NomNoms,

End-to-End Mobile App

Introducing NomNoms, a mobile app designed to reduce food waste and food loss in households. This innovative system seamlessly integrates inventory tracking, storage tips, meal planning, and grocery shopping to empower the way people manage their food resources.

Overview

Roles: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher

Teams: Valerie Bui (solo)

Tools: Figma, FigJam, Google Meets

Duration: 4 weeks

View Prototype

Background

Food can often go to waste for many reasons in households; items forgotten in the back of the fridge, overstocking, lack of meal planning, and leftovers. It’s estimated that 21% of food waste originates from households globally which significantly contributes to both our environment and economy. In fact, about 8% of global greenhouse emissions and 24% of landfill waste come from food wasted in households, resulting in the annual economic cost of about $1 trillion. This is a wake up call to for us to take actions in reducing food waste and promoting sustainable choices.

Fortunately, technology has advanced itself to address this very issue with various mobile apps and even intelligent appliances like smart fridges. By combining technology, behavioral insights, and user-centric design, I present my innovative end-to-end solution to combat food waste in households.

Discovery

Competitive Analysis

Goals:

Assess the unique strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
Analyze usability, design, and overall user satisfaction.
Examine competing product features for gaps and innovation opportunities.
Gauge how competitors promote sustainable food management and waste reduction education.

Key Takeaways:

Despite their individual strengths, each app lacks a feature that can be found in another which fosters a sense of limitation for its user, leaving them with an incomplete solution.
- i.e. users of MyFoodWays may desire the food tracking capabilities of FridgeCam or the straightforward cooking assistance of Magic Fridge
The identified feature gaps presents an opportunity for me to refine and enhance my own solution by carefully selecting the most valuable and useful features from each app to deliver a convenience in food inventory management, grocery shopping, and recipe discovery.

User Interviews

I conducted interviews with five individuals to gain insights into their daily habits, motivations, and specific pain points when managing food in their household.

Goals:

Learn how and why individuals end up with food waste in their household
Learn what kind of solutions people take to reduce food waste
Learn behavioral patterns when grocery shopping, meal planning, and cooking
Identify challenges individuals face when trying to reduce food waste

Key Takeaways:

4 out of 5 individuals buy groceries based on recipes they find online. Integrating recipe planning and inventory management can help streamline shopping.
Most use the Notes app for grocery lists but desire better organization. This highlights an opportunity for a dedicated grocery shopping feature for improved list management.
During shopping, 4 out of 5 individuals consult household members to avoid overbuying. This suggests a need for food inventory tracking.
3 out of 5 individuals want an easier way to save recipes and get personalized suggestions.
4 out of 5 individuals identify improper food storage as a source of food spoilage, suggesting a need for an educational component on proper food storage.

Define

Research Insights

Project Goals

Personas

Three personas were created to represent the diverse needs of users and help answer the following questions:

HMW integrate educational content to inspire users to take action in reducing food spoilage in their household?
HMW leverage technology to provide users with customized food storage tips that ensure food stays fresh longer, minimizing spoilage?
HMW enhance meal planning features to ensure users can prepare meals efficiently with ingredients they already have?
HMW simplify the grocery shopping experience for users by helping them create optimized shopping lists based on their existing inventory and meal plans?

Ideation

Sitemap

A visual representation of the streamlined organization of the 5 key user features: inventory tracking, education, grocery shopping, finding recipes, and meal planning.

User Flows

These user flows illustrates the sequence of action that a user follows, from signing up and up until where they explore various features available in the app.

Mood Board

This mood board informs the app's branding and inspires my design choices based on existing food management apps.

Design

Style Tile + Branding

The style and branding are inspired by the vibrant colors of the radish, symbolizing freshness and diversity, aligning with the mission of food waste reduction. The name 'NomNoms' adds playfulness, making the mission enjoyable.

Typography includes Quicksand for headers, offering a contemporary look, and Figtree for body text, adding warmth. Iconography follows this user-friendly and consistent design.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Features:

'Inventory' has 'Food Supply' for tracking food items with customizable storage spaces, boosting organization while 'Food Tips' provides storage advice and sustainable hacks.
'Recipes' offers a variety of dishes with options to like, save, add to planner, and share.
'Groceries' simplifies shopping with recipe-based or custom lists.
'Planner' allows structured meal scheduling to prevent waste through efficient ingredient use off of recipes.

High-Fidelity Wireframes

A few small changes along the way….

Simplifying the user experience, I redesigned the 'Food Tips' page to exclusively display items available in the 'Food Supply.' Food items are sorted by shelf life, encouraging users to prioritize older items. I integrated storage tips, provided a link for in-depth knowledge, and introduced leftover recipes.

Usability Testing

Target Audience:

Individuals who experience food waste or interested in the topic

Participants:

6 individuals

Methodology:

Moderated usability test through Google Meets

Goals:

Test if users are able to easily navigate the given features and if they are useful
Identify usability and design issues to prioritize improvements that need to be made

Results:

To gather results, I asked questions in regards to the features, navigation, information, and overall design. Below showcases the average ratings for each specific task.

Sign Up: 6.8/7
Add Item to Inventory: 6.5/7
Accessing Food Tips: 6.8/7

Add Recipe to Planner: 7/7
Add Recipe to Grocery: 6.1/7
Grocery Shopping: 6.5/7

Feedback:

Improvements to be made:

Language needs to be clearer to understand the CTAs
Customization and organization for Inventory, Food Tips, and Allergy Information
“Delete” function must be more obvious
User omission error on recipes page of the missing ingredients