A smart way to reduce food waste

The Ask

Design a clean and easy to use IOS mobile application that can help user reduce food waste by providing food storage tips.

My Role

Defined the scope and goals of UX research initiatives.

Created wireframes and designed high-fidelity prototypes to effectively communicate design concepts.

Facilitated usability testing sessions and synthesized user feedback to inform design decisions.

Developed compelling design strategies and stories through presentations, sketches, and other relevant deliverables.

Ensured successful project execution, consistently exceeding client expectations.

The Process

UX Research

Understanding the problem

North America has the highest number of per capita food losses and waste. Household waste is responsible for the significant portion of all food waste in comparison to other regions. ReFED estimates

US households waste 76 billion pounds of food per year.

In the US, an average person wastes 238 pounds of food per year (21 percent of the food they buy), costing them $1,800 per year.

UX Research

User Interviews

Goals

Discover the main reasons behind food waste

Find out if people understand the significance of this issue and want to solve it

Investigate methods people use to avoid food waste currently

Determine if people are looking for more effective solutions

Participants

5 participants

Face to face interviews

10-15 questions

2 Students, 3 Working Professionals

1 lives with family, 4 live in shared apartments

Insights

About two-thirds of food waste at home is due to improper storage, and thus, food goes bad before it's used.

People buy more food than they need. They refrigerate most of it and then forget about it.

Participants said that they feel bad when they have to throw away food. They are motivated to prevent waste, but their fast-paced lives don't allow them to actually find solutions.

Participants did not know which items to freeze, refrigerate, or store at room temperature to keep fresh for the longest.

Participants showed interest in reducing trash through recycling and compost, but don't seem to realize that compost is just another form of waste.

Features

Storage Tips

Search tips
Add new tips
Save and share tips

Consumption

Tracker

Add food item in tracker
Track estimated expiry date
Add reminders

UX Research

Empathy Map

After learning the problems users are facing, we created an empathy map to understand who we are designing for, and what will drive their behaviors.

UX Research

Market Research

To find out what's currently available, we looked into the most popular food waste solutions. I found four major mobile applications: No Waste, FoodCloud, Olio, and Giki. These applications use innovative ideas to reduce food waste on both consumer and commercial levels, such as at grocery stores and restaurants.

Information Architecture

Iteration 1.0

User Flow 1.0

Iteration 1.0

Wireframes

Iteration 1.0

User Testing

Participants: 3

Age: 20 -30

Session Duration: 30-40 minutes

Number of Tasks: 4

Follow up Question: 10

User Goals

Search & browse storage tips
Add new storage tips
Add items to Consumption Tracker
Set reminder for food items

Feedback

The multistep user flow for adding items to CT might discourage users to use the tracker. A simpler and easier to user flow or better input will make CT more useful.
Applying filters to find storage tips might not be very helpful for users. With currently available data, filters are basically just categories.