Project 2

Introduction

Project Overview

I personally have always hated wasting food, whether that is through forgetting about food in my fridge or overcooking. Hence, I worked on a project while at university called FoodCore which hopes to minimise food waste through core features of a digital fridge, recipe sharing, community marketplace and profile statistics. This project was run within a team of 4 where I was mainly involved in the product aspect.

01 - Context

Problem Research

To start off the project, I worked with my team of 4 to gather research on the current ecosystem and problem of food waste. Food waste is defined as the process of discarding produce despite being fit to consume
Food waste is an increasingly prevalent issue as it is estimated that Australian households throw away 2.5 million tonnes of edible food each year. This has several environmental and economic implication. Hence, we sought to understand why this problem was happening so frequently.

Through conducting user surveys and interviews we got a few key insights
- 100% of participants considered food waste to be a negative issue
- 59% of participants stated that left over food is the main reason for food waste.
- 41% attributed it to foods being past their expiry dates.

02 - Define

What is the problem?

Through analysing our problem space through empathy maps, interviews and surveys, the main causes we identified for food waste were:
1. Low levels of awareness
2. General consumer behaviour such as forgetfulness and lazy mentalities.
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We also identified two key user group, individuals in households as well as small business owners. We identified that reducing Food Waste for larger businesses would have to occur on a wider scale. This was out of our scope, hence, the aforementioned groups were perfect for this project,
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To synthesise our findings, we developed two persona's representing individuals in a household as well as small business owners. The pain points and desires were also based off research we did prior.

03 - Ideate

What are some solutions to our problem?

Through interviewing several participants, we gathered a diverse range of ideas for our solution. We discovered that there is currently a lack of accessible food waste tracking apps on the market. While multiple interviewees acknowledged the existence of apps aimed at reducing food waste, they felt that the personal impact wasn’t significant enough to motivate action.

One interviewee mentioned that their restaurant could significantly decrease food waste if there was a feature to “assist in the promotion of leftover food by the end of the day.” Another interviewee suggested a feature to track how much an individual has saved by using the app, which would highlight the financial impact of reducing food waste and raise awareness about the issue for the average consumer.

04 - Design

Design System and Branding

When it comes to anything related to the environment and food, the colour green is typically associated. With this in mind, we decided to use minimalistic colours with a light green accent to keep the app user-friendly. We also utilized DM Sans Bold and Regular, as these typefaces provide clean and soft typography that aligns well with the brand image we wanted to portray.

Typography

AaBbCcDdEeFfGg - DM Sans

H1 - 34 px

H2 - 28 px

H3 - 24 px

Body - 20 px

Extra small text - 16 px

Text link- 16 px

Colour Palette

#FFFFFF - Light

#07120C - Dark

#64BD5D - Accent

#41C076 - Primary

05 - Prototype - In Progress

Food Waste Tracker with Community Features and a Digital Fridge

To solve the key pain points found through our research, we focused on creating a medium for individuals and business owners to create and have a community. We also wanted our users to be rewarded when saving food, have an easy way to track food waste as well as see the benefits of minimising wastage.

Landing and Login Page

For FoodCore's landing page, we wanted users to immediately understand our purpose: saving food waste one step at a time. We chose to go bold with the green accent color to ensure that users recognize our brand instantly.

For the Login Page, we prioritized a user-friendly experience, incorporating a background image that emphasizes the environmental focus of our app.

Main Community Page

For the community page, I ensured that recipes could be customized according to preferred cuisines. Users can also like, leave reviews on recipes, and save their favorites into a recipe folder.

To increase awareness about food waste, I included features where popular articles are highlighted. This helps build a community focused on making a positive change.

Edwin's Projects

Mobile Application

FoodCore

Role

Duration

Client

Skills

Problem Statement

Landing and Login Page

Main Community Page

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BusinessOne Consulting