meal selections + intake
Symptom feedback
Dietary preferences + restrictions
Contraindications + allergy alerts
Nutrition-linked indicators (mood/fatigue support signals)
Why it matters: fewer duplicate entries, fewer missed signals, and better alignment across nutrition, nursing, and care teams.
integration stance (how it fits today)
The dashboard integrates directly with existing EHR and foodservice tools like Epic and MyChart, syncing meal selections, intake data, and symptom feedback every fifteen minutes. This ensures nutrition, comfort, and neurobiological insights flow seamlessly into hospital systems, reducing duplicate work and aligning care teams around shared data.
Immerse yourself in the caretaker’s experience by viewing a prototype of the experience process, where you can chose between an caretaker overview and/or by specific patient options for yourself:
HP&P Dashboard #3: The Administrative Dashboard
How might we support caregivers without adding to their cognitive or emotional load?
Connecting experience, outcomes, and waste into actionable insight.
If the patient dashboard restores choice and the caregiver dashboard restores daily flow, the administrator dashboard restores perspective. It’s the balcony view - a way to see how nutrition, satisfaction, waste, and sourcing intersect across time, units, and budgets.
Design goal: make system-level truth readable without overwhelm or “green gloss.”
System goal: connect human experience to measurable operational + sustainability outcomes.
Figure 21: Admin-Dashboard in Monthly View
core design principles
Vital signs, not vanity metrics:
High-level tiles show what leaders need first, not everything the system can measure.
Honest data presentation:
Neutral visuals that don’t sensationalize wins or hide hard truths.
Stewardship is traceable: Sustainability is shown as real inputs/outputs (waste, sourcing, utilization), not abstract targets.
Behavior → operations → ROI: The dashboard tells a coherent story leaders can use for planning, reporting, and decision-making.
what adminstrators can see and do:
1. system-wide "food system vital signs"
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operational indicators & real-time waste monitoring
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sourcing & stewardship transparency
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predictive forecasting & demand planning
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narrative impact & ROI storytelling
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what “sustainable” means in HP&P
In this MVP, sustainability isn’t a supply chain overhaul. It’s behavioral sustainability: when people feel informed, supported, and emotionally connected to choices, waste drops and resources are used more responsibly.
Three pragmatic layers
Waste reduction (Operational)
Choice + real-time demand alignment reduces plate waste naturally.
Responsible sourcing (Ethical)
Local, seasonal, plant-forward metrics become visible, measurable, repeatable.
Resource management (Economic)
Cost, waste, and satisfaction interlock into an ROI model grounded in real behavior.
Sustainability here is an outcome of empathy, not an operational mandate. When comfort and control are built into the experience, waste decreases as a byproduct of care done well.
Figure 22: Admin Dashboard Daily View with Specific Sections
Immerse yourself in the administrators experience by viewing a prototype of the admin dashboard, where you can chose between daily, weekly, and monthly views:
Once administrators see how daily choices ripple outward, from appetite to waste, from waste to cost, from cost to sustainability, the system becomes visible as a loop instead of a line. Patients choose, caregivers coordinate and administrators interpret. And together, those choices reinforce one another in a behavioral sustainability cycle - a loop where dignity, efficiency, and stewardship become part of the same ecosystem rather than competing priorities
↦ the solution:
Healing Patient & Planet is three dashboards, one ecosystem, and one behavioral loop. They’re not separate tools, they’re three vantage points on the same living system - where emotional experience, clinical workflow, and stewardship continuously shape one another.
The core argument is simple: improving mealtime isn’t just improving food. It’s improving care, culture, and the planet at the same time.
design principles
The system is anchored in four principles that guide behavior without force:
Empathy through data: metrics that honor comfort and dignity, not just compliance.
Neurodesign, quietly applied: visual calm, clear hierarchy, predictable flows.
Behavioral reinforcement, not pressure: highlight supportive options; never shame.
