UX Study Case : Trying to Find Indonesian food waste’s solution
Indonesia known as the second highest food waste producer in the world. So this study case try to give solution to reduce food waste.
Hello everyone, this time instead of write about self development in my medium, I will share my study case in UI/UX.
Role : Product researcher and designer
This is my personal study case and final assignment to complete Dibimbing.id bootcamp (the app do not exist)
First of all, I was thinking to conduct competitive analysis, but I don’t find the food waste app in my country, Indonesia. So, I begin the project with research about food waste from other designer’s study case. This way, I can learn about what app that other designer think can reduce food waste.
- Food Fight about reduce food waste with tracking of food in the fridge and gamification
- Wasteless an app that become virtual fridge, shopping list, and feature to donate food to others.
- Feedback an app to donate food. It is not just for the donor, but also another screen for the driver that distribute the food.
- FoodConcious about reducing food waste in company area, so the app can order food for employee and can also donate the food
All study case have 1 thing in common, they are designed to household people and not for business owner who have the leftover food. But, all of that study case is not designed specifically for Indonesian.
So I dig dive the research for food waste in Indonesia, and I find the problem
Problem
Head of the Public Relations and Public Information of the Ministry of Agriculture, Kuntoro Boga Andri, explained that the data states that food waste in Indonesia reaches 1.3 million tons per year, or per person produces 300 kilograms of food waste. If converted into rupiah, every 1.3 million tons of food waste generates IDR 27 trillion (CNN Indonesia, 17/9/2020)
The article shocked me, Indonesia even beat US in food waste. With that a lot of amount, I search for another literature that explain who are the type of person that doing food waste in Indonesia.
I find science literature from Soma in 2019
this literature show that food waste came from household, and people either shop at supermarket or not doing food waste. The literature also state household with all variance of income and expenses doing food waste, even though household with high income tend to food wasting more.
Soma (2019) in the literature also give recommendation to doing food compost in order reduce food waste. That give insight to do my own survey and see whether the literature’s findings right or not.
Research
I decided to doing quantitative research first to see to validate my hypotheses that I gain from literature and UX study case. After that, I go with qualitative to validate the quantitative result and dive deeper with the opportunity that user really need.
Quantitative Result
For quantitative, I created google form and doing random sampling with as many people can I get to validate my hypotheses.
The result from 32 participants validate which hypothesis is right and which one is wrong :
- Did food waste at least once, 87,5% choose YES to do food waste and 9,4% choose Maybe
- Need shopping list when shop for food material, 71,9% choose NO
- Forget the food they buy until its expired or rotten, 46,9% choose YES to expired and 34,4% choose YES to forget until rotten
- Feel guilty when doing food waste, 90.6% choose YES
- Feel comfortable to share their left over food, 59,4% choose YES
- Think food compost is great solution to reduce food waste, 87,5% choose YES and 12,5% choose maybe
with this result, I decided to do qualitative based on why people food wasting? how they feel when food wasting ? and opportunity with food compost?
Qualitative Result
For qualitative I interviewed 4 people based on people who have shopped for food material and have done food wasting. Actually based on NN Group, we need to interview 5 people, but I find the same pattern with this 4 people. Also there is one persona, so I decided to stop with these 4 people.
Affinity Mapping
I arrange the result in affinity mapping and gain insight about user’s pain point :
- Feel guilty to food wasting
- Feel donate the left over food is unethical
- Not knowing how to compost
- Even if know how to compost, they feel it useless
I also find the opportunity to this pain point that I rewrite and arrange in user journey.
User Journey
In this Journey I get opportunities for every journey, but due to time constraint and priority I focus on some opportunities.
- Food reminder to input the food that already bought with photo or scanner
- Apps to change left over food to food compost
- Pick up feature to pick up the left over food
- Gamification in the app to enhance user doing food compost
User persona
I find only one persona that already cover the people that I interviewed about food waste. With this persona I design the ideation
Ideation
I decided to design the app to reduce food waste with reminder and food compost. The app will also make user feel composting is easy and fun.
Wireframe
first I make the wireframe in my book with pen I also give every screen an explanation so I know the function and can change it easily when impelment to Hifi design
Design Guide
I user green color as primary that represent nature, because this app will make the food to compost. I also use black, white, and grey colors to make the app look modern and minimalist because the user persona is in 20’s.
The persona like buy food in the delivery app who have ilustration and icon that eye catching and colorful. Thats why I also added colorful icon to gain interest from user and make user feel familiar.
High Fidelity Design
First one is the on boarding screen, I give the app’s name “Save Food” to make a branding that user easy to remember. Also to give user kind of guilty free feeling when open it.
Next screen is “my food” screen, this screen represent the food that user have, User also can divide the food in the fridge or in the pantry. To add new food user can simply press icon + that will lead to camera or scanner, so user can simply photo or scan the food.
Next screen are “compost” screen, in this screen user can get point every time they compost based on food that they choose to compost. User can also compete with their friends in leaderboard. This is a gamification to enhance user doing food compost that will be rewarding and feel useful to them. Also, same with add food, user also can easily choose new food to compost by click icon + and choose the food.
User can also track their food in composting process. User can request pick up, then the save food team will pick up and user can track to know where they food now. After the food compost is done, user will get their point added.
Prototype
Conclusion
In order reduce food waste in Indonesia, the Save Food app was created. The app will serve household to pick up their left over food and also give user “reward” every time use the app to food compost.
The challenge and Limitation
My bootcamp gave me a final project with 2 weeks time constraint to finish it. This is really challenging, since I also work 9–5 in weekdays and not have much time to do this project. There is time when I want to give up, but I managed to conquer the challenge.
With the time constraint, I also not doing usability testing after design. That make me don’t know whether the solution already right or not to users.
Other limitation of this study case also with the participants in survey. I just manage to get 32 participant, which is really few and have high error to the result.
Lesson Learned
This study case give me another perspective about food waste. Now, I appreciate more to the food and the environment. I also more mindful when I cook or buy food in order to avoid food waste.
On the other hand, for the UX study case. I learned that we as a designer or researcher need to validate our hypothesis to user, because we design for what user need and not what we like to. I found that some of my hypothesis was wrong, and I admit that, so I can move on to find the real user needs.
I also learned that as a product designer, I have to prioritize the feature based on user need, my capability, and the impact that the feature will give.
Special Thanks
I can’t manage to finish this study case without my 4 participants that allow me to use their time.
I also want to thank you to my boyfriend who support me while doing this study case. He is the person who give me the support when I almost give up when doing this project ^_^. There is also my doll who I named meggy and cup of coffee who accompany me, also be my mood booster when I did this project :).
Want to work together with me? Email me : Infosynthiachin@gmail.com
