Reduce Food Waste with this Start-Up App
Timeline: Oct-Dec 2021
Project: Individual
Responsibilities: User research (Journey Map, Survey, User Interview, User Testing), Ideation, Wireframing, Prototyping
Overview
Nutrisence is an app that aims to reduce food waste and provide healthy meal bundles. Partnering with wholesalers and retailers, it offers cheap food bundles including imperfect, expiring-soon, or in-excess fruits and vegetables.
Problem
How the idea came about:
As someone who does not like the idea of wasting things in general, I chose the topic of food waste to be my problem statement.
Defining the problem:
How might we encourage consumers and retail stores to reduce food wastage?
Statistics
More than 40%
of food waste in industrialised countries like Singapore is said to happen at the retail and consumer levels.
About 116,000 tonnes
of produce are lost during distribution at supermarkets, wholesale centres because of strict cosmetic filtering & overstocking
$342 million
worth of food are thrown away annually for all households in Singapore from unconsumed food.
Research Insights
From my research, I found out that food is wasted by:
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Consumers because they forget stored food, overbuy, reject ‘ugly’ foods.
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Retail stores because of excess produce, ‘ugly’ foods.
Goal
To reduce food waste and food loss on the consumer and retail levels. And build a community that inspires each other to be more eco-friendly.
Mission: To provide curated bundles with healthy recipes.
What's unique?
The AI-generated recipe allows users to create nutritious meal, soup, or drink. Based on ingredients in the food bundle and what users have keyed into their Inventory.
Process
Design tools used:
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Creative Matrix
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Journey Map
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Survey
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User Interview
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User Testing
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Wireframe
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Digital Prototype
Market Research
I did in-depth research to understand how and where food is wasted. I also did market research by looking into existing solutions. Using SWOT analysis, I identified unique opportunities for my solution to stand out and make a meaningful impact.
User Experience Research
To understand users' journey and where I can improve the experience, I did journey map for 2 apps. Done across 5 different users, I was able to identify their pain points and gain points.
Using Mural, I facilitated user testing and recorded their reactions. There was a series of tasks they had to complete.
UX App Flow / Information Architecture
Sketches
I find hand sketching to be a quick and easy way to help me visualize and think of the purpose of each page and the placement of elements.
Low-fidelity Prototype
Mid-fidelity Prototype (XD)
Reflection Journal
What I Learned
🌱Sustainable sustainability
Maintaining business sustainability for a sustainability start-up is tough. There is not much revenue from the sales since it is already discounted. Unless there is funding, it will be hard to sustain the business for long.
〽️I like to improve user experience
There were many iterations I made after conducting user testing. I found that I enjoyed the process of identifying pain points, re-looking at how I can improve the UX flow or UI design, and actually improving the experience.
🏢Aspects of a business
This was a big project I did on my own that took on from an idea to a full business model and usable prototype. There were many points I was uncertain but I could consult my lecturers and get their advice and help. I still have many to learn in the aspects of creating a business model.
What I Can Do Better in the Future
UX/UI design
Some pages like the bundle's info page have too much information, there could be a better way to organize and optimize the page.
UI can be more sleek and placement of elements can be more strategically placed so it does not look too cluttered.
Marketing & Branding
Come up with a more comprehensive marketing strategy
Logo - create a more memorable logo and more graphic
Colors - choose lesser colors
Spend more time on business model
If I were ever to come up with my own business in the future, I would need to think of what I can uniquely offer in the market, whether there is a big enough demand, and how to sustain the business. I think my solution needs much more improvement as it is not very unique as compared to existing solutions. I could work on tapping into other places even if it might not seem plausible. I need to be more bold in my ideas.