foodle
Information Management 565 - Experience Design Project.
My Role: Lead Researcher, Project Manager.
Group Project including: Alex Krzyzosiak, Natra Zeryihun, and Marisa Chentakul.
How might we reimagine the grocery shopping experience so that households can save money and reduce food waste?
Research Process
Secondary Research: Used to understand current holes in the market, identify sources and scale of household food waste, identify how others are addressing this problem.
Primary Research: Conducted 3 Interviews looking at how people plan, shop, cook, and dispose of excess food.
Analysis: Affinity Mapping was used to expose themes and trends. Empathy Mapping was used to better understand what users felt and needed. Personas were constructed by understanding the main two users that we were considering in our design.
Primary Research Insights
People don’t have a consistent way of planning because it doesn’t align with their day-to-day workflow.
While some people enjoy grocery shopping as a time to unwind, they have to balance cost constraints and not buying excessively.
People lose track of the food items they have in their home so they often double-buy.
People are more motivated to save money than to reduce waste–it’s just not top of mind.
Secondary Research Insights
In developed countries, food waste mostly comes from households. An average family discards 20 pounds of food monthly, resulting in a annual loss of $1,350-$2,275. Fruits and vegetables are wasted most, accounting for about 39% of total food waste.
Personae
Based on our research, we constructed two personas that represent our target users. The first persona, Kellie, is motivated to make creative meals for her children within a budget. The second persona, Haimy, is interested in reducing food waste to decrease the environmental impact in addition to assuaging her own guilt of wasting food while others starve.
Design Process
Brainstorming and Ideation: We did rapid ideation and organized the nearly 30 ideas onto a board.
Narrowing: We used the Six Thinking Hats method to discuss and analyze our ideas. We then used dot voting to narrow our ideas down to 5.
Storytelling, Scenario, Customer Journey Map: We used these methods to better understand the workflow of our users. This allowed us to ensure that our product created an overall improved experience. They also helped us match the product to the specific emotions and needs of the user and to form a feasible plan for executing our idea.
Prototyping: We all sketched our interpretation for how the interface of our product would work. We then created a paper prototype of our product based on our discussion of our sketches.
Product Idea
Our idea was for an app that would allow families to input food items into a virtual fridge through scanning as they add items to their carts while in a store. The app would also notify you about expiring items and suggest recipes that would use those items. This would enable users to:
eliminate double buying items
reduce the disposal of expiring items
easily make lists based on frequently bought items
Prototype Testing and Iteration
We tested our prototype with three individuals, iterating small changes throughout the process as problems arose. By utilizing materials such as a chair, paper, whiteboards, and a little creativity, we were able to model an experience for our participants, simulating at home and in-store environments.
User Testing Insights
Scanning - Scanning items was frustrating and burdensome for users. It also felt redundant to then scan items again at checkout.
Manual input of expiration dates - Knowing when food is expiring is helpful but updating its status manually wasn’t a task people saw themselves doing.
Recipes - Recipes creation feature did not align with insights about why people wasted food.
Evaluation
While we iterated our prototype based off insights from our user testing, we realized that scanning items interrupted users shopping experience and was more burdensome than helpful. These problems detracted from the value of the product which made the product obsolete.
Pivot
We decided to make a shift and redesign the key features to our product, while still serving the same goal and addressing the same insights.
To do this, we went back to our top five ideas and rescued the "earbud butler" concept.
Revised Product Idea
Our new app idea was for an in-store virtual assistant called "Charlie". This assistant would advise the user about their grocery list items, budget, and pantry items. With this hands-free assistant, users would have a more efficient experience that would:
eliminate double buying items
reduce the disposal of expiring items
easily make lists based on frequently bought items
Redesign User Testing Insights
People used the Virtual Assistant (VA) option like a voice memo, holding the icon while speaking commands into the app.
It was unclear to some users how the VA would know when they were done shopping and how to turn it off manually.
When using the VA, users did not understand that they could navigate back to other parts of the app.
Users expected items to be recited to them based on categories (e.g. dairy, product, etc.).
Final Design
Our final deliverable was a high fidelity prototype created in figma. To see the features in action, watch our product video!
Product Video
Value Statement
"We remove hassle at every step of your grocery experience, from planning, to shopping, to cooking, to managing and utilizing your leftovers. We help you save money, waste less, cook smarter, and plan better while enjoying a guilt-free grocery experience."
The method used to develop this statement is shown to the right. The value canvas provided context for how we would provide value to our customers.
Next Steps
Continue iterative testing with users in-context with range of users with various levels of digital literacy.
Explore customisable accessibility options for users with a range of abilities and needs.
Consider pairing Foodle with IoT devices to help users find recipes, cook in the home and add items to their grocery list through VUI.
Lessons Learned
During this project, I was able to learn valuable methods and skills such as:
Design Research: Affinity Mapping, Empathy Mapping, Customer Journey Mapping
Business: Lean Canvas, Value Canvas, Unique Value Proposition
This was my first experience presenting a product in an attempt to convince the audience of the value.
I was able to take more of a managerial and planning role in this project which I found that I liked very much. It allowed me to explore different product management techniques.