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Samrudhi Kokate (Design)

Evis Shehu (Management)

Team

September - December 2023

(4 Months)

Timeline

Role

User Research 

User Experience Designer

Prototype Link

Food waste is a significant issue in the United States, and confusion around date labels is one of the contributing factors. The wide variety of date labels, such as "sell by," "use by," "expires on," "best before," and "best by," often confuses consumers, leading to the unnecessary disposal of large amounts of edible food.

To help reduce food waste and save money, we are developing a mobile app that assists users in efficiently managing their daily tasks related to food, perishables, and groceries.

This app will offer an informative and user-friendly platform, supporting consumers in taking the following steps:

  • Understand Date Labels: Learn what the different date labels mean and avoid automatically discarding food on or after the listed date.

  • Practice Food Safety: Handle food properly, store it at appropriate temperatures, and follow good hygiene practices to minimize the risk of foodborne illnesses.

  • Preserve and Repurpose: When ingredients are nearing their date labels, find creative ways to use them, such as making soups or stews, freezing them, or preserving them to extend their usability.

Our Purpose

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How might we reduce food wastage and help 

users keep track of the food items in their 

inventory, by explaining date labels, set 

reminders, and preserve food.

Our Problem Statement

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User Research

Objective: To understand user behavior related to food, perishables, and groceries, focusing on the following key areas:

  • Purchasing Behavior: What factors do users focus on when purchasing food and perishables?

  • Influence of Date Labels: How do date labels impact users' purchasing decisions and food storage processes?

  • Storage and Preservation Strategies: What methods do users adopt to store and preserve perishable items?
     

Research Methods:

  • Questionnaire (23 participants): This survey aimed to assess how significantly date label confusion affects customers and to identify the key traits of ideal participants for follow-up interviews.

  • Interviews (6 participants): The interviews were designed to uncover valuable insights into participants' experiences with date labels and their approaches to food storage and preservation.

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  • Understanding date labels

  • Checking food quality/status by scanning it on the phone

  • Managing inventory 

  • Setting reminders for the products

  • Provide food preservation methods

  • Source hub for quick and easy recipes with few ingredients

Insights and Key Features

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User Flow Diagrams

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Paper Prototype

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Visual Style

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Illustration style

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Final


Screens

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Final


Screens

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6 participants - 4 returning users who:

  • regularly visit grocery stores 

  • have income

  • are of age groups: 25-34, 35-44, and 45 

Participants

Usability Research

  • Warm up questions

  • Run 2 tasks 

  • Follow up questions

  • Overall system questions

  • SUS

Interviews

Usability Research Insights

  • Tasks involved few steps and required minimal data entry.

  • Image detection caption was considered a useful feature

  • Look and feel of the design was likable and intuitive

  • Label explanation did not feel tailored to the particular item

  • Recipe functionality does not fulfill user needs

  • Set Reminder form is not clear which are entry fields & which ones pre-filled 

  • “Set Reminder” and “Add to Inventory” functionalities 

  • “Ask an expert” functionality is not preferred

  • Home button is confusing

80

SUS SCORE

Design Improvements

  • Add Home option in bottom Navigation and review the other icons

  • Fix Foodify logo across all screens

  • Add a Recipe button in homepage and remove Recipe button from camera  capture screen

  • Add a food item category/type field entry in Check Date Label form

  • Review content of the Date Label explanation

  • Rearrange sequence of buttons in Add Item screen

  • Make image capture feature optional and add a manual entry food input  feature

  • Remove Ask an Expert button and create a placeholder for a chatbot  feature

  • Rearrange entry fields in Set Reminder form

  • Redesign the flow between Add item and Set Reminder functionalities

Prioritizing criteria

  • Task criticality

  • Issue frequency

  • Issue impact

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Alignment of Logo across all screens

Home added in 

bottom navigation

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Preservation & Recipes

feature added in homepage

Bottom navigation 

features are rearranged

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Food Category field added 

user can choose the category from a drop down list

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Recipe option 

removed

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Add Manually 

feature added

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Removed Talk to 

an Expert feature 

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Buttons are 

rearranged

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Entry fields are 

rearranged bringing ontop the field that 

needs an entry

Used color variation to 

identify fields that are 

pre-filled (and can be 

modified as needed)

What happens next?

Our tasks

  • Finalize design &  iterations:

    • Chatbot functionality

    • Add to Inventory functionality

    • Interaction Add to Inventory & Set Reminder

  • Conduct field study 

Outsourcing

  • Developers recommendation

  • Compile a financial planning to  determine budget

  • for launch

  • for maintenance

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