Grow Your Garden
The goal of the gardening app is to provide users with a starting point in designing their garden. Through this app, users have the opportunity to see how their garden will look like with the plants they choose. They have a variety of options available to them, and the plants are categorized into flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits. The app then allows users flexibility in their garden so they can create the best garden possible.
Sketching & Ideation
The goal of the gardening app is to provide users with a starting point in designing for their garden. Through this app, users have the opportunity to see how their garden will look like with the plants they choose. They have a variety of options available to them, and the plants are categorized into flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits.
Creative Strategy
The goal of the gardening app is to provide users with a starting point in designing for their garden. Through this app, users have the opportunity to see how their garden will look like with the plants they choose. They have a variety of options available to them, and the plants are categorized into flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits.
Final Look
Video Demonstration
Sumeet Dhami
UI + UX Designer
Limiting Household Food Wastage
My Roles:
Sole User Research & Design
Duration:
7 Months
Tools
Adobe XD
illustrator
Miro
Figma
Background
In the fourth year of my undergraduate program, my classmates and I were tasked with completing a student-led capstone project and writing a thesis on it. It was important that we worked on a topic that we were passionate about and was a wicked problem.
During the pandemic, my family and I found ourselves testing our new recipes and cooking a lot more food than usual. Leftovers would pile up and with food being cooked daily, leftovers and other food would oftentimes get thrown out. Only upon the reflection of this new bad habit, did I realize how much food wastage goes on unnoticed.
Project Overview
My capstone explores the topic of food wastage in households and possible solutions to address this complex issue. I used a variety of methods to conduct research such as surveys, interviews, and diary studies which highlighted key issues that are resulting in food wastage. For my final design, I created a digital app using pre-existing information.
Problem
Goal
Food waste. It happens everywhere and goes unnoticed resulting is a ton of food wastage overall. This is not only a personal problem but a global one.
Through this design solutions people should be wasting less food and be more mindful of their shopping choices and ultimately be saving money.
Research
Methodology
White paper research
Surveys
User Interviews
Diary Studies
Overview
To understand the problem space we are dealing with, it’s important to look at the background of the topic and statistics that shine a light on the problem of food wastage within households.
Surveys are helpful in gathering quantitative dat and people's thinking.
User interviews highlighted various real reasons for food wastage and allowed for a better understanding of different users and.
Diary Studies collected both quantitative data and qualitative data which further becomes a good reference point for understanding people's lifestyle and decisions.
Secondary Reseach
September - December
White Paper Research
Food wastage being a quite complex and well-researched topic I read through many papers, articles, and case studies, below are some findings
People don't like wasting food.
“…more than half of survey respondents (65%) said they could lessen the amount of food wastage they have, and 85% of survey respondents felt guilty about their food wastage (Parizeau et al., 2014).
Shopping habits, deals and moods could all affect the weekly food wastage.
“…one household would end up not following the plan they set out and buying more food than needed (Evans, 2011).”
People see the benefits & know what they want
Ikea’s Scrapbook
When WRAP asked households what motivates them for reducing food wastage, 80% mentioned the potential to save money, 70% mentioned “. . . wanting to manage their home efficiently”
Pre-Exisiting Products
There is a lot of different products out there with the same goal of wasting less food. So what’s the problem? These solutions are great to help you in the kitchen and sharing food but it shies away from considering the various reasons people do end up wasting food…human behaviour plays a big role is how we act and think.
Olio App
App where users can share extra food with neighbours
Love Food Hate Waste
Campaign to address food wastage and change people’s behaviour
Ikea Scrapbook
Cookbook with recipes for scraps (banana peels, carrot ends)
Too Good To Go
App that allows companies to sell food that wasn't consumed during the day to customers who can by it for a discounted price
Supercook
App where users can find recipes based on what they have on hand
Second Harvest
Campaign focused on food rescue and recovery app that connects businesses to not-for-profits so that surplus food can be redistributed
Survey Insights
I distrubuted an online survey through posting on my LinkdIn and social media. In total I received 23 respones.
How much pounds of food is thrown in participant's house in a month?
When asked if they take any steps to prevent food wastage, about 81% of survey participants answered yes
Around 65% of participants threw out food in the last month
Participants ranked on a scale of 1 - 10 of how aware they’re about expiration dates
User
Interviews
To ensure that the research I conduct through this project is valuable and provides important insights to my future solution, I designed a questionnaire and 30 minute interview.
I interviewed 9 users ranging from students, young adults, housewives, and parents. These interviews were done online using Zoom.
"Like I don't really know how to store things sometimes based on what items should go in my fridge to last longer, I have been experimenting, but I still don't know or been recording how I like what's been successful and what hasn’t.”
people think storing is one factor their food is going bad.
"when I clean out the fridge, I'll do good for the week. And I tried to keep the momentum going. And sometimes I will do good for like, two, three weeks. And then that always happens. Sometimes it just takes one week, and it kind of throws things off guard"
People are more aware of these food wastage, which is a positive sign so there is that effort to change but it is not like a habit or intentional action so maybe that is why it is not very consistent.
“So most of the time, I do write a grocery list. And I think when I’m
more intentional about what items I’m going to rotate between even though I don’t have a specific recipe in mind, it kind of helps”
it seems like knowing the items you have or need to buy helps people waste less
Key Takeaways
01
A lot of people are not aware of food wastage on a global scale and just refer to it as something morally bad to do or they don't feel good doing.
03
Cost would be a motivating factor for people to not waste food.
05
People try to reduce their food wastage by doing simple measures such as using the green bin, making use of leftover fruits, and keeping track of the things they need to buy through a notes app.
