04.

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FridgeBridge App

AWARD

The Best Impact Award
2022 Figma Hackathon ↗

TEAM

1 Product Manager
1 User Researcher
2 Product Designers

MY ROLE

Product Designer

THE PROBLEM

How might we connect individuals with excess food to those in need in order to reduce food waste and address food insecurity?

CONTEXT

This project was initiated at a hackathon event. In just 24 hours, we successfully developed the first version. And we continued improving the product in 2 months.

CONTRIBUTION

✅ End-to-end solutions to address the prompt problem within a tight 24-hour deadline.

✅ Worked effectively as a team to outline product features and flows, and effectively communicated product vision. Designed annotated wireframes, UI screens prototype and pitch slides.

✅ Ensured design excellence through twice iterations after the hackathon to enhance usability, aesthetics, and accessibility.

SKILLS PRACTICED

Won the "Most Impactful idea" award at the 2022 Figma Hackathon

PROCESS

Rapid comprehension of the problem through design thinking brainstorming (focusing on goals, constraints and user catalysts)
Read and analyzed desk research data provided by the researcher
Interviewed with potential users to gather insights

DESIGN HIGHLIGHT

USER FLOW EXAMPLE

Reserve a fridgebridge box and donate food

After studying the food donation guidelines, scan food items and fill out the food information form.

Pick an available box, confirm the donation reservation and access the "trips" tab to locate the address.

DESK RESEARCH

Our desk research uncovered a disconnect between those with an abundance of food and those with limited access to it

1 in 8 Americans experiences food insecurity while $200 billion is spent on food that goes to waste.

Approximately 40% of food in the U.S is wasted during production, processing, and transportation.

of the U.S. land,

of fresh water, and

of the energy budget is spent bringing food to our tables.

MARKET RESEARCH

Communal Fridge

🌟 Take what you need, leave what you can. A combination of grocery store donations and individuals.

✅ Contact-less and Anoymous.

❌ No food safety guardrail.

Food Pantry

🌟 Walk-up on selective days, curbside pick-up is available if needed

✅ Provides household items. Offer home delivery.

❌ Only open certain days. Might run into people you know

Too Good To Go app

🌟 Reserve surprise food bags from business, and pick up later.

✅ More food safety guardrails because of traceable business.

❌ People have to pick up from a narrow (usually only 30 mins) time window.

BRAINSTORMING

To clarify the target audience for our product, we defined two groups: donors and recipients.

Following voting and discussion, we arrived at an understanding of how to generate demand, potential limitations for users, and the factors that prompt them to seek something new.

Brainstorming Sticky Notes

Food Recipients

Goals

Saving money

Food Security

Constraints

Convenience and Quality

Catalysts

Increased living expenses

Food Donator

Goals

Reduce waste

Constraints

Convenience and Incentives

Catalysts

Increased rate of hunger

USER INTERVIEW

Given the limited 24-hour time frame, we were unable to create detailed user personas. However, our design thinking brainstorming allowed us to form a reasonable understanding of our users. We then proceeded to conduct user interviews.

The script of interview:

Current Habits

How do you currently dispose excess food?

Have you ever experienced food insecurity? If so, how did you deal with it?

Have you ever engaged in food donation efforts (donating or receiving)? Why or Why not?

Painpoints

What would prevent you from donating food?

What would prevent you from receiving free food from outside sources?

What concerns do you have for a system that allow one individual to donate excess food to another individual, for free?

Motivations

What would motivate you to donate your excess food?

What would motivate you to receive other’s excess food for free?

What are other considerations that would make you want to engage in this platform and stay engaged?

We interviewed 4 people and we got some key points:

01

Many individuals simply discard surplus food in the trash.

02

Individuals are influenced by the actions of others.

03

The factors that hinder individuals from donating or receiving food include: long distance, complicated procedures, health concerns, and a sense of responsibility.

04

The incentives for donating food include: ease of the process and obtaining benefits.

