Revolutionizing food delivery
Transforming food waste into great deals for budget-conscious, eco-friendly consumers
Greetings, fellow designers! Welcome to my very first case study. I couldn’t be more excited to share this journey with you. I’ve poured lots of hours and passion into creating this project. While working on it, I noticed my growth as a designer and I hope that this app and the idea behind it will inspire you to make positive changes in your life. Let me show you my vision for revolutionizing food delivery, combating food waste, saving money, and exploring the incredible potential we all have. Let’s go!
During a period of rapid growth in the food delivery industry in my country, I became intrigued by the increasing popularity of these services. However, as I observed the high number of order cancelations, I started wondering: What happens to the food in those orders? This caught my attention, and curiosity led me to dig deeper, ultimately uncovering a significant problem that needed addressing.
Research
To learn more and explore potential solutions, I turned to online research. Platforms like Google and ChatGPT led me to discover companies such as Olio, Too Good to Go, Karma, Share the Meal, FoodCloud, and ResQClub that are doing an amazing job of taking the initiative to make positive changes.
I also reached out to delivery personnel who work for various food delivery apps and gathered valuable insights from their first-hand experiences.
Through these conversations, I discovered a pattern: when orders are canceled, the food goes to waste as it cannot be returned to the restaurant and the customer does not accept it. I also discovered that instances of food being destroyed during delivery or due to inadequate packaging were further contributing to food waste.
By gaining more knowledge, I was motivated to develop an app that addresses food waste but also offers a practical and effective solution for consumers and businesses alike.
Problem
There is a significant amount of food waste due to incorrect order placements or users canceling their orders at the last minute. This leads not only to financial losses but also contributes to environmental waste. I wanted to create a user-friendly mobile app that encourages responsible ordering and reduces food waste while providing great deals.
With my app, I aim to accomplish multiple goals: providing users with great deals on food, helping them save money while making sustainable choices, supporting local businesses, and encouraging eco-friendly lifestyles.
Solution
After extensive research and defining the problem, I was able to create a solution- EatSmart. An innovative food delivery app that not only satisfies your cravings and saves your money, but significantly contributes to reducing food waste. EatSmart operates on the principle of rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste and offering it to customers at significantly discounted prices. By partnering with local restaurants, EatSmart identifies food items that are nearing their expiration date or have limited quantities left and makes them available for users to browse and purchase at highly affordable prices.
Also, when an order is canceled, instead of allowing the food to go to waste, EatSmart provides users with the option to donate it to local charities or redistribute it to other customers who may be interested. This way we are using the power of technology to make an impact on our planet, all while restaurants, customers, and charitable organizations enjoy its benefits.
User Persona
Who would this app be for? I needed my ideal consumer, the user persona. I considered several factors:
Demographics: age, occupation, income, and location to determine his lifestyle and preferences.
Interests: Someone interested in sustainable living, budget-friendly lifestyle, food, technology, making connections, and sharing influence.
Goals and Motivation: This is what determines Person’s choices and preferences. A person’s primary goal is leading a sustainable lifestyle while staying within his budget, but also making a positive impact on the environment and people around himself.
Challenges: Someone who finds it challenging to consume affordable and sustainable food, also finds not having enough options difficult.
This is how I created a profile of Terry Johnson, which helped me understand the target audience and create features that will meet their expectations.
UX Map
I created UX Map using FigmaJam to understand the user’s journey, interactions, and decision-making process, which eventually led to a smooth user experience.
Moodboard
The moodboard for the EatSmart app was influenced by popular companies like Olio, Too Good to Go, Karma, Share the Meal, FoodCloud, ResQClub, and many other delivery apps. Mobbin, Dribbble, and Awwwards helped me gather ideas for the app’s design, including color schemes, fonts, and overall visual style. By using the moodboard, segmenting coherent screens, and leaving comments for myself, I was able to create a user-friendly and visually appealing interface that reflects the values of sustainability, being mindful of the environment, and offering affordable options. The moodboard played a crucial role in ensuring a consistent and appealing design throughout the app.
Sketching process
I used sketches to quickly visualize layout options, user interactions, and the overall flow of the app. It helped me to see my ideas and modify them before going into the digital design phase.
