— CONTEXT
Master's program project
in the "Design Sprint" course
— ROLE
Product Owner
— DURATION
1 month (2023)
— TOOLS & SKILLS
Figma
Miro
UX/UI Design
Every day in Sweden, enormous amounts of food are thrown away and people also buy out-of-season food that's bad for the planet. How can we solve this problem?
My group and I developed a mobile application prototype called Re-FRIDGE. The app is designed to connect to sensors attached to the user's refrigerator which scans its contents and their freshness level. By keeping track of these factors, we aim to reduce food waste and encourage people to adopt more sustainable eating and grocery shopping habits.
So, what do we know?
The Client
• Wants to help solve the problem of unsustainable food habits.
• Wants a mobile app solution that provides recipes using what people already have at home and help people shop food online sustainability.
• Wants a brand name suggestion and an idea on how to make this app profitable.
The Target Group
• Waste minimizers🌿
• Money savers 💰
• Planet savers 🌎
The Brand Style
• Fun, Simple, Vibrant ✨
• Inclusive 💯
However, they absolutely hate gamification ❌
As a Product Owner, I led my team in tackling the broad issues of food waste and unsustainable food habits by narrowing down our focus using the W4 brainstorming method. This helped us identify:
• "Who has the problem?",
• "What is the nature of the problem?",
• "Why is the problem worth solving?", and
• "Where does this problem happen?"
Here’s what we decided to tackle for this project:
Who?
People who cook at home and does grocery shopping in physical stores or online
What?
- Enormous amount of food waste and shopping out of season food creates unsustainable food habits
Why?
- Avoid or at least minimize food waste and excess spendings
Where?
All over the globe but specifically at home
Any ideas?
Now that we've mapped out our main focus, we had several brainstorming and sketching sessions focusing on the user flow and the app's screens and functions. We decided on implementing these main functions:
• Freshness Checker 🌱
The app will keep track of the current state of the food from a scale of fresh to rotten. This will help avoid throwing away food or ingredients that people forgot they had in their fridge.
• Recipe Recommendations ✨
The app will provide recipes based on the ingredients people have at home.
• Manual Ingredients List📋
For any items that may not usually be stored in the fridge, users can add them to the app manually.
• Theoretically, attachable sensors for the refrigerators will be sold separately and be the source of profit for the company.
Mid-Fidelity Prototypes
Creating mid-fidelity prototypes using Figma was an important step for testing the functionality and look-and-feel of our design solution while also leaving enough space for any refinements from the usability testing feedback.
During this phase, we encountered several design disagreements that split the team. However, since I had more experience as an interaction designer, I tried to create a neutral ground that listened to both sides, explained each perspective, and suggested to test these ideas instead during our user usability tests.
User Testing Feedback
These were the overarching themes from the users' feedback:
Constructive Feedback 📢
• “the app should be vibrant in colors”
• “use light green in the app and logo”
• “the line above the nav bar was confusing… kept thinking I should scroll”
• "black (indicator) makes sense but the green, yellow, red color combo are more commonly understood…"
Positive Feedback 👍
• “I could see myself using this app”
• “good nav(igation bar), simple to use”
• “I personally won’t use this app but I know people who need it"
• "I could recommend it to others”
Iterate…Iterate…Iterate…
We implemented more colors into the app but we still had disagreements on how to present the freshness checker and fridge page. So we created several design alternatives and performed an A/B Test to determine which option has the most impact on the users, as seen below.
The promotion video I created for our final presentation
App Demo
— KEY TAKEAWAYS
Looking back, I found that the most challenging part of the process was not creating the product solution itself, but rather managing the social aspects of working with a new team. There were times when disagreements around design led to tension and slowed our progress.
However, I quickly learned how to manage these disagreements and create a neutral ground for my team. By prioritizing the needs and wants of our users, we were able to compromise and move forward together.
I also learned how to develop and communicate a clear and compelling product vision that aligns with the organization's goals and values. While also understanding the importance of effective communication and collaboration in a design sprint.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow as a Product Owner, and I look forward to applying these lessons to my future projects!✨
Thanks for reading!
