Foodwise

The Educational App

Educational App

Educational App

The Overview

Foodwise is a non-profit organization focused on spreading education in varies subjects from food waste to cooking. The focus for this project was figuring out and creating a way to educate the public more easily on different subjects.

The Problem

Foodwise is looking to make education about eco-friendly habits more accessible to the general public.

The Solution

An application that combines gamification and education to help the user adopt Foodwise into their daily routine.

Tools

  • Figma

  • Procreate

  • Pen & Paper

Team

  • 3 UX Designers

  • Role: Information Architect

Duration

  • 3 week design sprint

Constraints

  • iOS

Research

Research

Let’s Compare

To being the research process, my team and I compiled a C&C analysis to compare the features of various non-profit food banks and “self help” apps to see what the industry standard is.

Foodwise was lacking under tracking and reward systems. Later, when interviews were conducted, this was a huge motivator for individuals to download and use an app regularly.

Students who were educated with challenge-based gamification raised their performance by up to 89.45% (ScienceDirect, 2020)

Understanding The Answers

  • Interest

    To start the survey and understand the mind of the general public, asking about their desire in learning and combating foodwaste was a must. From this question, we discovered that there is an immense amount of interest in combating hunger and food waste.

  • Waste

    After seeing the initial interest of the surveyed users, gaging their food waste habits was key to understanding how to target the problem. Overwhelmingly, 50% want to do something with their soon-to-expire foods but aren’t sure how.

  • Incentives

    Within the survey, it was asked what motivates a person to do something. Incentives were at the top. To understand what the people would want while staying within the theme of food, we asked about coupons. Much to our surprise, coupons were rarely to never used. Therefore, this subject was asked as a follow up question in the interviews.

  • Go-to Apps

    This was a very important question that was relied on heavily to figure out the concept and layout we wanted for the app. Because of these results, we knew to focus on tracking and notifications.

What did the people have to say?

“Don’t want that many notifications. I just want a reminder every three days when I take the bins out to remind me what I have in the fridge and expiration dates. For example, “Hey check your fridge to see foods you need to use up before it goes bad”

“Being able to see where you started to see how far you’ve gone is satisfying.”

“I would love to look back on how much I saved and feel proud to continue to see the impact.”

Let’s Sort It Out

Now came the part to sort 72 cards in a small set of categories. After running the card sort multiple times within the team, six distinct patterns were revealed

  1. I don’t know what to do with my produce waste

  2. I don’t know where to start with recycling

  3. I hate being attacked with lots of notifications

  4. When I’m choosing apps, there’s certain things I look for

  5. I need something that will keep my motivation up

  6. I have certain habits when it comes to being eco-friendly

Get To Know Our User: Caroline

“Maintaining your garden” User Flow

This flow represents Caroline maintaining her garden by either going straight to watering it, or completing a course to receive another plant.

Design

Design

Sketches

Now came the fun part which is my main focus for the project. Starting from the Login page, the first iteration of the user flow was sketched out. Following left to right, Caroline logs in, selects her plot of land, chooses her course accordingly and answers all the questions. When it is time to water, she answers a review question which prompts a “help” page if she is unable to answer. When the question is answered correctly, the plant is watered.

Wireframes

Following a similar flow to the sketches, Caroline goes and waters her plants with a review question. In the wire frames, I added a “Farmer’s Market Check-In” feature that allows Caroline to gain an extra watering can if she checks in at her local market using her location services.

  • New List Item

  • New List Item

  • New List Item

HiFi Feedback Changes

Due to the extra time, my team and I had during this project, we decided to move forward and create a High fidelity version of the app. This allowed for time to conduct user testing with colors, design, and overall flow. From this, the following feedback was received and implemented into the final prototype for this project.

Watering Can

After receiving feedback about the original watering can color, we decided to make the contrast more intense and vibrant so that it is easier to see for the user.

Completion

Darkening the percentage color makes it more obvious to the user which lessons still need to be done.

Buttons

Relocating the Garden button helps the home page appear less cluttered and brings focus towards the courses. After user testing, individuals stated they were expecting the home button to be centered. This led to switching the info button and home button.

The Prototype

After receiving some user feedback, we implemented:

  • Changed colors to specific buttons to cater to those with vision difficulties.

  • Added a click out option for the review question to enable the user to leave the page when desired.

  • Bolder percentages on the lessons page so it stands out compared to the rest of the text.

Information

Add a section for the user to store their notes and favorite tips

Future Plans

Rewards

Create more partnerships to be able to offer more prizes

Create

Adding more features such as a scaled tracker