Lo-fi Wireframe
My next step was using wireframes to see the structure of the app, its functionality, and its content without being distracted by visuals.
Style Guide
When creating a style guide for EatSmart, I carefully selected colors that reflect the essence of our planet Earth. The vibrant yellow/green shade represents the flora and vegetation, while the deep blue hue symbolizes oceans and waters. The light blue tone signifies the clarity of the skies. These colors together represent the app’s mission of environmental consciousness.
For the logo, I chose to use these colors along with the circular shapes and soft edges, to represent the Earth and our commitment to protect it through making smart choices.
For typography, I selected Manrope font, because it is modern, clean, and aesthetic. It also offers great readability across various devices and screen sizes, while also providing friendliness and professionalism in the app’s identity.
Final Design
When opening the app for the first time, I wanted to greet users with messages that promote taking action and fighting food waste, so they would feel motivated to make an impact. As a result, he creates an account and joins the community.
Homepage:
At the top of the page, you can see the status of your delivery. I wanted to make it accessible and clear, to avoid confusion during delivery. Complications would leave confused customers, which results in a bad user experience and canceled orders.
The search must be easy and smooth, especially when you are hungry. So, there are several food categories that you can choose from.
The next category is very important, therefore it is the first. This category represents the orders that were canceled and are now being redistributed to other customers. I put it first to catch the user’s attention and maximize the chances of ordering.
You can notice that there is a “like” option. I used it because I wanted to encourage responsible ordering. When you know and have access to food and restaurants that you like, there are fewer chances that you will make cancellations. That’s why every restaurant has the option to be “liked” and there is a specifically intended icon in the nav bar for favorite restaurants.
Because this is also an app intended for budget-conscious people, I wanted to create a category that shows restaurants with free deliveries. I think that budget shouldn’t be an obstacle when saving the planet.
I also have the category Nearby Places, and a specially designed place for it in the Nav Bar. This is the category that can help the most in our fight against food waste. I designed it to encourage users to save the environment not only through ordering food but order it from restaurants that are closer or even picking it up to avoid traffic pollution, it saves time and money, business from losses, and food from the risk of being wasted.
Restaurant
When you enter the restaurant page, I wanted to make an appealing look, but also provide lots of information about the restaurant, so users can have as much as information they need, to avoid misunderstandings. This was risky and challenging because there was lots of text and information about the place and the food. I decided to separate the info about the restaurant into two parts. At the beginning of the page, I put necessary information, like name, working hours, rating, etc…and at the end, I put more details about the restaurant so users can get familiar with it or even get in touch, check their website, call, get directions or share it with friends.
It is very important to let the users know how much food is left for ordering, so I highlighted that number. I also provided an option to order from this page and go directly to checkout, to reduce the number of steps to make a desired action.
Checkout
The checkout page is very important. I wanted to let users see and edit their orders before making a final decision and paying. I gathered all information about the order, delivery, and payment and combined this into one page, keeping it simple and readable.
My orders
I created the My Orders page to help users with clear information about their current orders and previous orders. I made it clean to avoid any hick-ups in their user experience. They can track their order and estimated delivery time, ask for help or contact the rider.
When asking for help, users are presented with the option to edit an order, see where the order is, or cancel it. When the user chooses “cancel order” I intentionally made two more steps before the order can be canceled. I wanted to remind the user that he can still make an impact, therefore I emphasized how much food, money, and CO2 he can save. If he decides to continue canceling the order, I wanted to give him one more chance to contribute to society by donating or redistributing food. This way, I am encouraging responsible ordering and more options for people that want to cancel food.
My account
In the end, I created my account page to focus on the impact each user has made during the year. That’s why I chose a bigger font size and colors, to empower users and awaken the sense of accomplishment.
Conclusion
Fellow designers, I hope you enjoyed saving the planet with me. I certainly did. I did my best to create a user-friendly and visually appealing app with a clean layout and modern aesthetic. The design is responsive and optimized for various devices ensuring a consistent and enjoyable user experience.
This is only the beginning of my professional and personal growth and I am looking forward to presenting new work to you all. I hope the idea behind the app will inspire you to make positive changes.
Until Next time :)
Contact
Email: uiuxpetra@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uiuxpetra/
Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/uiuxpetra/