02
Storage seems to be a problem for some people because they don't know exactly where to put certain items which results in them going bad quicker.
04
People have fast-paced and busy lifestyles so they want to be able to do things more conveniently. Oftentimes, convenience results in more food wastage than one would like.
06
People are aware of expiry dates and that helps them know how long they can keep the item for and when they should use it.
Affinity Diagramming
I also used affinity diagramming to map out different themes and gain insights. Affinity diagramming gave a holistic view of the points that were brought up by the interviewees. By categorizing these points into themes, it gave a good overview on aspects to keep in mind when creating the solution for the problem.
Lack of Knowledge
I guess having more knowledge of
how to store food in fridge, cupboards or freezer or other places
I’m not too aware on a global scale of how bad the food wastage is contributing to like our environment
And then like fruits and vegetables to be honest with you I don’t have the best idea on like one thing expired.
Like I don’t really know how to store things sometimes based on what items should go in my fridge to last longer, I have been experimenting but I still don’t know or been recording how I like what’s been successful and what hasn’t
Habits that contribute
to food wastage
I think I buy more than I can eat because I like variety
Things are just sitting around and then go spoiled
Buying a lot of take out when I’m lazy
And then sometimes it’s my schedule. So even if I am home if I have a lot of school related work to do, it’s just I’m buying takeout so I don’t have to think about cooking and then end up not preparing the food I have
Limitations
Convenience
Can’t just randomly decide
to eat out other food might get wasted
Fridge stuffed
Overtime people won’t value how much they wasted and it would just be another dollar
things get spoiled really fast without your control
Busy
Diary Study
I also conducted a diary study to get more data related information like how much was exactly wasted, what items were being wasted, and the reasons for those items. Also, I asked the participants to perform different tasks like cleaning out their fridge, and doing a meal prep which helped me in getting a better understanding of more practical solutions.
Concept Sketching and Prototyping
After spending months researching conducting interviews and diary studies
I began to ideate different possible solutions that were going to best align to help
users be more mindful of their wastage and help them prevent them from wasting as much.
Stickers/labels
for certain food items to indicate shelf life. Knowing this type of information could potentially help people know more about what they’re buying and approximately when it should be used by
First Concept
The idea of this app was to tell users what is in their fridge. They would physically add items to the app and indicate the quantity bought.
A lot of people don’t actually remember what they bought and where it even is in their fridge. This was a common theme in my interviews so this solution should help solve that.
Second Concept
In this concept, I have multiple features in mind. I wanted to use pre-existing information from Love Food Hate Waste and market as an app for the organization. In this application, users will have the option to scan, search for products to store in their kitchen, fridge and also have a feature to note how much food has gone to waste and receive a dollar amount in total of how much is wasted.
I initially thought of these features because they help solve some pain points users mentioned in the interviews. Having a storage feature will make them more knowledgeable and less likely to forget items and the cost feature is supposed to serve as a motivation for the users to waste less.
Concept Validation
I combined all of the different features into one app because each feature is valuable and considering the wide range of pain points mentioned, more features can help fit more solutions
Usability Testing
For my usability study, I conducted two in person sessions and one online session. The sessions lasted about five to ten minutes long. In these sessions, I asked the participants to walk through two different scenarios. I illustrated these scenarios by making low-fi wireframes and I also created task flows to go with these scenarios.
Storage Feature Flow
With this feature, users can scan food products that they are interested in knowing what the proper storage is, where they can keep it fresh and how they can use it. The user can
the proper storage for these products using multiple ways.
Cost Scale Flow
With this feature users can know the amount they are wasting when they throw out food products by indicating it on the app
Revised Prototying
After meeting with the usability participants I made a few key changes to my existing design.
Creative Strategy
For each moodboard I have, I wanted to channel a different mood and feeling and have these terms tie back to the design and user experience of the app, as well.
Style Tile
My style guide consists of all of the UI elements that I will be using to design my app so it includes the colour palette, buttons, typography, and iconography.
Final Design
My final concept is to build a digital product that emphasizes on helping people waste less food in their households. Although everyone has a very different approach on how they manage their waste, how much waste they have, and how they feel about their waste, this app is supposed to be a good asset to rely on for multiple different reasons. It is not limiting and there is flexibility on what the emphasis of the app is for the user.
Landing Page
Users can sign up or log into an exisiting account.
"Check what we offer" allows users to get an overview of different features they can use
Taking A Quiz
Users can take a quiz to better understand where they lie in the household food wastage spectrum
Storage
Users can sign up or log into an exisiting account.
"Check what we offer" allows users to get an overview of different features they can use
Taking A
Scan of Item
Homepage
Users can view information like "reminders" and articles.
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Weekly Summary
This page shows the users personal data on how they've been doing with preventing food wastage.
Cost Scale
Users are able to view how much is wasted based on every grocery list they've added.
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Cost Scale
How users will be able to measure out how much food was wasted based on different items.
Final Thoughts
Even after going through the research, development and design stages and producing the final piece, there are still things that could be further expanded and bettered. After designing the app, I was not able to test out the final piece on different users and get their perspective on the final app. Other limitations include not being able to work with a developer to create this app into an actual working product, and not working with a company or campaign to promote this product to give it a platform. These things can of course change in the future but these are the main things I am currently limited with in my work.
This year-long self-led project was a very important experience for me to further develop my design skills and research abilities. I enjoyed the process and am proud of what I created. Going forward, I would like to make this a real-life project and see people change their habits to help lessen food wastage and in turn, help the environment.