Outcomes
- Validated that Uber's app can host homemade meal delivery cleanly, on components that already exist
- Built new components that fit seamlessly into Uber's design system, backed by a documented audit of the flows that mattered
- Built real relationships with local TSPs and learned their actual pain points and workarounds
- Learned how India's century-old tiffin network actually works
Motivation
I believe if everyone ate one simple Indian vegetarian meal a day of dal, rice, a vegetable, and yogurt, the world would be a happier place.
Home-cooked Indian food (not the restaurant version) is simple, nourishing, soothing, and cheap. I learned to cook from my mother, but keeping a week of home-cooked meals ready in the fridge doesn't survive a busy work schedule. So I do what most of us do during the week: order out. Apps like Uber Eats make that easier than ever which is exactly the convenience I wanted to redirect toward something better.
Tiffin service in the Greater Toronto Area
Across the GTA, a quiet network of home cooks runs tiffin services: fresh, home-style meals for working professionals who want more than takeout. Most operate manually using WhatsApp orders, cash payments and coordinated pickups or through listing sites like tiffinstash.com. It works. I wanted to imagine what it could look like built on the infrastructure Uber Eats and DoorDash already have, meeting people where they already order.
Interviewing real tiffin businesses
I talked to several tiffin service providers (TSPs) in my area about what was and wasn't working. The recurring themes:
- Constant manual back-and-forth over WhatsApp, for every customer
- Customers pick up their own meals
- Orders lock in for the full week — no changing your mind mid-week
- Switching TSPs means relearning a whole new ordering and scheduling setup
The Audit
Knowing Uber Eats well, I was confident most of a TSP's needs could be met with components that already exist. I mapped the full ordering flow in Figma to see what transferred cleanly and where the gaps were.
Reusing vs building new components
Starting from how Uber handles restaurant ordering, I identified exactly what needed to be added to make the system work for a TSP — and what could stay as-is.
Constraints
To balance freshness with flexibility, I designed around TSPs cooking two days a week. That gives customers two ordering windows instead of forcing a full-week commitment — the constraint that made tiffin fundamentally different from any restaurant on the platform.
Discovery
Meal providers get their own category, the same way any cuisine does — assembled entirely from existing discovery components.
Subscribe
Subscribing to a TSP turns on home-screen and lock-screen updates with a countdown on each order window, so you never miss the chance to order fresh meals.
TSP storefront
Like a restaurant's page in Uber Eats, each TSP gets a storefront — here, ordering under the Sunday window (meals for Monday and Tuesday) and the Wednesday window (meals for Thursday and Friday).
Outcomes
- I validated the fact that Uber’s app can serve as a well-fitting platform for homemade meal-delivery services thanks to their existing design components.
- I built novel components that fit seamlessly within Uber’s existing design system and carefully audited and documented existing workflows that were of importance to me during this project.
- I built relationships with real tiffin service providers in my area and learned about their actual pain points and workarounds.
- I learned about how the age-old network of tiffin service actually works in India.
Extras: Age-old traditions in India
Tiffin delivery is old. In cities like Mumbai and Delhi, dabbawalas move hundreds of thousands of home-cooked meals a day from workers' homes to their offices — sometimes stacked on their heads — with famously low error rates. Uber Eats is just the newest answer to a very old need.
Questions
- Uber's Base component library is limited for an external party proposing features. What's the right way to propose integrable features that keep a seamless look and feel?
- Should TSPs sell standardized meals or cook freely? How do you measure quality and safety, and what certifications would keep Uber off the hook if someone gets sick?
- Indian tiffin runs on reusable containers. Could a utensil-return loop make this genuinely sustainable?
This is a self-initiated design exploration completed independently in my spare time to demonstrate design systems thinking and cultural service design. I am not affiliated with, employed by, or endorsed by Uber Technologies, Inc. Existing Uber Eats interface elements are shown for context only, to illustrate how new components would integrate within an established design system. All tiffin service features, user flows, and custom components represent my original design work.
Uber, Uber Eats, and related trademarks are the property of Uber Technologies, Inc.