GROUP & PERSONAL PROJECT
WHERE
BOOTCAMP
DURATION
2 MONTHS (DEC 2022 - JAN 2023; SEP 2023)
TEAM
NAYOUNG KIM (ME), ARASH, PHILLIP, STEVEN
ROLES
UX RESEARCHER & DESIGNER (IN GROUP & PERSONALLY);
UI DESIGNER (PERSONAL)
OVERVIEW
Say goodbye to wasted food and hello to a more sustainable lifestyle with FoodGuard – the ultimate app designed to help you protect your money and the environment by effectively and routinely managing your food inventor.
UX/UI RESEARCH & DESIGN PROJECT
FoodGuard
PROTECT MONEY AND THE ENVIRONMENT FROM FOOD WASTE
IDEATION
Do you know how much food you waste in a year? or even in a month or a day?
I am definitely sure that you will be surprised if you know the answer because the amount of food wasted would be more excessive than you expected. Why do I am so confident? Because I am also the same!
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During the pandemic as there was a limitation to eating outside, I cooked at home more frequently than before, so I had to do grocery shopping more frequently. There was a great advantage of being able to eat healthier food while cooking at home, but because I was a single-person family living alone, the expiration date of the food was significantly faster than the speed I ate, and some foods were not able to eat because they missed the expiration date.
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"FoodGuard" was an idea that started with my daily concerns, and I was able to realize it with my team members in the boot camp.
RESEARCH
DESK RESEARCHES
"The Villan of the Earth, Food Waste"
"The Villan of the Earth, Food Waste"
In 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the US first-ever goal to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030. However, the annual food waste in the US is still unbelievable. According to the Recycle Track Systems (aka RTS), while the world wastes about 2.5 billion tons of food yearly, the United States discards more food than any other country: nearly 60 million tons — 120 billion pounds — every year. These corresponded to approximately $218 billion – the equivalent of 130 billion meals in 2023.
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Not only do numerous economic losses happen because of food waste, but food scarcity and environmental issues are also critical results of food waste. According to the United Nations (UN), 9.2% of the world's population, 735 million people, are suffered from food scarcity. This number of people increased incredibly from 2019 when there were 391 million. Therefore, the UN emphasized the importance of reducing food waste by announcing "Zero Hunger" as the second goal of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by 2030.
Wasting food generates 11% of greenhouse gasses like methane, carbon dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons, contributing to global warming. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States (FAO), "If 'Food Waste' were a country, it would be the world's 3rd largest emitter of carbon dioxide (COâ‚‚) after China and the US." They said that the carbon footprint of food waste is estimated to be 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide (COâ‚‚) equivalents released into the atmosphere a year.
USER RESEARCHES
"What the Track!"
"What the Track!"
Our main goal with our interviews was to get an insight on various aspects of shopping and organizing habits. We conducted the interview with 7 interviewees by making questions based on their shopping habits such as how often they do grocery shopping and how much they spend. We also wanted to find out their organizing habits as well as how often they keep track of their food in a pantry.
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From our interviews, we found out that most people do not have a way to track their food. Once they put away their groceries, it was hard to track everything that was in their kitchen. They also had a hard time finding a good recipe that used ingredients they already had at home. Most recipes they found they were missing a few items.
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
"Visualized the Data"
Each interviewee was classified into different colors of sticky notes to organize their interview answers. Then, all answers from the interviewees were categorized depending on the topics. We separated them into seven categories: food waste, demographic information, cooking habits, shopping habits, pain points, and food inventory tracking.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
"What FoodGuard Needs to Focus on" #1
We selected four direct competitors: Beep, Kiff, Fridgely, and NoWaste. By analyzing those competitors, we could standardize what features we must refer to and what features to redeem.
POSITIONING MAP
"What FoodGuard Needs to Focus on" #2
Based on the findings from the desk, user research, and competitor analysis, we found that 'utilization' and 'meticulousness' are the primary features we must consider for making the 'FoodGuard.' So then, by comparing the competitors' utilization and meticulousness, we set up the position of the 'FoodGuard.'
DEFINE
USER PERSONA
We selected a super mom, Jenny Wilson, who wants to manage her work and family perfectly. She works as a physician assistant; therefore, she continually experiences a lack of time for housekeeping.
USER INSIGHTS & PROBLEM STATEMENT
"Need An Assistant Mobile App to Manage Foods in The Refrigerator And Pantry"
During our interviews, we discovered that people waste money by throwing away expired food. Therefore, we might be able to help them waste less food by giving them a way to track their foods and expiration dates. We might do this by alerting them to when food is about to expire and recommending recipes for upcoming expired foods. Doing this will allow our product to help users save money, waste less food, and cook healthier.
DEFINE
I LIKE, I WISH, & WHAT IF
We divided the user interview answers into three concepts:
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'I Like' represents what is possible right now.
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I like that you could notify a product is about to expire​
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'I Wish' represents what is possible in the near future.
