A Connected-Home App for The Busy City-Dweller
A retrospective.
I created a connected-home app for the busy city-dweller called Ripe with a three-day deadline. Ripe connects a user’s phone to a module in their fridge, and reminds users when the food in their fridge is going to expire.

The Plan:
Step 1: Research
Step 2: Synthesis
Step 3: Key Takeaways — Pains N’ Gains
Step 4: Identify the Problem
Step 5: Check Out The Competition
Step 6: Sketch and Design
Step 7: Prototype and User Test
Step 8: Iterate — Prototype and Test Again
Step 9: Next Steps and Final Thoughts
Step 1: Research
First, I needed to learn about the connected-home industry. I wanted to understand how and why people use connected-home products, who is buying them, and what is even available. From there I created an empathy map to flesh out my assumptions about connected-home users, and also thought about who doesn’t use connected-home tools and why.
I conducted five user interviews and allowed the conversations to guide my questions in a more specific direction. I decided to focus in on the kitchen as the space I wanted to explore for a connected-home app based on my interview findings. I asked users questions like:
“Tell me about your experience, if any, with smart tools?”
“Walk me through your apartment. What does it look like? Who lives there?“
“Tell me about an experience in your kitchen that really frustrated you.”
“What’s your day-to-day schedule like?”


Step 2: Synthesis
After concluding my user interviews, I went home and began to synthesize the wealth of information I had accrued. I began by affinity mapping, and at first I struggled to identify trends. After several rounds of moving post-its around my wall, I landed on a handful of clearly defined categories and takeaways.



Step 3: Key Takeaways — Pains N’ Gains
My synthesis helped me hone in on key qualitative and quantitative evidence about my target user.
For example:
5 out of 5 users were millennial urban-dwellers,
living alone or with roommates4 out of 5 users were on a tight budget, and a tight schedule
4 out of 5 users use smartphones, not smart-home tools
5 out of 5 users were frustrated by
throwing away old food
But what does that actually mean? Some quotes from my user interviews offer qualitative evidence that will support my problem statement.
PAINS:
“Everyone hates the feeling of having to throw away food,
it’s gross and literally like burning cash.”“You forget it’s in the back of your fridge and then it goes bad.”
“Alexa doesn’t actually help me do things that are useful.”
GAINS:
“Cooking helps me eat healthy and portion control. I like to know what I’m putting in my body.”
“Cooking helps me balance my budget so I can actually go out to eat.”
INTERPRETATION:
My user is a hard-working millennial that is just trying to manage their work life and social life (albeit limited). They don’t really cook for pleasure, they cook because it’s a budgetary necessity. They are creative cooks — using minimal perishable ingredients to make fast and healthy meals. Nonetheless, the user is so busy that they find it easy to forget what’s in their fridge and don’t remember to cook it in time before it expires. As a result, they are forced to throw away their rotten food, and their money goes to waste.
Step 4: Identify The Problem
My interviews and synthesis led me to a clear target user and problem statement:
Busy city-dwellers need a way to manage perishables in their fridge, because they don’t know what expires when, and they can’t afford to waste money.
With this problem statement in mind and an understanding of who I was designing for, I came up with my design solution — an app called Ripe, which reminds users when the food in their fridge is going to expire.
Step 5: Check Out The Competition
I did a quick scan of similar apps and connected-home tools to see what was already available to consumers. An app called Fridgepal allows users to scan their groceries, and manually add their expiration dates. According to the app store, the app hasn’t been updated in three years, it “barely works,” and is a tedious process. Smart fridges offer expiration notices (and other functions) at an extremely high cost — $2,000-$6,000 per fridge. Overall, Fridgepal and smart fridges do not address my user’s needs, so I took my insights from the competition and improved upon them for my design of Ripe.
Step 6: Sketch and Design
Using the information from my interviews and synthesis, I began sketching.
I knew that my users craved:
Ease of use; a quick and easy process
The ability to individualize items in the fridge, since many users share a fridge with their roommates
The ability to scan food with barcodes
Below is the first iteration of my design:

Step 7 — Prototype and User Test:
I conducted user tests of my first iteration on 4–5 users and received invaluable feedback. The scenario was simple: You already have a profile on Ripe. Add a new item to your fridge.

Some key takeaways from my initial user tests were:
Slide 1:
- The home page buttons were unclear, no one knew that the barcode or fridge were buttons.
- People understood that fridge was their inventory but found the location of the button to be confusing.
Slide 2:
- The barcode with “Scan Me” noted above was not a clear CTA.
- Users thought the text box was a location to type in the barcode, not a search feature for food items without barcodes.
Slides 3 and 4:
- User’s found these steps to be unnecessary. The app should automatically track who is using the app, and should set default expiration notifications.
Step 8 — Iterate, Prototype and Test Again:
The user tests were the single most valuable part of the design process. The feedback was clear and constructive, and I was able to observe my user successfully and more importantly, unsuccessfully, interact with my app. I took their feedback and made significant changes to my second iteration.
Second iteration goals:
Make buttons, icons and textfields simple, consistent and clear
Shorten the process by visually demonstrating that the app recognizes you instead of your roommates, and includes a default expiration reminder setting
Elaborate on extended features — a calendar option to set “away” dates so you are reminded to eat your food before you go away, and an inventory feature to take a look at an expiration hierarchy in your fridge.

After the second round of testing, I received lots of positive feedback. The users found the process clear and easy to follow. Users enjoyed the shortened and fun process (millennials like bad puns). Users also really enjoyed the calendar and fridge inventory features.
3 out of 4 users said that it was an app that they definitely need.
Click here to check out my final prototype, which includes the extended features.
Step 9: Next Steps and Final Thoughts
Here are a few of my ideas for next steps based on user feedback:
Develop clear login process for users in a shared-home
Add functionality and clarity to home and profile tool
Conduct more user tests on the calendar and fridge inventory features
Add a feature function to set specific time for reminder notifications
Final Thoughts:
I found this process to be both difficult and rewarding. The interview process was a challenge without a clear topic in mind. Once I focused in on the kitchen, the conversations became more constructive. Affinity mapping was a helpful visual tool in synthesizing the wealth of interview information I had accrued.
I was nervous about sketching — I’m not an artist. I was relieved to find the process simpler than I had expected by looking at apps I currently use as design reference.
I was the most surprised by the user tests and feedback. For example, I thought that my home page could not be any clearer — direct call to actions, a nice logo and image, etc., My feedback across the board was the opposite. The users were very confused. They weren’t sure what was a button and what wasn’t, and if it was a button, what does it mean?
In the future I would like to make a clearer plan for my user interview questions, which would start by focusing in on a definitive topic. I found the interviews to be nerve-wracking — I wasn’t sure if I was getting the answers I needed or how I was going to use the same questions to find overlap in trends and behaviors. Developing a strong user interview skillset, knowing how to ask the right questions, and learning to identify the most useful questions, is where I know I have lots of room to grow.
The double-diamond method and timebox of three days provided the structure I needed to work quickly and efficiently. I am looking forward to working on more projects in the future to continue to hone and develop my research, synthesis, design and testing skills.
