Core Problem
Environmental change is severely affecting us and we are encountering a massive environmental challenge. Food wastage is the major contributor to the release of greenhouse gas, methane. When food rots, it releases methane into the environment that leads to climate change. Thus, the most significant impact an individual can make is by preventing food waste.
The Solution
Track yo Food is a mobile app that reminds the user about food items and leftovers stored at home, thereby reducing the chances of food wastage.
Project Scope
Design concept (Team academic project)
Responsibilities
User Research, Product Strategy, Wireframing, High-Fidelity Prototype, User Testing
Being an academic project, we brainstormed and came up with potential business goals that we would be designing for.
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of total greenhouse gas emissions in the world come from food waste
are spent by Americans on food each year that get thrown in the trash
food wasted by weight i.e. 27 million tons every year occurs at home
of edible food goes to waste every year In the U.S. alone
of waste stream in US landfills is due to food waste
produce is thrown by average american family of 4 per year
In cities, food waste occurs at a larger scale because consumers tend to buy more, cook more, and eventually waste more. Thus we decided to narrowing down our focus on reducing food wastage at homes.
We conducted contextual enquiries (user interviews with observations) with 6 participants (1 students, 3 working professionals and 2 families). We observed and probed them on their food storage methods, cooking habits and shopping habits. We got a real sense of their lifestyle, habits, and witnessed how people deal with food waste.
Inedible leftovers and refrigeration practices at participants' homes
We generated insights from our user research by doing affinity mapping to find themes and categorized them into groups. We then performed thematic analysis to understand associations between those groups and analyzed critical user pains. Our final research insights were categorized into
From the insights generated through affinity mapping and thematic networks, we created 2 user personas. The rationale for 2 personas was to incorporate and simulate real lives of diverse consumers, and consolidate all their needs and pains.
We identified 4 critical pain points from our user personas that helped in informing and driving our design direction.
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"How might we help consumers reduce food waste at homes in order to save
their hard-won money and time?"
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A mobile app to store food items and leftovers. The app would remind consumers based on expiry helping them plan their meals preventing food wastage.
Sharing excess/leftover meals within community/neighborhood with the help of a mobile app, preventing leftovers from getting dumped.
Kiosk and a mobile app to donate leftovers/food items to the needy. Consumers order food to be collected, delivery person collects and places it in the Kiosk.
After brainstorming on the design ideas based on viability, appropriateness and effectiveness, we proceeded with the 1st solution. The core features are:
Scan food receipts to store purchased food items. The app notifies items nearing expiry enabling users to plan meals accordingly.
Store leftover information by clicking a picture or entering few details. The app will remind users about leftovers based on the reminder settings.
Create shopping lists just in a few steps and easily keep track of purchased items to add items for future grocery visits.
To bring our idea into life, we sketched out the MVP on paper. Next, we performed self evaluation (cognitive walk-through) on the paper sketches to identify usability issues.
We identified numerous usability issues and resolved them by designing our low-fidelity wireframes. The low-fidelity wireframes acted as the foundation of our solution on which we perform further user evaluations.
We went back to our participants and performed the first round of user evaluation on our low-fidelity wireframes. We translated their feedback into two categories
After gathering user feedback, we designed the high-fidelity prototype to mimic the actual mobile app. The high-fidelity prototype resolved the usability issues and also included the potential refinements
The home screen displays the food items that need to be consumed quickly
Two ways users can store foodstuffs, either scanning the barcode when purchasing food items or clicking a picture to store leftovers
To store purchased food, simply scan the barcode and items will be logged in automatically.
To store leftovers, simply click a picture and add a few details about it
Simplified shopping list for users to keep track of past and future grocery items
The reminders that users would get in order to plan their meals ahead of time
"This app will solve my problem of leftovers and stored food. I'd want to use this app daily!"
My daily life would really become stress-free and easier, if I had this app with me...
"The food tracking feature and the voice assistant feature is so useful to me!"
Average cost of groceries each month for one person ranges between $165 and $345. Considering the lower limit, Track Yo Food will help users consume entire 165$ worth of food items, without anything food wastage.
Total population of Americans in 2020 is nearly 331 million. Thus, we estimate that 'Remindly' will help save approximately $54 billion monthly.
I realized the impact of design in solving real world problems through a human-centered design process.
Got hands-on experience by working on every phase of the human-centered design process, helping me craft my own UX decision process.
Learnt the core principle of empathy while conducting research by visiting the user's context of use and observing them.
A design solution is ineffective if it does not have iterations or if feedback from the target user isn't taken.
