A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON MINIMALIST AND MAXIMALIST UI/UX DESIGN APPROACH (A CASE STUDY OF MEAL PLAN CONSULTATION APPLICATION)

This study compares minimalist (Smart Diet) and maximalist (Noom) UI/UX design approaches for a meal planning consultation application, aiming to identify user preferences and usability strengths to inform design optimization. A questionnaire was administered to 140 participants, predominantly young (77.2% aged 30 or under). Participants rated designs on six Likert-scale metrics (1–4: Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree), it indicated preferences, assessed recommendation likelihood, and provided qualitative feedback. Visualizations, including bar charts for Likert-scale ratings and recommendation likelihood, and pie charts for age-based preferences and demographics, were generated. Findings reveal a strong preference for the minimalist design, attributed to its high cleanliness and low perceived clutter. The minimalist design achieved a System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 78.4, indicating good usability, compared to the maximalist’s 65.8. Qualitative themes emphasized simplicity (40%) for the minimalist design and visual clutter (20%) for the maximalist, with 30% noting the maximalist’s color appeal. The study advocates for prioritizing minimalist designs with clean layouts and neutral palettes in meal planning applications, while suggesting selective integration of maximalist elements (e.g., vibrant colors) to enhance engagement for niche audiences. The robust sample size, mixed- methods approach, and alignment with health app trends strengthen the findings. This research enriches human-computer interaction literature by highlighting context-specific design preferences and informs developers to create inclusive, user-centric applications.