Design by Sana

Next Steps

Post-Launch Progress

The Sizzle MVP launched in 2024 with my designs fully implemented. Following the launch, the platform achieved a 25% conversion rate—an early indicator of strong user interest and product-market fit. Since then, the team has focused on onboarding both dietitians and patients to continue growing the platform.

Although my contract with Sizzle has ended, I’ve continued to consult with the team occasionally and have returned for a few updates post-launch to support ongoing improvements.

NEXT STEPS + REFLECTION

Food card pop-ups

Final Designs

Completed Designs & UI Elements

After testing, we moved forward with creating the final Meal Logs and Timeline design. I was responsible for designing many of the core UI elements, including the metric cards and their corresponding popups, ensuring the interface was both intuitive and informative for dietitians.

Leaning into visuals

The dietitians really liked the visual format of the Meal Logs and Timelines. They said adding more visual indicators to denote symptoms and portion sizes would be helpful.

Adding Alerts

Allowing dietitians to see when patients experienced difficulties with gut health would be helpful. If dietitians are visually able to see alert days and everything that was consumed that day along with symptoms it would make patient diagnosis easier.

Adding Pop-ups

There needs to be a way to see more information about a tracked metric. A suggestion we got was a pop-up or a link to redirect dietitians to specific notes and metrics so they can easily get more information.

User Testing

Feedback and insights

After testing the initial designs, we found that dietitians preferred the Meal Logs and Timeline concept for its clarity and visual structure. Based on their feedback, here were the changes they suggested:

Initial Designs

Exploring Design Directions

We originally started with a food journal concept for tracking meals, but after exploring tools like Google Calendar, we were inspired to create a more structured and visual approach. This led to the idea of Meal Logs and Timelines. We developed prototypes for both concepts to test with dietitians.

Definition

What is Meal Logs & Timelines

The Meal Logs and Timelines provide a clear view of a patient’s food intake and symptoms over time. Meal Logs display daily food and water intake, while the Timeline offers a weekly overview of key health metrics.

MEAL LOGS + TIMELINES

Final Design System

Ready for handoff

After several iterations and incorporating feedback, I finalized the desktop design system and successfully handed it off for implementation.

Review + Changes

Refining & iterating

Based on the feedback I received, I made a few updates to the design system. Here’s what I changed:

Initial Designs

Creating the first draft

I created the first version of the design system and presented it to the Sizzle team for review.

Final Designs

Handing off the designs

Using feedback from dietitians, we refined the Patient Directory to better meet their needs. After multiple iterations, the final design was ready for development.

Icons

Filtering

Alerts

Dietitians didn't understand the icons

They didn't understand what metrics they symbolized and said it was too detailed and hard to see when they were small.

They didn't understand the metric number.

Dietitians didn't understand if this was the number of notes taken for the metric or if it symbolized something related to the metric for that week.

User Testing

Validating the design with Dietitians

Our team created a testing demo and conducted user testing sessions with a group of dietitians to evaluate the Patient Directory screen.

Design Iterations

Experimenting with Layouts & Formats

I explored multiple design iterations of the Patient Directory, experimenting with different formats and layouts to optimize information presentation. After reviewing these iterations with the team, I refined the designs and developed a high-fidelity prototype for user testing.

We also took a look at some of our competitors and how they created their patient directories. Here were some of the opportunity areas we spotted:

Domain + Competitive Analysis

Looking at Dietitian needs & industry solutions

To design an effective Patient Directory, I first gained a deep understanding of how dietitians manage their practices and onboard patients. This involved reviewing company resources, including notes and interview insights, as well as exploring online forums to identify common pain points and industry best practices:

Definition

What is the Patient Directory

The Patient Directory serves as the central hub of the Sizzle platform, providing dietitians with a comprehensive view of all their patients. As the starting point for navigating patient data, it streamlines access to key information, ensuring an efficient workflow.

