Role: UI Designer
Timeline: February 2023 to August 2023
Quick Start
I set out to design a user-friendly solution for accurate and easy-to-manage food inventory, aimed at helping users generate recipes and reduce individual food waste.
The Challenge
How can we reduce overall food waste?
The Process
After I conducting user video interviews, I noticed a common theme: food goes bad. When people buy food items and store them in hard to see places like at the back of the fridge or on a high shelf, they can forget that they have something. Time passes and then rotten produce or expired sauces are eventually found. I wanted to create a user-friendly solution that addressed this issue by actively reminding users to consume items before they go to waste, and providing suggestions on how to utilize them effectively through recipes.
When users open the application, they look to do the following tasks below (in order of importance):
- Browse recipes
- Look at inventory
- Restock on kitchen essentials
- Expiration dates on food
I came up with the following design based on what users needed from the application.
The Solution
The final design that I came up with emphasized the users seeing recipes upon opening the application. The recipes are labeled as “ready to make” because the application suggests dishes that can be prepared using ingredients you already have on hand, particularly those items that need to be used promptly
In addition, I later realized through user insights and research, that expiration dates should also be emphasized, especially if the item only had a couple of days left on its shelf life. I utilized a color scheme for ingredients’ shelf life, red indicating items for immediate use, yellow for items to be used soon, and green for those with a longer shelf life.
