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Role
Student Product Designer
Team
4 people
Timeline
Aug 2020 - Dec 2020
Introduction
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 31% of the U.S. food supply is lost due to retail and consumer-side food waste.
To address this issue, we created an app, doing so would create a virtual inventory of a users food items, tracking when they were added, and providing timely alerts as items near their spoilage date. This proactive approach aims to reduce food waste by ensuring you use items before they expire, making food management more efficient and sustainable.
Problems
Complex inventory management becomes a pain-point for the end user. To solve this problem we designed a solution which relies heavily on automation of this process, we believe will increase the user's retention rate and make the experience enjoyable.
Our focus is on creating prototype for mobile devices but the end product will be widely available on a myriad of platforms to increase the outreach of the system.
The goal is to make the process of managing pantry more accessible and welcoming, making the user feel like they are making a change by reducing food wastage.
The worry, which is more of a challenge is to make the user use the app frequently, regularly and update data accurately.
Goals
Goal 1
Provide them with the most efficient use of the ingredients/groceries at home
Goal 2
Make it easier for the users of the application to manage their inventory
Solution
After gathering through information about the space, understanding user pain-points and knowing the features and limitations of the platform (iOS) we decided to develop
Getting to know eating habits
Understanding the user's preferences in terms of eating habits & the time they like to spend on cooking improves the suggestions given by the app to the user about the recipes to make using the ingredients available. This compels the user, to use the app more which in-turn causes less waste to be generated.
Suggest Recipes
The recipe suggestion feature in the app offers the user to explore the diverse nature of the culinary arts. It urges the user to try new recipes while using the inventory currently available, this improves both engagement and retention onto the platform.
Manage Inventory
From our research we found that it was hard for the target demographic to manage inventory and keep track fo the properties of individual components in their inventory such as expiration date, available quantity etc.
LifeScore (In-App Gamification Feature)
To increase both engagement and user retention a gamification feature was introduced. LifeScore is essentially a ratio of the food the user avoids from getting perished to the food actually going to waste, a higher LifeScore indicates less food going to waste. As for any game experience a user would always would want keep increasing their "high score", this psychology is the basis of using such a feature as it incentivizes the user to generate less waste.
Prioritize Suggestions
The algorithm used to suggest recipes to the user prioritize ones which have ingredients which are on the verge of expiration and could be utilized to generate less waste.
Timeline
Research
4 weeks
Conducting user research using multiple research methods. Distilling data into research findings.
Define
3 weeks
Understand the stakeholders.
Define the goals and expected processes in the project.
Design
5 weeks
Brainstorming and developing design ideas that address research findings.
Using feedback to converge on one idea.
Evaluation
3 weeks
Development of the prototype.
Conducting evaluation tests with users and experts
Research
Structured Interviews
Given the diverse situations each of the team member is in, the interviews were a collection of in-person interviews, online voice calls and google forms. The interviews were aimed at understanding users expectations from an app like this and what they think is the biggest hurdle that will keep them from using such an app regularly. There were 16 interviews in total used for affinity mapping.
Demographic
We interviewed individuals between the age of 19 to 45, from three different countries (US, India, France). Majority of them were graduate or under graduate students.
Conducting Interviews
The team conducted interviews on various individuals with a particular set of questionnaire. Notes and Cards were drawn out of each of the interviews and important points were highlighted.
Affinity Diagram
We followed Rapid Contextual Design guide by Holtzblatt, Wendell, and Wood and executed it in digital form using Miro . Around 400 cards were considered for the affinity mapping process.
Define
Feature List
Studying the requirements of each persona and then integrating them with our goals for the app, we generated a basic list of features. Based on the feature list we brainstormed the information that was needed to implement each feature.
Information Architecture
These pieces of information were arranged, connected and grouped in different ways to consider the pros and cons of each structure before finalizing the information architecture for the prototype.
Use Cases
After thorough competition analysis and multiple discussions the team came up with a use cases that would directly influence the design of paper prototype.
Evaluation
Participants
We approached the same people whom we had asked for contextual inquiry, this was a win-win situation for both of us as the participants had some idea about what we were building and we did not have to go through the initiation phase with the participants again. Doing so gave us rich feedback which would conventionally take longer time.
Testing
We developed a set of scenarios, this enabled the users to go through a particular set of use-cases on the app which we tested. Both qualitative and quantitative data was created in this process.
Testimonials
"I always used to be confused as to what to make which balances both flavor and calories, Frima does just that and I love it!"
" I love the LifeScore feature, it gives me a shot of much needed dopamine when I use groceries which are about to go bad. "
" The scan receipt feature is wonderful, I like how I don't have to manually put stuff in. "
Learnings
The design was received positively, with the professor even suggesting we present it. However, reflecting on areas for improvement, we identified key usability and communication gaps. The LifeScore feature lacked clarity, highlighting the need for better onboarding or explanations. Participants struggled to find the restock button, suggesting improved placement and visual hierarchy. Additionally, the desire to edit lists after scanning receipts emphasized the need for more flexible workflows. Addressing these issues would enhance usability, align with user behavior, and ensure a more seamless experience.
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