Youtilize
An app that generates recipes using leftover ingredients in order to reduce food waste for eco-conscious cooks. Helping millennials become more aware of their food wastage habits.
How might we help individuals reduce their food waste using digital technology?
Role
UX Researcher | UI Designer
Timeline
5 Days
Tools
Figma | Photoshop
Project
Design Sprint in Team of 5
Goal
Reduce the amount of food thrown away and forgotten thus spoiling before being consumed or used. Aid millennials(18-34) in minimizing their own food waste, educate them, and encourage accountability.
Design Sprint Process
The design sprint uses design thinking to solve complex problems in a short period of time through team creation, rapid prototyping and qualitative testing with targeted users.
Day 1
Mapping
Make a map and choose a target
Day 2
Sketch
Competing solutions
Day 3
Decide
Choose the best option
Day 4
Prototype
Build a realistic prototype
Day 5
Test
Test with target customers
Day 1
Mapping
Understanding the Problem Space
Due to the complexity and global social and economic factors that affect food waste. We conducted secondary research on the current and past context of this issue, the current solutions, and the key market players affected by this problem space.
Developed Countries
- Larger quantities of food than needed are produced.
- There is a higher consumer standard of the appearance of food such as size, shape, and colour.
- The cost of discarding products can be cheaper than using or reusing food.
- Grocery stores carry large quantities of food to meet expectations therefore many products reach their sell-by date.
- With the abundance of food there is a general attitude that people can afford to waste food.
Developing Countries
- Crops are harvested too early before they are acceptable for consumption.
- There is a lack of infrastructure to properly store food.
- There are not enough processing facilities to preserve fresh produce.
- There are insufficient market facilities that provide acceptable storage and retail conditions.
Developed Countries
670
Tonnes of Food Wasted
Developing Countries
630
Tonnes of Food Wasted
Secondary Research
Defining the target demographic
Developed countries and developing countries have different reasons and context for their food waste. We first narrowed our problem space to food waste in developed countries by considering who was accessible to us and the experience we can draw from.
Current solutions already addressed food waste produced from businesses and grocery. Food thrown out from consumer standards were addressed with Naturally Imperfect and apps exist to minimize food waste from restaurants.
Households
Account for 43% of the food waste in America.
Target Demographic
Age 18-34 waste proportionately more food than other age groups.
Naturally Imperfect
Conventionally unattractive produce for less
Flash Food (App)
Discounted food near best before dates
Too good to go (App)
Purchase surplus food from restaurants and groceries for less
Starting at the End
Establishing the goal
Based on our research we generated several goals including:
- tracking food purchases better waste disposal & reusability
- minimize the environmental impact of food waste
- better storage & use of extra food production
- reduce reliance on mass-produced produce (home farming & gardening)
Assumptions
Things to consider.
- Consumers care and want to prevent food waste in their lives
- Users have the resources to improve their food habits
- Consumers will have access to phones in order to make decisions linked to their food habits
- Users are purchasing their own food
Chosen Goal
Aid millennials (18-34) in minimizing their own food waste, educate them, and encourage accountability.
Learning Millennial habits
Extra ingredients & forgotten food
We each interviewed a millennial living in different household numbers and gathered information focusing on their behaviour in purchasing, storing, using, and disposing of their food. Identifying their main cause of food waste will direct us to the main function of our solution. Mostly produce gets thrown out because they get spoiled before it can be consumed along with old leftovers.
Chosen HMW
How might we help millennials remember to utilize all the food that they have purchased and/or prepared in order to reduce household food waste.
Day 2
Sketching
Before we sketched out possible solutions, we gathered inspiration from existing apps - highlighting components and features we liked.
Day 3
Decide
The team voted on our favourite ideas and critiqued what works and what can be improved. From the sketching phase, we decided on our favourite idea, features, and components.
Chosen Idea
A simple, easy-to-use, recipe builder for left-over produce.
Many existing apps in our search allowed users to track and record grocery items. To tackle a new market we explored ways that addressed our user's motivation to find new recipes to try. Cooking can be a motivator for users to not only be reminded of expiring items but to utilize them before they go bad. The most common items that were thrown away were fruits and vegetables. We can reduce food waste as well as generate interest for cooks looking to explore new recipes by allowing users to search for recipes using specific ingredients.
Features
- Barcode/ manually adding food
- Input ingredients to generate menu ideas
- Tips & info on effects of food waste
- Notification when food is going bad
What we liked
- Tiles for categories (veggies, meats, etc)
- Add ingredient button at the bottom
- Recipe display with image
- Filter system for specific diet restrictions
User flow
Day 4
Prototype
Many existing apps already allowed users to track their purchased food and record expiry dates. Other recipe generators focused on cooking rather than food waste. We created a point system to gamify and motivate users to use the app.
Adding Ingredients
Autofill can help users input ingredients quickly. The prototype displays how users can add, and delete ingredients to search for the right recipes they are looking for. The basket in the top right indicates the number of ingredients in the basket to quickly help users get a glance at the number of leftover ingredients they are saving. A clear all allow users to efficiently delete ingredients rather than delete them one at a time.
Recipe Results
The recipe book indicates when the user is searching for recipes. The added ingredients are displayed as pills. Results show recipes that use all the ingredients added as well as partial ingredients to showcase variety and flexibility for the users to browse more options. Food waste info and tips are incorporated between the recipe results to educate and bring awareness.
Day 5
Test
Many existing apps already allowed users to track their purchased food and record expiry dates. Other recipe generators focused on cooking rather than food waste. We created a point system to gamify and motivate users to use the app.
What did we find?
User Testing
Onboarding Buttons
We directed users to walk through our flow but initially, they were confused by the onboarding button options. The buttons appeared to have the same weight giving the appearance that they are equally important. We adjusted the wording and the style to focus on adding the ingredients as the initial step when using this app.
WCAG’s Standards
To further consider the usability for everyone, we checked each screen and adjusted the colours, size and contrast to meet WCAG's AA standard.
Next Steps
Key Learnings
Always coming up with new ideas.
Through this design sprint, I learned how to quickly make design decisions. It can be easy to get caught up in the research and details but it doesn't mean we can stop iterating. The point system was last-minute incorporation but I think it made our app stand out and made it engaging for the user experience. A family and friends feature can be built out to further enhance the friendly competition bringing positive fun to a sad topic.