UC Davis Dining Commons App
A comprehensive mobile application unifying all four UC Davis dining commons into a single platform, featuring real-time menus, dietary filters, nutritional tracking, and personalized favorites for 9,000+ students.
Tech Stack
Project Overview
Over 22 weeks from October 2022 to June 2023, our CodeLab UC Davis team developed a comprehensive mobile app to unify all four UC Davis dining commons. Led by project mentor Avnoor Sidhu and project manager Roshini Pothapragada, we created a solution for 9,000+ undergraduate students to easily access menus, dietary information, and nutritional tracking across Tercero, Segundo, Latitude, and Cuarto dining halls.
The Challenge
UC Davis dining commons operated through four separate websites, creating fragmentation that made it difficult for students and staff to compare menus, explore dietary options, and track nutritional information across locations.
The Solution
We built a React Native app with automated web scraping using BeautifulSoup, MongoDB database for menu storage, and Express.js API. The app features real-time menu browsing, dietary filters, nutritional tracking, and Google Auth for seamless user experience.
The Outcome
Successfully delivered a unified platform with comprehensive design system, flexible search filters, favorite food notifications, macro tracking capabilities, and responsive interface optimized for student dining decision-making.
Project Visuals
The home screen displays all four dining commons with real-time open/closed status and direct access to each location's current menu.
Menu browsing with dietary filters (Vegan, Vegetarian, Halal, Low Calorie) and detailed nutritional information including calories, macros, allergens, and ingredients.
Personal macro tracking dashboard allowing students to monitor daily nutritional intake with detailed breakdowns of calories, fats, carbs, and protein consumption.
The CodeLab UC Davis team celebrating the completion of the 22-week dining commons app development project.
Development Process
Research & Market Analysis
Conducted surveys and interviews with 38 students to identify key user needs: real-time menu browsing, dietary information, and operating hours. Competitive analysis revealed opportunities for specific meal timestamps and enhanced nutritional tracking.
Design & User Experience
Created comprehensive design system with colorography, typography, and iconography. Developed user flows from lo-fi sketches through high-fidelity prototypes, incorporating user feedback for flexible search filters and saving capabilities.
Full-Stack Development
Built automated web scraping with BeautifulSoup for real-time menu data, implemented CRUD operations with Node.js/Express.js backend, integrated Google Auth for user authentication, and developed React Native frontend with comprehensive macro tracking features.
Key Features
Real-Time Menu Scraping
Automated BeautifulSoup web scraping systematically extracts menu items, nutritional information, dietary details, allergens, and ingredients from all four dining commons websites.
Advanced Dietary Filtering
Comprehensive filtering system for dietary restrictions including Vegan, Vegetarian, Halal, and Low Calorie options with customizable search parameters for enhanced user experience.
Personal Macro Tracking
Comprehensive nutritional tracking allowing students to monitor daily, weekly, or monthly progress with detailed breakdowns of calories, fats, carbohydrates, and protein consumption.
Favorites & Notifications
Save preferred food items from specific dining commons and receive push notifications when favorite foods are available, eliminating repetitive searching and enhancing user efficiency.
Interested in working together?
This yearlong project gave our team invaluable experience in full-stack mobile development and user-centered design for the UC Davis community.