Situation

Every year in Poland, a staggering 4.8 million tons of food end up discarded, with households being the primary culprits. This translates to an average of 75 kg of food wasted per person annually.

In response to this problem, as part of a team of three UX/UI designers, I co-created Foodik, a mobile app aimed at reducing waste by promoting food sharing among people living close to each other.

Task

Our work focused on understanding the needs of potential users, which we achieved by conducting surveys for which I prepared questionnaires and conducted in-depth interviews. We showed that food is thrown away twice a month on average, mainly bread, fruits, vegetables and dairy products.

Our goal is to reduce the process of throwing away food, which can be achieved by sharing the surplus with other people. Most of the respondents expressed a desire to do so and showed interest in an app that would make the process easier for them.

Action

We started with a thorough analysis of the competitor's applications, through which we identified key areas for improvement. Based on our findings, we decided to streamline the registration process, allowing users to log in via their Google, Facebook or Apple accounts. We also introduced a label in the bottom menu for easy identification. Another important improvement was to enhance the search function, which now offers both map and list options as well as creating clear categories. It is also important to involve the community, mainly residents.

The next step was to create low-fidelity mockups for all of the app's screens, which helped us plan the placement of elements and detect the first problems to be solved. We made many decisions about the colour scheme and typography, which allowed us to create a style guide.

In addition, as a team, we also developed a version of the app for the Apple Watch to comprehensively complement the design of our mobile app.

Results

In response to the problem of food waste in Poland, we designed the Foodik mobile application, which has passed testing as a prototype. Focusing on understanding and meeting the key needs of users, especially in terms of ease and intuitiveness of use, the app has received positive feedback and has a good chance of success. At this point, the final version of the app has yet to be programmed.

My reflections

Working on the Foodik app was challenging, especially at the beginning of the job. We didn't know how we should go about the design process to best fit our product. It was also difficult to understand our users' main problem and create an optimal, intuitive and usable interface for them. Despite the initial difficulties, the experience taught me a lot and demonstrated the value of working as a team.