FreshSet

Produce App meant to track and organize food expiration

Food waste is an expansive problem that is experienced by everyone in one way or another. In fact, according to earth.org, the average American throws away almost 219 pounds of food every year. People tend to lose track of the food they have or are unsure how to use them. This course project’s goal was to create a prototype to aid users with this issue through the step by step User Design process.

The Problem

Moving forward with the goal of creating a potential solution to food waste, my team and I interviewed users of different ages and lifestyles to gain perspective and accommodate for multiple shared or unique needs.

Insights gained:

  • People are unaware of what they do or don’t have

  • Leftovers are a confusing topic with regard to how long to keep them

  • An application that reminds them via notifications would be very helpful

  • Maybe customizing reminders to alert before or during shopping

  • Beginning idea: Physical reminder

The Solution

My Role

Designer and Project Manager

Team

  • Brandon Maier

  • Grace Pimentel

  • Figma (Designed and developed prototype)

Software Used

Wireframes / Figma Prototype

My team and I began by designing a few initial screens to conceptualize and organize the potential needs of our users. We then conducted research to understand what users would find most helpful. For example, several interviewees suggested that being able to input items while shopping would be beneficial, particularly for users with poor eyesight or products with hard-to-read labels.

After entering their items, users can track produce expiration dates and add them to their "My Foods" page.

During our investigation into the causes of food waste, we discovered that leftovers play a significant role. Many users are unaware of the meals they can make with the ingredients they already have. To address this, our application suggests recipes based on the user's available produce.

To view the wire flow of this project visit: FigmaFreshSet

Personas

My team and I each developed a persona representing the needs and lifestyles of users across three different demographics. Each persona was informed by interview data, providing detailed insights into:

  • Who: Including age, gender, education, experience, skills, occupation, ethnicity, and language.

  • Context: When, where, and how they interact with the product or service.

  • Goals and Needs: What they aim to achieve, their roles, purpose, and expectations.

  • Motivation: Their attitude and response to pressure or challenges.

  • Robustness: Whether they are more timid or assertive, and how they handle errors—whether they're error-averse or more tolerant of mistakes.

Developing

Home Page: At the top of the screen, the user's produce is visually categorized by color to indicate freshness: items that are expired, nearing expiration, or still fresh.

Just below is the "Soon to Expire" section, which highlights items approaching their expiration date. In the full version of the app, users will have the ability to customize which items are prioritized and set personalized reminders based on the number of days before expiration.

Users can access the "Categories" tab from the bottom navigation bar to view their produce organized by food type or add their own custom categories.

Add Food: A green plus button in the bottom-right corner allows users to manually input or scan new food items. Here, users must enter the expiration date, the number of days before expiration they'd like to be reminded, and any additional details about the food.

My Foods: Once food is added, users are directed to a page that lists all their produce in order of expiration. This page can be filtered or searched to help users quickly locate specific items.

When an item is selected, users can view and edit its details. Additionally, beneath the item's information, there is a list of foods the user already has that commonly pair together in recipes. The recipe section suggests various meal options that incorporate the selected item.

Recipe: This page showcases recipes along with their preparation time and associated food categories. Users can filter the recipes based on available ingredients or by meal type for a more personalized experience.