PlentiFresh App
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Project length: 4 weeks
In this case study, I focused on designing a mobile app that aimed to provide relief to vulnerable communities impacted by food insecurity by offering fresh produce delivery services.
Our Challenge
Food insecurity and its associated challenges, such as the prevalence of food deserts, pose significant threats to the well-being of millions of households in the United States, disproportionately affecting urban Latino and African American communities. Food deserts, urban areas lacking affordable, quality groceries within convenient distance, force vulnerable communities to rely on less healthy and more expensive food options. Beyond dietary deficiencies, food insecurity contributes to anxiety, worsening both mental and physical health.
💡
How might we improve access to fresh produce and groceries for certain ethnic, racial, and low-income populations?
Our Solution
PlentiFresh is a mobile app that provides free grocery delivery services and nutritional information to low-income individuals who have difficulty accessing affordable grocery markets.
UX Roles
UX Researcher
Information Architecture
UX Designer
Tools
Adobe XD
USER RESEARCH
Target Audience
require additional support through government-funded programs
may already face adverse health effects and struggle to meet their daily nutritional needs
may have difficulty finding resources to improve their nutrition due to technological limitations
may rely on public transportation services but face longer travel times to reach affordable grocery stores and markets
To ensure my design choices met the needs of my intended populations, I adopted a human-centered design approach. I built user profiles outlining their social and economic challenges and identified common characteristics.
✅
I concluded that my app would seek to lessen the burden of finding healthy and fresh food options by providing accessible nutritional resources and free delivery services for users.
User Personas
User Persona for a primary user who seeks to receive assistance through grocery delivery services.
In order for the delivery service to function, there must be a secondary user involved that provides this service. The vision for this app was to provide free services, which implies that those making the deliveries would not be compensated and would be operating on a volunteer-basis.
SWOT Analysis
Insights 💡
My primary users value a reliable and consistent service that allows them to meet a basic need — food security.
Given transportation, financial, and technological constraints, my product must prioritize simplicity and clarity while delivering essential information. External factors like delivery delays, fees, and technological issues need to be mitigated by the convenience offered by the service.
Volunteers that provide the delivery service have fewer technological limitations and will be able to communicate with primary users to bridge technological gaps.
These volunteers operate similarly to those employed by other delivery apps and mobile-ordering services. They utilize the app to coordinate with the users they assist and can volunteer according to their own schedules, highlighting convenience.
Working with established organizations that are currently working towards improving food security will provide increased access to resources and volunteers.
I believe teaming up with nonprofits working on food insecurity in minority or low-income communities will help me better understand user needs. This is crucial since volunteer availability is key to the product's success.
IDEATION
Potential Features
associated list of affordable, fresh, and nutritious grocery items as recommended by health professionals
providing an clear and comprehensible overview of nutritional information that communicates the dietary needs met by certain foods
onboarding process to differentiate the app experience as it will tailor to either volunteers or individuals in need
User Flows
I utilized user flows to map out the thought process of users ask they completed 3 tasks within the app: logging into the app as an existing user, signing up for the app as a new user, ordering an item through a categorical search. I considered challenges and decisions the user would encounter that I would have to accommodate for in my design through clear feedback messages.
Task 1: Login (existing users)
Task 2: Onboarding/sign-up for new users
Task 3: Order an item by Category
PROTOTYPE
Wireframes
Task 1: Login (existing users)
Task 2: Onboarding/sign-up for new users
Task 2: Onboarding/sign-up for new users
USABILITY TESTING
To conduct my usability test, I asked 5 users to complete two tasks:
Onboarding
You are currently enrolled in a government-assistance food program, but your car recently stopped working and you are unable to drive to the nearest grocery store 20 miles away. You would like to create an account to receive free grocery delivery services. To do this, you are required to create a password that meets the requirements, select a purpose for using the app, and enter personal information.
Order a single item by using the “Browse by Category” feature:
After creating your account, you would like to order strawberries to be delivered to your address. To find this item, browse by category and select “strawberries” to make changes to the quantity and select a store you want to order from. Then, after adding the item to your shopping bag and reviewing the delivery information, confirm and place the order.
Insights 💡
While the process of signing up was familiar to users, they found that the sign-up screens were distracting.
The logos and negative space of the sign-up screen took up most of the screen, which subsequently cluttered buttons and fill fields at the bottom of the screen. Since it was the most important part of the screen as a microtask, users expected these elements to be centered.
In addition, users were slightly overwhelmed by the number of fields they had to fill on the “Account Creation: Manually Enter Information” screen. They did not notice options or smaller navigation buttons on these crowded screens, which made it difficult to move through the task.
Making choices during the sign-up and selection process requires differentiation through color in addition to type.
Some users lacked feedback that their password was incorrect on the sign-up screen, and they did not realize the error because of how intense the dark red “Log in” button was compared to the lighter red “X” symbol next to the incorrect password.
When users were asked to select the type of user they were, the options looked identical and caused confusion for different users. The browsing options on the home page also required additional differentiation.
There was no feedback when a selection was made, and it was unclear if users were supposed to engage with buttons or banners on the screens.
On the home page, users thought that the “Start Your Order” banner was clickable and were unsure if they had to click it before proceeding to browse by category. Even after selecting an item, there was no change in the appearance of the “select” button and led some users to think they could select multiple items at once. Microtasks such as adding an item to your bag also required feedback to encourage users to continue with the overall task.
DESIGN SYSTEM
I chose to incorporate various weights and sizes of two sans serif typefaces, Open Sans and Proxima Nova, in the design system of my app to convey a sense of simplicity and modernity. I also utilized Helvetica in the text of the buttons, which is a neutral typeface that provides a clean look to the interface.
Bright hues of green are primarily associated with nature and can symbolize freshness. It provides balance with the amount of text on the screen as well. I contrasted the lighter colors utilized with darker shades of green.
HI-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
The final prototype focused on providing feedback based on user interactions and decisions during the ordering process.
Objective: To guide users clearly and prevent confusion as they deal with the existing stress of having to meet their dietary needs
Emphasis on providing ample information to support and reassure users in their grocery selection process.
Implemented feedback screens triggered by user actions such as adding an item to their bag.
Enhanced clarity by introducing a clearer color distinction between unselected (light green) and selected (bright green) buttons.
Expanded nutritional information interpretation to better align with users' goal of meeting daily needs.
Transformed nutritional information presentation from a table to a bar graph, using distinct colors to illustrate each item's contribution to meeting various daily values.
Login for existing users and order single item
Create new account and order single item
CHALLENGES AND TAKEAWAYS
In this project, I primarily relied on secondary research methods that were available to me as I did not have access to the population of interest. Given more time and resources, I would explore more ways to access my population in specific areas affected by food deserts, and conduct additional research such as surveys and user interviews. This would strengthen my website by ensuring that relevant needs and issues are being addressed through my content and design.
In addition, I would also test my low-fi prototypes with this population rather than peers to gain more reliable insights and reflect the experiences of my users.
Next Steps
To extend my thinking, I could incorporate integration with other commonly used services to streamline the onboarding process. For example, users could log in using their profiles associated with government-assisted programs. This would reduce the time required to create a profile for a user seeking food assistance services. Integration can also occur with Payment assistance programs, where users can directly use their EBT cards as a form of payment.
Additional features include:
Donation and Sponsorship options to allow users and businesses can sponsor deliveries or donate funds to support the service.
Volunteer Matching and Scheduling to optimize volunteer assignments by matching them with deliveries based on location and availability and provide a scheduling feature.
Personalized Recommendations provided by AI to suggest items based on user preferences, dietary restrictions, and order history.