Greenguard

Today was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong. On her way back home, she believed that she had all the necessary ingredients to cook a delicious meal.

However, when she arrived, she saw that the eggs had expired, the green onions had completely wilted, and there was no garlic to be found. Feeling frustrated and disappointed, she ended up throwing away the expired groceries and settling for a sandwich instead.

THE PROBLEM

Kayla is not alone: Canadians are accountable for wasting 2.3 million tonnes of food every year, which ends up costing an average household over $1,300 annually.

This not only results in a waste of resources used to grow, produce, and distribute food but also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

Being an adult comes with responsibilities, such as planning meals, buying groceries and storing food properly. It can be difficult to keep everything organized in the kitchen, which can lead to food being wasted. Additionally, the increasing cost of groceries adds pressure to be efficient and avoid waste.

RESEARCH

Understanding the problem

Method: Secondary Research

To gain a better understanding of food waste in Canada, I conducted research to identify the major contributors to food waste, the amount of avoidable waste, the primary types of waste, and the user group to target.

Findings

Households are the primary contributors to food waste.

Participants aged 18-34 are more likely to report food waste.

Proper planning, storage, and timely usage can reduce avoidable food waste, especially of fruits and vegetables.

Identifying the opportunity

Method: Interviews, affinity mapping, persona, competitor analysis

The number of users between the age group of 18-34 is higher. Within this group, I have identified three major user groups: college students living away from home, young professionals staying away from home, and young parents.

I interviewed young professionals, starting as a young professional is exciting but it brings challenges like managing finances, maintaining a work-life balance, and finding a living situation to name a few.

I conducted interviews with four participants to gain insights into how they manage their groceries and plan meals.

Interview questions

How do you plan your meals?
How do you plan your groceries?
How do you keep track of the food at home?
How often do you find yourself throwing food out and why?
Do you use any apps currently that help you keep track of food at home?

I categorized the interview notes to identify commonalities and prioritize user needs.

Findings

Young professionals have busy schedules and often don't have the time to focus on reducing food waste.

Meals highly depend on their moods, time, plans and ingredients available in the kitchen.

When it comes to groceries, they try to save money but do not consider the implications of wasting food.

They tend to plan grocery shopping by making a mental note of items needed or sending a text message to themselves.

They want easy and efficient ways to keep groceries fresh longer.

Want automatic reminders for expiring food and recipe suggestions based on kitchen inventory without manual input.

PERSONA

The insights from the affinity mapping helped me create the persona of Kayla. Kayla reperents one of the target user groups for Greenguard.

This further helped me understand and prioritize the needs of the user group, ensuring the product meets their expectations.

Insights into concept

With a clear understanding of Kayla's needs, it was time to think of possible solutions that could improve her relationship with groceries and food.

How can we make sure Kayla follows through with her meal plans?

Create a meal planning system that suggests recipes to save time and energy. Include grocery deals to keep users accountable and consistent.

HMW assists young professionals in planning, tracking, and storing their groceries for prolonged freshness. (Selected)

Create an easy-to-maintain inventory management system that reminds users before food expiration, suggests storage methods, and provides easy recipes to help them consume their items.

HMW assist young adults in finding affordable groceries, tracking their savings, and learning about deals.

Create an affordable grocery planning system that helps users find the best deals.

After considering the various alternatives, I concluded that option 2 would be the most suitable for Kayla. She has a hectic schedule, and managing her kitchen efficiently while saving time is preferable. Therefore, I sought to develop a solution that could help her plan and execute her kitchen tasks seamlessly, in a way that simplifies her life rather than complicate it.

Scoping the market

Before diving into the design of the product I researched existing apps in the market that are trying to solve similar problems: assist users in managing their inventory, planning their shopping lists, suggesting recipes and tracking their consumption habits.

However, none of these apps guide users on how to store their groceries properly to ensure that they remain fresh for a longer duration.

How would Greenguard compare?

Like its competitors, Greenguard is an app that assists you in managing your inventory, planning your grocery lists, and suggesting recipes based on the items in your inventory.

However, it also provides suggestions on how to properly store your food items to keep them fresh for longer periods. This is especially beneficial for young professionals who have limited time to manage their groceries. The effective storage suggestions can help them save time and money by keeping their food fresh for longer periods.

DESIGN

Solving the problem at hand

Method: User flow, wireframes, testing

To represent my vision I created a user flow to illustrate the steps users take in the app.

Wireframes

It was easier to envision the screen flow, interactions, and experience with a clear vision of the screens' order:

Testing the flow

Once I had the screens and colors injected I wanted to test it out. The focus at this stage was to check how users can access their inventory, create shopping lists and easily move them to inventory and view details of items and ways to store them.

I tested with 3 participants to see how they navigate the app to check if:

Navigation is clear and intuitive
Information is relevant and clear
Overall user experience

What worked 👍🏼

Liked the home screen displaying kitchen storages and favourites.

Appreciated the detailed freshness and expiry date information and found storage details helpful

Overall easy to follow and complete the tasks

To work on 👎🏼

Options to move between different storages in the kitchen inventory

The swipe functionality to access actions for each item in inventory was not obvious

Selecting items to move to inventory from the shopping list is unclear

The storage instructions scroll is overwhelming leading to information overload

Storage Information

I added a dropdown menu for storage selection, enabling users to view items within each storage without returning to the homepage to select a different storage.

Item Actions

I added a kebab menu with extra options like ‘consumed', 'move', 'add to list', 'thrown' and 'delete'. The main actions 'consumed' and 'thrown' are still accessible with a swipe.

Select Button

I added a 'select' button to guide the user to select the items and perform two actions: 'add to inventory' or ‘delete' the items.

Storage horizontal scroll

Firstly, I changed the storage information layout from a vertical scroll to a horizontal scroll. This makes the information appear in smaller chunks, which makes it easier to read and understand.

Secondly, I added a ‘time taken' to the steps involved. This helps to nudge the user that it won't take much time to complete the steps but the small effort will keep the produce fresh for a longer time.

The final screens

Like its competitors, Greenguard is an app that assists you in managing your inventory, planning your grocery lists, and suggesting recipes based on the items in your inventory.