05

The incentive for receiving food is often seen as a last resort for survival.

The results of the user interviews confirmed some of our assumptions about the users' goals (e.g. desire to obtain benefits from donating food) and constraints (such as concerns about complicated processes, health, and responsibility).

This provided us with direct insight into the most important features for our users, allowing us to prioritize design tasks efficiently in the tight time constraints.

DESIGN GOALS

After conducting a thorough desk research, brainstorming session, and user interviews, we established design goals as our guiding North Star.

USER FLOWS

The donators' experience flows

DESIGN CHALLENGES

Upon completing the discovery phase, we gained a clearer understanding of the product. Two challenges identified for resolution through design are ensuring the safety of the food and facilitating its delivery.

Inspiration: Amazon Locker

We all agreed that setting up drop boxes near retailers and supermarkets would be a beneficial solution.

The drop boxes would serve as convenient hubs for both donors and recipients, and we could collaborate with retailers who are committed to food sustainability.

For Food Safety

All viable solutions

We considered various design options to ensure food safety on the platform. Ultimately, we decided on the following measures: adding expiration dates, implementing community guidelines, using AI scanning, and implementing a one-time code for opening the box

WIREFRAME

Choose a box

The food receiver makes a reservation

The Instruction

Take the food picture

The food donation confirmation

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

To provide users with flexibility and ease of navigation within the app, the researcher utilized card sorting to develop the information architecture.

Thanks to the efforts of the researcher, we discovered the following insights:

Participants tended to group together:

"My upcoming trips to mitigate food waste" with "Make changes to my already-planned trips",
"Guidelines for safe food donations" with "Direction on how community-based food transactions work".
"Reward points from past trips" and "Instructions on how to use the reward points" with "A list of where the reward points are accepted".

The majority of participants agreed on the use of the words "history", "reward", "donate", and "trips".

So we defined 3 parent hierarchies. There are "Home", "Trips" and "profile".

The structure of "trips"

The structure of "profile"

See the card sorting test: https://ows.io/os/if3u5187

USER INTERFACE DESIGN

The illustration aligns with the goal of promoting food donations

Food recipients can search to find food they need and prefer

This interactive map helps users locate the nearest FridgeBridge available

The rewards can be redeemed for coupons on the user's profile page.

The most critical information, the "Address," is prominently displayed at the top

3 stages of the donation: choosing a box, dropping the food and completing the donation

ITERATION

After the user testing, the following issues were identified:

" The steps for the donator are crowded in one screen." 😫

"I was not informed that the food must be dropped off within an hour until the confirmation step, and I did not expect this." 😕

To address these problems, I made improvements to the onboarding screens.

After

Before

Compared to having all instructions on one screen, separating the steps into multiple screens helps the reader understand and process each step more easily, allowing them to focus on one step at a time.

BUSINESS IMPACT

Monthly Subscription:

Fixed monthly cost
We will install FridgeBridge at your location
No maintenance required from partner
Cancel anytime

What’s in it for the partners:

Additional marketing avenue
More footfall in stores
Increased sales
Measurable impact created
Direct contributions to reducing food waste

One-time Purchase:

Receive whitelabeled FridgeBridge at your location
We will install FridgeBridge at your location
Basic support provided
API to add to your mobile app

Costs to FridgeBridge:

Product development
App development
Manufacturing
Shipping
Maintenance

WHAT I LEARNED

Design for all user groups

If I had more time...

Effective Asynchronous Communication

It is important to balance the needs and experiences of both businesses and users, while also taking into consideration the differences between user groups.

If I had more time, I would design additional features to increase flexibility. One of the challenges I would consider is finding alternative ways to request that food be dropped off and picked up within 1 hour timeframe.

I collaborated with a researcher in an asynchronous manner during the iteration process and found myself being efficient communication even when meetings couldn't be scheduled at the same time.

Interested in viewing more projects?

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