What if Beli… had a 'merge' mode for deciding with friends? (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑)
Picking a place with friends is weirdly hard even when you both already have options saved.
and then you end up getting Chipotle… wasting the potential of trying a new place in the city.
Most food apps act as if:
“The more options you show, the better the choice.”
But in group decisions:
More options = more negotiation, not more clarity.
People default to the loudest preference instead of the best one.
Not optimizing for choice -> but for agreement.
Why this matters
Traditional discovery encourages comparison.
Let’s Eat needed to encourage alignment.
Option 1
Discovery First
Let users browse restaurants
Then help them narrow together
vs
Option 2
Alignment First
Collect preferences up front
Then surface options that match both
I found that
Discovery First = loops of scrolling, disagreement, rationalization.
Alignment First = immediately see shared ground.
Remember the number of minutes wasted picking a movie for movie night.
I have seen that deciding where to eat is as difficult — different food preferences, dietary restrictions, etc.
The final flow focuses on getting to agreement quickly.
Users start a Let’s Eat session inside Beli, invite a friend, and immediately see overlapping saved spots.
Design system reference: Beli's Design System —Nisheta Gupta, Shivani Mehta, Hugo He and Sandra Ye
Hope you enjoyed this quick case study! ₊˚ ⋅ 𓐐𓎩 ‧₊˚ ⋅
I love Beli’s 🍽️₊˚ simplicity and how intentional it is about keeping user journeys short.
This project was mostly about restraint… figuring out what to leave out and how to help people decide together without overcomplicating things.
Designing for alignment instead of discovery changed how I think about group decision flows. (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑)
My beli heheh: beliapp.co/app/souupy