Bazaar
Design competition
A case study that I’ve compiled as part of a design challenge by Devils Invent, at the Arizona State University.
CONCEPT
A platform that connects neighbors with one another so surplus food can be shared, sold, or purchased within the community and not discarded.
Ideation, Market Research, Market Interview, Wireframing, Prototyping.
MY ROLE
TEAM
Poojita (Designer)
Gopi, Hari, Joslene, Vipanshi, Parth (Software Engineers)
DURATION
2 days
TOOLS USED
Notion
AWARD
3rd prize. Devils Invent.E+I. (entrepreneurship plus innovation) ASU.
HOW IT BEGAN
-
As a team of various backgrounds and expertise, we started off by bringing different problem statements to the table.
-
These ideas were pitched and voted on.
-
With my idea receiving the highest votes was chosen. Which was- Solving the wastage of unused grocery products within a household.
PROBLEM
Researchers noticed that higher-income households with healthier diets wasted more food than lower-income families. Since healthier diets tend to include more fruits, vegetables, and other perishable items, some of the waste can be explained by food spoiling before the household had a chance to eat it.
31.9%
of the food
1866$
Average household waste in U.S.A
$240
billion
Estimated total annual wastage in U.S.A
Within the same community
Excess food is thrown away because it expires.
home 1
Deficit of groceries at home.
home 2
" have you ever needed one more egg or tomato or onion while cooking and you didn't have it ?"
Something to quickly think about
WHATS OUT THERE
These are the 3 main competitor products.
OLIO
Shareyourmeal
Goal: Eliminate food waste by sharing for free.
Goal: Connect home cooks with local people through home-cooked meals
Goal: Connect home cooks with local people through home-cooked meals and events
Meal Sharing
RESEARCH
Our next step was to identify needs and discover challenges. For which we prepared an online and paper questionnaire.
We interviewed a total of 47 people of which were students, professors, and university staff. This was on day 2 of the 3-day challenge. We quickly prepared the list of questions and assigned specific user groups to each team member and interviewed them on campus. These are 4 questions that were used for the interview.
1. Where do u live?
2. How often do you buy groceries?
3. Are you willing to share your ingredients with the community around you?
4. Are you willing to receive ingredients from the community around you?
ANALYZE
1. Where do u live?
3. Are you willing to share your ingredients with the community around you?
2. How often do you buy groceries?
4. Are you willing to receive ingredients from the community around you?
93.6 %
Are willing to share the grocery ingredients among the community
80.9 %
Are willing to receive the grocery ingredients among the community
"But what is stopping the rest ?"
From the Interview Insights, the main pain points observed were -
Trust
Convenience
" How might we generate trust and convenience for users using technology which helps them connect to neighbors to make just-in-time cooking convenient and efficient?"
IDEATION
The needed features, actions, and pieces of information were already pretty clear after the phases above, so we could jump straight into a quick sketch to map out the user flow.
Step 1- upload items,
step 2- buy or sell items that are needed for a recipe or discard which are extra.
step 3- make money or spend money
step 4- make food.
DESIGN
Introducing
A platform that connects neighbors with each other so surplus food can be shared, sold, or bought within the community and not thrown away.
But, first meet Max
Maxton Harvey, 25 yrs
Goals & Challenges
-
Store-bought groceries are spoilt and wasted. Cooks very rarely, hence buy very limited.
-
Feel terrible disposing of expired unused perishable items.
Age : 25
Lives : Arizona, urban location
Occupation : Student, Master's degree
" How do I quickly acquire groceries while I am cooking for myself after school. All the ingredients I usually need are either spoilt or unavailable"
Log-in page
"As a new user, Max is given a brief introduction about the problem and solution this platform is providing."
Purpose
"Surplus food can be shared and not thrown away."
Problem
Trust
What stops people from taking excess produce from others?
Sign In/ Log in
All the tabs are collapsable at first
Convenience
How do you match ingredients, time, and taste to make food sharing possible?
How do we use technology to make just-in-time cooking convenient and efficient?
Solution
To generate Trust:
Uses technology to- (1) verify food quality (2) match you with the right seller
To Generate Convenience:
Shows your recipes with your ingredients, and lets you buy missing ingredients
Food Wastage Platform that lets you buy ingredients in your neighborhood just-in-time
Home page
These are the 4 main features of the platform :
1. Your Ingredients
Just add the list of groceries you have.
2. Sell Ingredients
Post extra unused which are yet to be expired items
2. Buy Ingredients
Post extra unused which are yet to be expired items
2. Recipies
Post extra unused which are yet to be expired items
LET'S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT EACH FEATURE BELOW-
Main Feature
1. Your Ingredients
1. Your Ingredients
Just add the list of groceries you have.
"The biggest problem max is having is tracking his ingredients. If, they are still fresh."
What to do ?
Max, enters the list of items he has as soon he buys them.
Here, Max gets a quick idea of-
what items he has. If they are still fresh, what recipes can he make, quickly buy any missing ingredients and sell the remaining which he wouldn’t be using.
This technology is similar to how tinder works
Swipe left or right to say yes or no to ingredients you have.
Main Feature
2. Buy Ingredients
Max can now view the
availability of ingredients based on the location and price.
* Algorithms verify the quality of the ingredients based on the pictures when being uploaded by the seller *
There are suggestions of recipes based on the ingredients available in the pantry.
Based on the demand and quality,
Max gets to decide the price.
Through this, you can see if there is any alert or posting about the need of ingredients.
Based on the ingredients saved, our AI shows what items are missing in the pantry.
Main Feature
3. Sell Ingredients
Max can also donate if he chooses not to sell the items.
Main Feature
Recipies
IMPACT
"Convenience:
Less time and money spent traveling to the grocery store."
"Reducing Food Waste:
Distribute food to people instead of trash cans."
"Social:
Connect with people through food."
"Self - Employment:
Stockpilers."
