Speculative Project
Food waste is a significant global issue, with an estimated one-third of all food produced going uneaten. A major contributor to this waste is the mismanagement of food storage, particularly in refrigerators. Often, items get lost in the back of the fridge, are forgotten about, and eventually spoil. This leads not only to wasted food but also to unnecessary spending on groceries.
The solution, PROVISIONS. Provisions is an App I developed to help eliminate food waste and help users keep track of their current food inventory. This app allows an individual to keep track of what is currently in their pantry, fridge, and spice cabinet making it easier to prepare for recipes, food shop and ultimately save money, time and storage.
My role on this project was to ideate and develop an app for a problem that was not yet realized. Our client wanted to create a new and innovative application that solved problems for people cooking at home. The client tasked me with identifying a problem that doesn’t have a solution yet, and to design for it. Challenge accepted!
My Process
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Interviews: The First step I took was to conduct student interviews. I surveyed three people in different cities, age groups, and knowledge of cooking.
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Create a persona. The persona helps us ideate the app, and helps us make more informed decisions. The persona helps decide and develop what feature our app needs, and what problems might come up.
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Synthesize interview data to find a common theme that will lead us to our “How Might We?” Questions. These questions will create a goal, and motivate us.
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Design: The design of the app begins with creating wireframes, storyboards and from there understanding the flow of the app and how others will interact with the design.
Prototype Testing: Prototype testing was essential. It leads to more questions, and design iterations. It will demonstrate our successes and give us insight on next steps.
What we heard from Interviews..
“Sometimes I’m not sure what I have for food at home and end up having to order in”
“I don’t food shop often because of my fear of food waste”
“I always end up with multiple items because I never know which ones I have at home”
Affinity Mapping
Affinity mapping was used to organize key takeaways from my interviews. Through this I was able to form questions. What did these users have in common? What devices were they using? What were they frustrated by? What did they enjoy?
What we learned…
People are conscious about food waste.
People are overwhelmed by overcrowded kitchen inventory.
People don’t have the time to meal prep, or are anxious about it.
People are unaware what’s in their cabinets and fridge.
We met our persona…
Christina, 30, Designer, Upstate NY
Christina lives in upstate in NY where she works as a designer. She loves to cook but doesn’t always have the time to do it. She lacks go-to recipes, and wishes she had more time to be a bit more adventurous in the kitchen. She’s very well organized and hates to grocery shop if she thinks it might lead to food waste.
Needs & Goals: A place to organize recipes, Recipes that have been well vetted, recipes with fewer ingredients
Frustrations: Food waste, Time, Food inventory, Grocery shopping gives her anxiety
Ideation’s Began.
Using Christine as our primary persona, we also kept in mind takeaways from the other interviews. We noticed that the stress of grocery shopping was something that they all had in common. We also were told by multiple users that storage was a main concern and that lots of the time our interviewee’s ended up with double’s of items in their kitchen. From this information PROVISIONS WAS REALIZED.
Our App…
The app we decided to develop will help anyone who cooks at home. It will allow the user to keep track of their current food inventory. The first version of the app would have three categories (pantry, spice, and fridge) in which they could keep track of what they currently had in stock. This could be utilized wherever they were. Wether they are at the office wondering what to cook for dinner that night, or they are in the grocery shopping. Provisions would put your kitchen in your pocket. It will save MONEY, SPACE, and TIME.
Storyboarding
Storyboard’s were created to put into perspective where users might be when using the app and how that influences their interactions with app.
Design
Original Sketch:
Sketch 2:
Lo-fi Wireframes:
Userflow’s
Two flows were created. The first flow displays the first ideation for the app which originally was only to keep track of the users spice cabinet. When It was realized that users would like the opportunity to track the three main storage spaces in the kitchen the second flow was developed. The second flow displays how a user would toggle through the three storage spaces with ease.
Results
Prototype testing allowed us to better understand the interactions of users with our App. We were able to track how easy and accessible it was, and ask important questions about their experience.
Accomplishments & Next Steps
Developing PROVISIONS from start to finish I learned how to use user research to find a gap in a specific market. Through provisions I learned to ideate, implement and explore the creation of an App. The next steps for this app are to create a high fidelity prototype and to develop the visual aesthetic of Provisions. After testing the second prototype it will become more clear on what additional features should be implemented. Ideas such as sharing inventory with members of an individuals household, or a recipe book plugin are features I would like to explore.