Meet Up and Eat Up
– UX/UI Case Study -
Overview
Meet Up and Eat Up is an initiative by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) aimed at ensuring children in low-income areas continue to receive nutritious meals when school cafeterias close for summer break. As part of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), this initiative helps prevent food insecurity for over 500,000 Michigan children each year, reducing the impact of summer learning loss.
The Challenge
MDE needed an intuitive and accessible way for families to locate meal distribution sites across the state. The platform required:
A map-based search experience that seamlessly integrates with Michigan’s Design System (DG).
A user-friendly interface for parents and guardians to quickly find meal sites.
An efficient filtering system to refine searches based on location, meal type, and availability.
A mobile-responsive layout to ensure accessibility across devices.
Our Approach
This project marked the first implementation of interactive maps within the Michigan Design System, requiring a completely new layout and experience. Key contributions included:
Custom UI design for map integration, leveraging Esri’s mapping services to enhance search functionality and interactivity.
Refinement of UX patterns to ensure intuitive navigation, responsive design, and ADA compliance.
Development of a dynamic filtering system, allowing users to search by location, meal type, and time, with results displayed in card-based layouts.
Seamless integration with Michigan’s Digital Guidelines, reinforcing the "One State, One Brand" ethos for a cohesive digital experience.
Impact & Results
Enhanced user accessibility, allowing families to quickly locate meal sites via an intuitive, map-based interface.
Improved search efficiency, reducing friction in finding nearby meal programs.
Scalable solution, setting a precedent for future projects requiring geolocation-based services within Michigan’s digital framework.
This project not only addressed a critical social need but also laid the foundation for future UX/UI innovations in government digital services.
Explore, Meet Up, and Eat Up encourage discovering new places: https://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/schoolnutrition/
