Defining the Problem
“I feel really bad since I know food security is a huge issue. I try to be more mindful every time I buy groceries, but it’s quite difficult to balance socializing (eating out with friends), having the time to cook, etc.”
- Student who struggles with using groceries efficiently
A lot of students living in their first apartments buy groceries with the intention to cook, but due to factors such as lack of time, desire to socialize, and over-buying groceries, students often end up not cooking at all. As a result, students have to throw a lot of groceries away, which contributes to food waste and is a waste of money for the students.
User Research
Needs and Significance
Decrease Food Waste
To help students waste less food, so that they don’t feel bad throwing food out or wasting money on groceries, especially when they’re intending to cook but just don’t have the time to.
Planning
To help students keep track of what groceries to buy and what food they intend to cook, so that making food is more accessible to fit into their busy schedules.
Usability
To make sure using groceries effectively doesn’t require significantly more effort from students, who are already busy and need an easy and accessible way to waste less food.
Research Goals
Through user research, I wanted to have a better understanding of students' experiences with groceries and how they approach food waste. Some questions that I was curious about consisted of:
Grocery Shopping
How often do students intend to go grocery shopping, and how often do they actually end up going? What do they base their shopping list (if they have one) off of? We wanted to figure out how much shopping habits contribute to the overall problem of food waste.
Cooking at Home
How often do students intend to cook at home, and how often do they actually end up going? What do they cook, and how do they decide what to cook? We wanted to see how much of an effect cooking habits have on food waste.
Common Issues
What do students think is the culprit for their food waste? Is it that they over-buy groceries? Is it that they go out to eat with friends? What type of food ends up being wasted the most, and how do students feel when they have to throw things away?
I conducted interviews with students on campus to get more insights on their thought process and experiences on groceries and food waste. Through interviews, students mentioned `
"I feel really bad since I know food security is a huge issue. I try to be more mindful every time I buy groceries, but it’s quite difficult to balance socializing (eating out with friends), having the time to cook, etc."
"Wasting food doesn’t feel good. Not only am I wasting food, but also money. I tend to eat out a lot with friends, so in addition to losing money on wasted food at home, I’m also spending money when I go out."
I also conducted secondary research to find out how our problem of students throwing away groceries relates to food waste on a larger scale, we needed to find out how prominent of a problem food waste is.
From our research, we found that, “Most people don't realize how much food they throw away every day — from uneaten leftovers to spoiled produce. About 94 percent of the food we throw away ends up in landfills or combustion facilities. In 2015, we disposed 37.6 million tons of food waste. By managing food sustainably and reducing waste, we can help businesses and consumers save money, provide a bridge in our communities for those who do not have enough to eat, and conserve resources for future generations.”
After user research, I created 3 personas that help narrow down the target audience for my solution.
Ideation
I began my ideation process by making a list of potential solutions while taking into consideration the main issues expressed through my primary research with interviews.
I chose to move forward with creating an app that is interactive with the user and friends. I chose to keep track of what groceries the user has in the fridge, how much of it the user has used, and implement gamification where users are able to create groups with friends to see who wasted the least food throughout the week/month. In addition, having notifications saying it has been a certain amount of days since the user has bought the grocery item reminds the user to consistently use the app as well as remind them that their grocery item is going bad, so the user can take action for this issue.
Using Sketch, I created a few wireframe screens of what the app would potentially look like.
Iteration
Findings after user testing the lo-fidelity wireframes:
1. “I like how you included gamification–it entices the user to continue to use the app since it may feel like a competition to see who wastes the least amount of food.”
2. “Maybe have it so that the competition is to see who wastes the least amount of food, not the most amount of food”
3. “Maybe removing the amount of information for each grocery because it may be tedious to add so much information, it may make the user overwhelmed and not motivated to use the app since they’re wasting too much time inputting things”
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Implementations
1. Added less features to each grocery item so that the user does not have to waste as much time inputting information.
2. Made grocery list/fridge items the main page that you see when you first open the app because the goal of the app is for the user to reduce food waste by knowing what is in their fridge at all times and when things are going to expire.
3. Gamification will have people winning awards and badges that will show on their profile which shows their efforts in reducing food waste.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Final Product Prototype
After user-testing my first hi-fidelity prototype, I received some feedback that included:
1. Navigation bar was difficult to see what page user is on
2. Light green color is a little too bright for the user's eyes
3. Side menu is unnecessary. Since it is not visibly on the screen, users might not use the options
