Farm2U

Mobile application for meal box subscription using locally sourced ingredients

We know climate change is bad, with a capital B.

We also know and approve of the trope of 'each individual effort counts', buy local and fresh, take your cloth bags for groceries, reuse, reduce, recycle... YET more often than we'd like to admit, why do we end up NOT making those sustainable* choices?

The project focuses on the problem space surrounding Climate Change, and more specifically, making sustainable* consumer choices in purchasing food items.

*for the purpose of this project, sustainability means a focus on local goods and services, shorter supply chains, and limiting food and plastic waste

JUMP TO PROTOTYPE

Role

UX Designer

Duration

5 Weeks

Team

5 HCI students

Tools

Figma, Miro, Storyboardthat

The Problem

Local choices are not easily accessible

E.g.: Farmer’s markets are only on certain days, times, and seasons, so sourcing a week's worth of local ingredients would likely mean visiting multiple locations

Supply chain information is often unclear, inaccessible, and sometimes misleading

Finding information on a company’s business practices and where the items originate can be difficult to find or is convoluted.

Unsustainable consumer choices are often far more convenient

This might include items individually wrapped in plastic or shipped from long distances

People face difficulty in effectively planning consumption of purchased goods

Food may go to waste because it is not consumed prior to expiration

The Process

The design process included talking to users about their consumption patterns and in turn ideating for a solution that fit into their needs for a sustainable solution. It was tricky to do so since it involved analyzing which areas of their consumer needs to design for, and then determining the right kind of solution for it.

Empathize

Conducted secondary review, interviews and observations

Define

Interview codes into affinity map and Empathy maps, Defining personas

Ideate

Brainstorming ideas, developing Storyboards

Prototype

Low-fidelity and high fidelity prototypes created

Test

High fidelity prototype tested with users and evaluated using heuristics

Key Findings

User research indicated that major consumption tended towards food and clothing, out of which food and groceries was the more prominent one, and around which the design solution is centered.

01

"I don't know how"

Users want to engage in sustainable buying and consumption behaviors, but don’t know how

03

"I want to shop local"

Customers want access to information about localized consumer choices and visibility into supply chain information

02

"There is no transparency"

Customers are willing to pay more for companies that have a supply chain transparency

04

"Does it make a difference?"

Customers are unable to see the impact of their actions

The Solution

The design solution for the problem space is Farm2U, a mobile application for meal box curation using locally sourced ingredients.

Helps make local produce visible and more accessible

Provides transparent supply chain information by showing where produce is sourced from

Using reusable boxes and packaging, provides the exact amount of ingredients needed

Key User Flows

User Onboarding

The user logs into the Farm2U App and can specify their dietary preferences and restrictions and their current location. Users can also see nearby farms by clicking on the farm icons on the map.