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I wish to donate​ at environmental communities when I success to prevent wasting
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'What If' represents what is possible in the far-off future.
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What if you could take a picture of fridge, expiration dates and ingredient information are automatically added to the app?​
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FEATURE PRIORITIZATION MATRIX
After analyzing each answer's impact on the user's life and the feasibility (complexity to be realized), they were divided into four categories:
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Low impact - Low complexity
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Low impact - High complexity
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High impact - Low complexity
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High impact - High complexity
RESULT
STRATEGY
INFORMATIVE
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Notify upcoming expired foods (push notification and widget service)
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Recommend proper recipes for upcoming expired foods
UTILIZATION
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Provide the easiest ways to register foods (not only manually but also scan barcodes or receipts)
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Encourage users to check the app routinely - recommend recipes, money-saving checkups, etc
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Share registered items’ information and manage them together
ECONOMIC
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Help to protect money from wasting foods
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Tracking monthly money spent because of food wastes
ECO-FRIENDLY
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With a challenge system, encourage to reduce food waste and save the earth
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Provide an opportunity to donate to environmental/hunger campaigns
DESIGN
WIREFRAMES
The primary thing we considered when creating wireframes was ​a smooth flow when switching how to add items. There are three different ways to register items, and there is a possibility that users use all three ways at the same time. So, instead of creating all three different pages, we combined them all on one page and separated them simply using the tab function.
USER TESTING
FEEDBACKS
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UX (Flow) points:
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Not sure where to go after scanning items
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Hard to overview all registered items at once
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UI points:
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Need rearrangement for listing information; low readability
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Button size is too small, so it is hard to click
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WHAT I WILL APPLY/CHANGE
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UX (Flow) points:
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Easier and smoother interaction between each pages by providing a direct after action
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Make each pages has specific and own goal to achieve
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UI points:
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Attention to a friendly design by using friend tone of word and cute character designs
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Improve readability by updating size of button and color chart
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BRAND EXPERIENCE
BRAND NAME​​
Using the word ‘guard’ emphasizes the vibe ‘be protective’ and gives users a ‘protector of food’ role.
CHARACTER DESIGN​
HEALTHY VER.​
SICK VER.​
UI STYLE GUIDES
FINAL DESIGN
01.
HOME
Check the upcoming expired foods and get recommended recipes for them. You are also able to track monthly food loss because of expiring, and it would be helpful for you to save money and the environment.
FEATURE 1.
"INFORMATIVE POP-UP CARD"
Users can check the updated information consistently and quickly by using a pop-up card to show up when opening the app.
Describe your image
Describe your image
02.
SAVED ITEMS
You can easily manage and take care of your laundry machine conditions by registering the type of machine when you sign up.
Depending on the remaining expiration date, you can quickly check at a glance which food has the shortest time left until the expiration date by using three different colored cards. In addition, information on the amount of leftover food was also visualized using graphs, etc., so that users could easily obtain information.
FEATURE 1.
"VISUALIZED INFORMATION"
03.
RECIPES
Find any recipes you want to cook and recommended recipes depending on your upcoming expired foods. And save it if you're going to try it later.
04.
MY ACCOUNT
Check the tracking of this month's food waste and how much economic loss you have because of food waste.
FEATURE 1.
"DOING BETTER THAN LAST MONTH?"
The users can check each week's waste and know whether they are doing well by comparing it with last month's data. It works as a warning to be aware of waste or motivation to save more money by reducing waste.
FEATURE 2.
"WHAT KIND OF FOOD GET THE FIRST PLACE"
We will let the users know what kind of food gets the first place of wasted in this month. It would be helpful to inform the users what foods they need to eat more often to prevent waste.
FEATURE 2.
"SAVE MONEY, SAVE SEED"
If the users succeed in their challenge to reduce or prevent food waste, they can get the point, 'seed,' that can be used as real money later for donation to the organization. Save money by preventing food waste and Save seed for donation!
05.
LOCK SCREEN & APPLE WATCH
Notifying the announcement about expired foods, recipe recommendations, and the monthly food waste process summary improves accessibility and allows users to keep using FoodGuard routinely.
CONCLUSION
THINGS
I LEARNED
I learned that crafting a comprehensive problem statement is imperative for accurately discerning the user's needs and distinguishing between user insight and the problem statement. Our app development was influenced by a thorough competitor analysis, enabling us to evaluate existing products and strategize enhancements. While a digital wireframe is an initial prototype, specific insights into structures, components, and contexts are essential for constructing refined iOS prototypes. Leveraging feedback on our prototypes was instrumental in refining our scanner and dashboard and addressing inconsistencies within our UI design.
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In addition, FoodGuard is the first project in which I also built the brand experience. I have yet to gain experience in branding; therefore, it was also one of my challenges. However, I tried to focus on providing advanced accessibility and immersion of users to prevent food waste. As a result, I used a friendly tone of words and created animated characters.