Project type
Solo Project done over 1 week. Project prompt was of my choice.
Role
Product Designer + UX Researcher
prompt
Food waste happens in many walks of life, in large quantities from big restaurants, to single homes not keeping leftovers; food waste is all around us. Effects of food waste are catastrophic and affect millions of people. Here are some key numbers of food waste in India:
CHALLENGE
I kept noticing that I was throwing away food from my fridge because I forgot about it or missed expiry dates. Curious if others had the same issue, I spoke to friends and family—turns out, almost everyone struggled with remembering what was in their fridge. This sparked the idea: what if there was an easy way to keep track of fridge items and help cut down food waste? That’s how the problem behind FridgeBuddy was discovered.
the problem
" How might we help people reduce household food waste? "
project process
I mainly adopted design thinking process but since I only have 7 days left before the deadline, I didn’t do usability testing for the app.
white paper research
First, before touching anything related to design, I wanted to dive into the motivations behind goal setting.
competitive analysis
I wanted to explore which methods are currently successful and where improvements can be made to reduce household food wastage.
the gap
I wanted to explore which methods are currently successful and where improvements can be made to reduce household food wastage.
| Features | KitchenPal | FoodWise | NoWaste | My Fridge Food |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add items manually | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Add items by taking picture of each item | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Add items by choosing from inventory list | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Edit items and its expiry dates | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| View expiry dates | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Suggest/Calculate expiry dates | ✔ | |||
| Remind users of expiry dates | ✔ | |||
| Mark consumed food as finished | ✔ | |||
| Categorize items by kind | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Categorize items by placement | ✔ | |||
| Search recipes | ✔ | |||
| Recommend recipes | ✔ | ✔ |
PAIN POINT 1
Requiring a lot of input from end-users, which could be time-consuming.
PAIN POINT 2
Users need to check the app frequently to track expiry dates.
PAIN POINT 3
No suggestions on how to deal with about-to-expire food.
USER INTERVIEW / PRIMARY RESEARCH
After looking at the competition and understanding the mindset, I wanted to hear from my target audience experience to cater the final product towards their needs
How might we help people reduce household food waste?
- How often do you throw away expired food from your fridge?
- How do you currently track food expiry dates?
- Would notifications about expiring food be helpful to you?
- Would you use an app that scans grocery receipts to update your fridge's inventory?
- Would rewards for reducing food waste motivate you to use such an app?
analyzing the data
insights & analysis
30+ data points
30+ data points
Organizational Habits
- Label items with purchase dates.
- Organize fridge by expiry.
- Digital note on phone.
- No tracking, occasional checks.
- Rely on memory.
Technology Adoption
- Use an app for tracking expiry.
- Sounds convenient to scan receipts.
- Love tech solutions.
- Would try scanning feature if free.
- Depends on ease of use of the app.
Food Waste Awareness
- Once a week food waste.
- Rarely waste due to meal planning.
- At least twice a week food waste.
- Every other day food waste.
- Hardly ever waste, dine out often.
- Frequently waste veggies.
Notification Preferences
- Definitely find notifications helpful.
- Not needed, already organized.
- Helpful notifications for hidden items.
- Maybe, if notifications aren't too frequent.
- Need reminders.
- Game-changer with notifications.
Motivational Factors
- Love rewards.
- Environmentally driven.
- Win-win with rewards.
- Discounts on groceries as rewards.
- Not a deciding factor.
- If rewards are substantial.
- Rewards are always a plus.
user personas & user journey map
PRIYA (YOUNG PROFESSIONAL)
ROHAN (STUDENT )
HOW MIGHT WE?
How might we help students and young professionals reduce household food waste efficiently?
OPPRTUNITIES
product structure
FINAL DESIGN & SOLUTIONS
FEATURE 1 - SCAN RECEIPT TO ADD PURCHASED ITEMS TO INVENTORY
FEATURE 2 - Notifications on soon-to-expire items
FEATURE 3 -Track and deal with the food items
FEATURE 4 - Manual add or edit custom items
FEATURE 5 -AI Recommended Recipes Based on Your Inventory
FINAL PROTOTYPE
FUTURE STEPS
PRODUCT FEATURES
- Categorize the items by their kinds, placement, and etc.
- Create incentives, e.g. coupons or points if users waste no food
- Add a dashboard illustrating how much food the users have consumed, categorize consumed and unconsumed food items
- Double confirmation to reduce the impact of user errors
- Design more solutions to add food into inventory, e.g. partner with online stores so users don’t even need to scan the receipt
DESIGN
- Increase color contrast ratio for text, icons for better accessibility
- Enable multi-modality, e.g. build an Alexa or Siri skill and use Voice Over Interface (VUI) to get information
fridgebuddy