Understanding
The Problem
Approximately $1 trillion worth of food is lost or wasted every year accounting for roughly 1/3 of the world’s food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, reversing this trend would preserve enough food to feed 2.1 billion people. While it is a social issue, food waste also disrupts the environment when it winds up in landfills because it emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas that promotes global warming.
In Israel
Israel is second in the waste of food between the OECD countries and produces 2.4 million tons of food waste each year - one third of local production. 50% of the food thrown deserves human food and goes to waste due to behavioral patterns, lack of awareness of our buying habits and more.
Behind The Numbers
Israel
33%
of the local production volume has been thrown into the trash
8,088₪
The value of food thrown in an Israeli family every year
25%
The food we buy will not be eaten and directly delivered to the trash
Accepting
The Challenge
Food waste is already a big challenge by itself. But, I believed that the main one for this project is to raise users’ awareness about their own consumption of food and to see how much food they are wasting on a daily basis. If people are more self-aware about their actions, maybe this could help to mitigate the problem.
The Goal
Create a mobile application that manages the complete food flow in the users’ homes. An integrated solution that provides users to track groceries in the kitchen, and tailor recipe suggestions to decide upon hence encouraging low wastage of food.
Recearch
Market Analysis
I began my research by determining whether there are any products currently available that solve the problem. I spotted 3 different apps that all have in common the goal of managing the user's inventory
KitchenPal
Is a pantry manager, grocery list, product comparison, and recipe ideas, all rolled into one. The app learns & provides suggestions just like a personal assistant.
FrigoMagic
A smartphone application designed to help people cook recipes based on the ingredients they already have at home in their fridges or pantries.
Nosh
A food management mobile app for reminding the expiry or best before date of food products, aiming to reduce food waste in the household.
User Personas
Using three types of personas, we targeted users primarily at the age of 25 to 35. It is enabling me to demonstrate a variety of aspects and to develop a product that would work for those individuals who mostly make their own grocery decisions and manage their householding
Wireframes
Based on all of the research and planning completed up to this point, I began to sketch some initial ideas to hash out potential structure and navigation patterns for the app.
Solution
Core Features
Based on a better understanding of my users and their needs, I identified three core features I wanted to focus on for the product
User Flow
The sitemap helped me to understand the journey that users would take through the app.
NoWaste
Overview
An app that utilizes machine-learning innovations and smart features to help users know when their food is going to expire and find easy, delicious recipes that will utilize these ingredients while they're still fresh and reduce food waste.
Collaboration
Robin Food
MAX Initiative
Roles
UX research
Product design
Branding / UI
Flash Screen
First interaction with the app, let the user connect by social media or just typing recognizable information.
Recipes
the app suggest recipes based on products that shloud be expierd soon in the users kitchen.
User Profile
In the app, all users can track their stats and progress. When updating preferences or achievements
Kitchen
This module helps the user manage their household inventory, along with an expiration timeline that shows when products are due to expire. Additionally, all products can be edited individually to detail
Shopping List
A smart shopping list can be created manually or with a barcode reader or even just voice commands
Creating a Design Language
In order to simplify the workflow and match the design language,
I created specifically components from scratch.
Design
The Results
Once I had a visual direction of the layout, I started to add more details and precisions to the sketches by turning them into high-fidelity wireframes. Creating high-fidelity wireframes helps me focus on the visual consistency and hierarchy before applying styles.
Managing the Inventory
Creating a Shopping List
Recipe finder
Help users to discover and find recipes that they or their family would love. Also, make the meal planning experience even more comfortable by allowing users to add recipe ingredients directly to their grocery list.
Grocery list
Users should be able to quickly create and manage their grocery lists and also check their previous history of lists that they have created for quicker references.
Inventory tracker
This tool could be handy when it comes to keeping track and managing what users bought and what they have in their kitchen without having to waste food merely because they forgot about them.