To enhance its effectiveness, the directory includes a quick summary of patient-tracking metrics, allowing dietitians to gain instant insights without digging through multiple screens. This feature helps practitioners stay informed and make data-driven decisions more efficiently.

My Work

My process & projects

During my time at Sizzle, I took on a variety of responsibilities, contributing to research, user testing, and delivering development-ready designs. Each week, I tackled tasks as part of our sprint cycles, ensuring continuous progress and iteration.

While I worked on multiple projects, the ones that defined my experience at Sizzle were the Patient Directory, the Desktop Design System, and the Meal Logs & Timelines. These projects were crucial in shaping the platform’s user experience and functionality.

Conducting user research +

testing sessions with dietitians

and patients.

Designing, and redesigning user flows + modules for MVP development.

Identifying key business + differentiation opportunities for Sizzle.

Conducting user research +

testing sessions with dietitians

and patients.

Designing, and redesigning user flows + modules for MVP development.

Identifying key business + differentiation opportunities for Sizzle.

My Role

Research, strategy & design

I was brought onto the Sizzle team on a contract basis to help complete the MVP. As a UX/UI Designer on the team here were some of my responsibilities:

Reflection

Key takeaways

This project taught me how to design collaboratively within a fast-moving startup environment. Coming in with no prior knowledge of the dietetics field, I quickly learned how to gather enough domain expertise to create thoughtful, user-centered designs. I became more confident in synthesizing research findings into actionable insights and worked closely with founders, developers, and a UX researcher to bring our ideas to life. Looking back, there are two things I would approach differently:

Guidelines

Looking at design guidelines

I was responsible for creating the first iteration of the desktop design system for the MVP. To establish a strong foundation, I started by referencing Google’s Material Design guidelines.

DESIGN SYSTEM

Patient Directory

Design System

Meal Logs + Timelines

Here were our findings:

Click here to see the design system in detail.

Most Dietitians are paper based

This causes them to have scattered note taking systems and they are often asking patients repeat questions. Helping them keep track of relevant notes and metrics for each patient is an opportunity areas.

Different metrics matter to different Dietitians

There a large variety of gut and health issues dietitians treat. Some of them care more about specific data points while others may have a more qualitative approach.

PATIENT DIRECTORY

Solution

Unifying nutrition management

Sizzle is a practice management platform that streamlines how dietitians track patient health by integrating with a companion app for seamless data collection. Instead of juggling multiple tools, dietitians can access all essential metrics—such as weight, sleep, stress, and nutrition—alongside their upcoming appointments in one intuitive dashboard. At the same time, patients can easily log their health data in a single app, ensuring more consistent and accurate tracking. By centralizing information, Sizzle simplifies workflows, enhances patient insights, and makes managing a nutrition practice more efficient and data-driven.

The Problem

Fragmented data, lost time

During my time at Sizzle, I spoke with many dietitians and was shocked to learn that they spend an average of 1–2 hours consolidating and reviewing patient notes

Too many metrics

With so many key health metrics to track—such as bowel movements, weight, sleep, stress, exercise, and food and water intake—there is no centralized platform that streamlines this process.

Too many metrics

With so many key health metrics to track—such as bowel movements, weight, sleep, stress, exercise, and food and water intake—there is no centralized platform that streamlines this process.

Scattered data

Dietitians rely on a patchwork of tools, asking patients to log weight in spreadsheets and track food intake in separate apps. This fragmented system not only leads to confusion and incomplete records but also makes it harder for dietitians to gain a comprehensive understanding of their patients' health and provide the best possible care.

Scattered data

What is Sizzle

Sizzle is a specialized practice management software that simplifies how dietitians track and analyze patient data. Designed to address the inefficiencies of scattered health metrics, Sizzle brings everything into one seamless platform, eliminating the need for multiple tools and manual tracking.

By centralizing essential health information, Sizzle helps registered dietitians make faster, more informed recommendations, leading to better patient outcomes. With less time spent on data tracking, dietitians can focus on providing quality care and growing their practice.

Context