Context
In 24 hours, solve a community-based problem
Our team of me and three other designers were given 24 hours to answer this open-ended prompt. We honed in our focus on food insecurity among college students, as well as food waste. Our system quickly connected discounted local meals to students. My role included user research, competitive analysis, ideation, and high-fidelity prototyping.
Problem Definition
45% of college students face food insecurity
Food insecurity is when a person does not have reliable or steady access to a guaranteed meal. Across the country, due to a lack of income or accessibility, countless of college students need a surefire way to be able to eat. Compounded with that, restaurants waste tons of food at the end of the day. How can we reduce food waste by using those meals to combat food insecurity among students?
Survey Analysis
We needed to find a way to point students to discounted meals as quickly as possible
Our surveys from over 30 college students revealed that food outside of a meal plan or campus just cost too much. If there's a discounted meal around, there isn't an easy way to know much about it. Students feel like they also don't have time for meals due to the workload of school, perhaps with an added job.
After synthesizing our survey info, we created a user persona to further understand needs and what to focus on
Competitive Analysis
Other services used an interactive map, but without an option for a quick choice
Two apps really stood out or us in terms of being able to connect users to discounted restaurants around a local area, Food for All and Hooked Deals. Both made use of an interactive map to show users where they can find restaurants offering discounted meals, but none allowed users to tweak preferences. Both apps were big influencers on our ideation and design phase.
Food For All, an app that connects users to discounted meals, also a donation hub
Hooked Deals, a service allowing users to show promotion deals to restaurants for discount
We created a chart that showed how we wanted to differentiate ourselves from our competitors
Redefined Question
How might we provide students with limited money and time, food from closing restaurants which would otherwise be wasted?
Ideation
Based on research, we decided "swipes" system allowed users to choose discounted food quickly
Our team grouped and iterated through ideas about our own interactive map to find deals on meals, as well as an option to select quickly, and a preferences screen. Due to time and scope, we had a lot of ideas that didn't make the final prototype, they were a good bridge into what we ended up with. Our favorite was the quick selection screen where a user is presented one option at a time and can swipe left or right on it based on if they like it or not.
We grouped our similar ideas into categories that might fit a bigger theme for the app
Visual Style
Our playful style is meant to ease the student and invite them in
We make use of rounded corners, fun illustrations, and a non-formal sans serif font. Since food insecurity isn't an easy problem to deal with, we want the user to be invited in with a friendly style meant to assist them as quickly as possible.
Component Design
While iterating, I leaned into creating design components and systems
We make use of rounded corners, fun illustrations, and a non-formal sans serif font. Since food insecurity isn't an easy problem to deal with, we want the user to be invited in with a friendly style meant to assist them as quickly as possible.
Final Deliverables
Listening to research, we prioritize information like discounts and food location
As mentioned before, we had to jump right into hi-fi prototyping due to time running out in our contest. You'll see in our card design that the discount is the biggest element, and the only other type is how far away the restaurant is. The goal is for the user to get what they want as quickly as they can.
Reflection
I'm interested in design systems and I will improve with using them
My precision and care with components makes me believe that I should further what it means to create one, in terms of creating more variants for components like buttons, menus, and nav bars. I'd love to read up on Atomic Design so I can fully understand building a system from the smallest bit to the largest part.
Lessons Learned
I need to think holistically while still caring about the small details
I spent too much time adjusting elements pixel by pixel, in terms of spacing and alignment. While it's good to care about the fine details, I need to learn how to take a step back and understand if what I'm doing at the moment is the most important task to be done for completion by a deadline.
