PROJECT GOAL

Food Runners specializes in picking up excess perishable and prepared food from businesses. Their goal is to expand their mission of alleviating food waste to the public. Food Runners wants To educate the public about food waste, nutrition, food security, and sustainability to help change negative food habits. 

SOLUTION 

Through our research findings, we created a mobile application that focuses on empowering, engaging, exciting and educating people about food waste and food security. 

The application is based on two main features: Through education, individuals have the ability to learn more about food waste, tips, and facts in a fun, interactive way. The competition is designed to help their neighborhood, and by extension, the environment, and the world. New, good habits have a ripple effect.

PROCESS 

Business Research 

As a team, we researched how other businesses, companies, and organizations have been tackling awareness and engagement with users. 

Research highlights

• Savethefood.com  Building Awareness Through Information
• ALS Bucket Challenge Building Awareness Through Social Trends
• SF AIDS Foundation Building Awareness Through Experience
• InsideImpact Building Awareness Through Technology

UNDERSTANDING OUR USERS

 KEY INSIGHTS

• People do use the internet as their number one tool for education next to word of mouth.

• What people do with excess food: Almost half of the people that took the survey said that they trashed it.

• Why people throw away food: Over 80% of the people that took the survey say they threw away food because it was moldy/spoiled.

• We also found that most people track freshness using their senses - through visually evaluating food or smelling it.

• The majority said they didn’t waste food but further questions showed otherwise. There is a disconnect between individuals and the issue.

PERSONAS

Creating personas helps us create a clear picture of the user's expectations and how they relate to the problem, as well as how they might react to the solution.  Our personas describe real people with backgrounds, goals, and value that later becomes an influential factor towards our design solution.

RAPID PROTOTYPE

 USER FLOW

By clearly understanding our personas’ motivations and needs, I was able to create a flow and see what drives our personas to success. In this particular example, Carol wants to set a good example for her kids, while also joining other moms to help alleviate food waste and hunger in her home city. 

SYSTEM DESIGN & WIRE-FRAMES

VISUAL DESIGN

Food waste is not a sexy topic; I wanted to show how compelling I can make it by using visual design.  We created a strong platform, but what was missing were the elements of interactivity and visual communications, where the app speaks to you.