User Research
UX Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Interface Design
Icon Design
3D Modeling

Context

Solo personal portfolio project

Duration

August - October 2020 (3 months)

Tools

Figma
Adobe illustrator
Arduino
Fusion 360
Ultimaker Cura

Material

PLA plastic
Circuits
Neon pixel led
Arduino
Blue tooth module

PROBLEM

Young adults struggles to find ways to reduce food waste

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Composting, donating to a food bank, etc., despite the various available methods in managing food waste.

My research suggests that young adults today still struggle with reducing food waste.

Contrary to what we previously believed, My research shows that less than 4% of wasted food went into composting. Instead, most of those spoiled foods are directly sent to disposal.

Here rises the question

How might we help young adults reduce food waste?

SOLUTION

I propose a grocery management experience that combines an interactive device and a mobile app to help young adults reduce food waste from the source. Below are the major functions proposed based on research results to help young adults effortlessly manage their groceries.

• Shopping suggestions

• Freshness indication for grocery items

• Scan to import the grocery receipts to keep track of consumption and purchasing

• Along with An interaction device that indicates foods freshness through color change to remind users of potential food spoilage

Manage Your Pantry

Track freshness and expiration date of groceries stored at your home with a detailed information page listing food preservation tips that prolong the shelf-life along with recipes that helps to consume food at a faster rate.

Scan

Scan your grocery shopping receipts to quickly add all your items to homepage for freshness tracking.

Further, with COVID-19, online grocery shopping gained popularity, thus synchronizing online shopping receipts to the homepage if you prefer shopping online.

Shopping Suggestions

Over-purchasing and misunderstanding portion size are the primary reasons for food waste.

Thus, we offer shopping suggestions based on what remains in users' fridges to prevent food waste.

Re·Leaf Interactive Device

Re·Leaf interacts with the user via Bluetooth module to display a range of color changes corresponding to food freshness information stored in ReEcho APP.

For example, when some food item is about to spoil within days, ReLeaf with glow red indicates to users that something is about to spoil in their fridge.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

In this project, the goal was to understand why conventional means of managing food waste failed and to provide solutions that fit the living style of young adults.

Therefore, questionnaires, secondary research, semi-structured interview, and usability testing were deployed to understand users’ needs and wants to provide novel solutions to help young adults cut food waste.

CONCEPT REFINEMENT

With a better understanding of users’ understanding and needs, I move forward with the grocery management idea.

Preventing food waste from generating is proven to be crucial since the vast majority of people practically just throw food away after it spoils.

DESIGN & ITERATION

In the design stage, I initiated from research results and conducted 3 rounds of tests and iterations.

ALIGN USER INSIGHTS WITH USER ACTIONS

Information Architecture

Iteration

Based on user tests

• Based on suggestions collected from the first round of user testing, users reported that the initial color choice is too "corporative-like," which results in a misfit for the target audience.

• Thus, I switch the color to a more vibrant combination of orange and light azure blue.

THE FINAL DESIGN