Sustainability as standard: stewardship framed as clinical quality, not a side initiative.
the behavioral sustainability loop
patients
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staff & caregivers
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administrators
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closed feedback loop:
Each layer feeds the next: patient choices generate behavioral signals, caregiver actions create operational insight, and administrators convert both into strategy.
The loop: autonomy ↑ → satisfaction ↑ → waste ↓ → cost ↓ → reinvestment in better sourcing + experience ↑
That’s the point of behavioral sustainability: dignity, efficiency, and stewardship reinforcing one another without adding burden.
Figure 26: Behavioral Sustainability Loop
impact (what success looks like)
In a women’s hospital pilot, this framework can enable:
Recovery supported: meal timing + composition align with real physiological needs (and real appetite).
Dignity restored: patients feel seen through safe, simple choice.
Waste + cost down: visibility → precision → savings.
Culture shift: food reframed as care; stewardship becomes shared pride.
In other words: food systems are healing systems, and the ethics of care extend from a patient’s plate to the planet.
insight to integration
HP&P dashboard is intentionally designed to slip into the digital rhythm of the hospital, not compete with it. By connecting it directly to Epic/Cerner, dietary databases, and sustainability trackers, it turns the data hospitals already collect into something more human: insight, comfort, and accountability.
Women’s hospitals remain the natural starting point. They sit at the intersection of biology, emotion, and identity, where nourishment is both medical and deeply personal. These environments allow us to test how sex-specific nutrition, behavioral design, and sustainability interact as a single, cohesive form of care.
Figure 27: Implementation Phases
pilot structure
location and phases:
The pilot will launch in a small-to-mid-sized women’s hospital or specialized unit (oncology, gastroenterology, or perinatal care). Ideal candidates will have:
Existing or emerging sustainability initiatives
A diverse patient population
Leadership openness to digital innovation
Willingness to serve as a model site for future expansion
metrics for success
Success must be clinical, behavioral, operational, and emotional, because healing happens across all four. Within the metric for success, the outcomes fall into three categories:
sustainability & operational:
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clinical & behavioral outcome:
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emotional & experiential:
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stakeholder involvement
Everyone benefits when empathy scales:
Administrators: see satisfaction, waste, cost, procurement, and ESG-aligned metrics in one decision environment (and gain clearer storytelling for reporting and reputation).
Dietitians & caregivers: use real-time consumption + feedback to tailor care, flag nutritional risk early, and reduce repeated patient advocacy.
Sustainability officers: monitor waste reduction/diversion and carbon impact aligned to Practice Greenhealth benchmarks.
Patients: shape comfort, clarity, and choice through lightweight feedback that actually changes what happens next.
potential partnerships/sponsors
Meaningful change requires cross-discipline credibility:
Healthtech: Epic, Cerner, innovation-forward startups
Academic: nutrition science, behavioral design, neurodesign research labs
Sustainability orgs: Practice Greenhealth, Health Care Without Harm
Design/innovation studios: interface refinement + interdisciplinary reviews
↦ next steps
future directions (long-term visions)
As the MVP evolves, future phases will focus on expanding behavioral sustainability into operational and community systems.
modular food - prep & scalable meal models
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intelligent adaptation & personalization
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community and systems integration
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My neuroscience background keeps pulling me back to the same truth: healing is never just physical. Digestion, emotion, cognition, and decision-making are entangled systems. When illness, hormones, pain, or stress disrupt those systems, people need environments that restore not only balance, but belonging.
Women’s hospitals reveal this in a uniquely clear way. They’re spaces where biological and emotional realities coexist, and where nutrition intersects with identity, recovery, and dignity. That’s why HP&P takes a sex-nuanced approach: meeting real physiological needs while staying compassionate to the diversity within them.
Ultimately, HP&P is not “a hospital food app.” It’s a blueprint for measurable empathy - showing that data can stay human, sustainability can be standard, and healing the individual and the planet are parallel responsibilities.
Because when systems are built with dignity at the center, even something as ordinary as a meal can become an act of restoration.
NEXT WORK
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