Hungry after a gym session, a computer science freshman was dissatisfied with how difficult it was to track the J2 menu. In an attempt to make his life easier, he created a new app, “UT Dining.”
Under Longhorn Developers, a UT computer science and app development organization, Ethan Lanting published the new dining app. Available on Apple devices and soon Android, the app averages around 300 daily users. It shows all UT dining hall locations, their menus, nutritional facts, including allergies, and lets users create meal plans to best work with their goals.
“The main problem I faced using the dining halls was I didn’t know what was being served that day. Usually I go into J2, walk around the entire dining hall (to) see the available food options. If I didn’t like anything then I just leave,” Lanting said. “I was thinking to myself, ‘There has to be a way to make this better.’”
After the idea sparked in early February, Lanting said he began researching the best way to bring this information not only to himself but to other students. Seeking the fastest and simplest design, Lanting said he looked at other apps and spoke with other dining hall users to decide what his new app needed.
“I did find other (apps) that try to solve this issue, and there’s a couple specifically for UT, but those apps didn’t feel like a good user experience,” Lanting said.
Discussing the problem with David Nguien, a fellow computer science freshman and Lanting’s gym partner, Nguien began to help with suggestions, ideas and coding.
“I handled getting the information of UT dining that had all the nutritional facts, storing that in the back end, and then just sending it to the user,” Nguien said.
Along with the information, Nguien thought of providing users with flags and filters for dietary restrictions. These filters allow students like computer science freshman Aiden Johnson, who’s allergic to eggs, nuts and seafood, to have a plan when heading into the dining hall.
“You can filter your favorites if it’s a part of your meal plan,” Johnson said. “Then of course (for) allergies, too. There’s also vegan, (vegetarian) and even Halal options, which is really nice.”
Having used UT Dining since its publication, he said checking it the other day led him to trying the dining hall’s Malaysian fried chicken.
Lanting said although the app has reliable and useful features, he will continue updating the app with more dining locations around campus, sending notifications when users’ favorite foods are being served and adding a campus microwave map.
“I’m going to continue to develop and improve the app over time for the next cohort of freshmen,” Lanting said. “I really hope that this app will be something that they’ll be able to use and make the dining experience a little bit better.”
