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Imperfect Foods
Recipe Feature
Conceptual recipe feature dedicated to helping customers make the most of the unique ingredients in their weekly subscription boxes.
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“We designed simple and flavorful recipes to make the most of our ingredients while further minimizing waste"
Role
Graphic Designer
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Tools Used
Figma
Otter.ai
Survey Planet
Optimal Workshop
Maze
Timeline
5 weeks
Solution
We introduced a recipe feature that provided meal planning suggestions using the unique and often imperfect ingredients in Imperfect Foods' weekly boxes. This feature helped customers make the most of their imperfect groceries, further reducing food waste in the home, while also inspiring creativity in the kitchen. By encouraging customers to utilize more of their weekly offerings, our recipe feature motivates customers to sho solely from Imperfect Foods, saving time for the customer and ultimately contributing to a more sustainable food system.
Problem
Customers are experiencing food waste not because of the unique and often imperfect nature of the ingredients in their weekly boxes, but due to a lack of meal planning. Users of Imperfect Foods felt that they were unable to obtain all of their produce needs through the service because of the unpredictable and ever-changing offerings. This frustration led to customers looking elsewhere for most of their grocery needs or abandoning the subscription service all together. We aimed to address this problem in order to promote sustainable living and a more connected food system.
What steps were taken to solve this problem?
By using the design process, we were able to truly understand the users and develop solutions that work for them.
![5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d [Converted]-01.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6f861d_996824499b2a409282e512a658d35629~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_202,h_200,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d%20%5BConverted%5D-01.png)
empathize
![5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d [Converted]-02.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6f861d_9be5e795af684c8eab2047499f930340~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_215,h_212,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d%20%5BConverted%5D-02.png)
define
![5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d [Converted]-03.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6f861d_8b3733adf75b4880a7e567d79b4e1f13~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_222,h_219,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d%20%5BConverted%5D-03.png)
ideate
![5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d [Converted]-04.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6f861d_a9208f3f393b4d149eb91cd8921e4c5d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_202,h_200,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d%20%5BConverted%5D-04.png)
prototype
![5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d [Converted]-05.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6f861d_046ea9a65c4d45749c80dbc6fe1dfcf9~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_184,h_182,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/5d7e5a7b90431740cc08730d%20%5BConverted%5D-05.png)
test
01. empathize
Research Goal
Develop a deeper understanding of Imperfect Foods' strengths and pain points, and the challenges and opportunities associated with building a recipe feature that promotes meal planing and sustainability.
Research Objectives
Identify Needs
Understand the needs of users who are experiencing food waste. What would encourage users to continue to reduce their footprint?
Catalog Experiences
Uncover the successes and frustrations users have faced while using grocery subscription serices like Imperfect Foods.
Analyze Competitors
Gain inspiration from other online grocery services. What are they doing well and what are their painponts?
Competitive Analysis
In order to gain valuable insights and stay ahead of the competition, we conducted a thorough competitive analysis of other online grocery services. This allowed us to identify what was working and not working in their application strategies, providing valuable information to enhance the experience of Imperfect Foods.
Summary of findings:
• None of these grocery apps seem to have a recipe feature to help users with meal planning
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• Misfits and Imperfect are nearly identical, with small differences between their offerings, pricing, and delivery
• The food waste- focused subscription services require waiting time for grocery delivery
• Misfits and IF both had friendly, trustworthy-looking UI
User Interviews
Time to get some user insight!
In order to better understand the needs of the users..
18 participants between the ages of 27-34 were either interviewed or surveyed.
(16 survey takers, 2 interviews)
Other important deets:
* both the survey and the interview asked the same questions. the interview was done verbally and the survey was in essay question format on Survey Planet
* all participants identified as users who buy groceries!
Affinity Mapping
After conducting the interview and sifting thought the data, an affinity map was created to identify the patterns among my users. We organized the data in various ways, but a few topics were most insightful.
Users are waste conscious
Users like to plan thier meals
Users are not satisfied with IP offering
click this to expand and browse!
Want to see how my brain organized the data? Check this out.
!!!
!!!
Key Takeaways
an "ah-hah!" moment:
The conversations we had with our participants were incredibly insightful. The concept of meal planning the users were discussing were the most telling. While all interviewees and survey takers expressed some interest in reducing waste through services like Imperfect Foods, there was a major commonality:
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**Users feel like the create the most waste at home, especially when they don't meal plan**
User Personas
After listening to the participants and using this newfound information, we developed a user persona based on insights gathered during our research.
Our Intentional- Aspirant, Ingrid, became the main persona the project was intended for.
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Hi Ingrid!
02. define
POV & HMWs
Point of View Statement- Frames the problem in a way that keeps a focus on users, their needs, and the insights about them.
We'd like to discover complete and creative ways for IF customers to buy their groceries because it would further reduce food waste in the home.
How Might We Questions- Turns the problem at hand into design opportunities.
(1) How might we incentivize customers to buy more produce from IF?
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(2) How might we make IF customers feel confident about buying and preparing only the groceries they need?
Project Goals
To further define the product, we brainstormed business, user, and tech goals within the context of our research findings.
03. ideate
"Everyone has great ideas, but great ideators write them down."
- Anonymous
Task Flows
After the site map was solicited, two main task flows were created for the feature, aligning them to our persona insights:
Low & Mid Fidelities
Well-designed task flows helped us to develop the first iterations of low and mid fidelity wireframes.
Brand Board & UI Components
Before creating the high-fidelity designs, we developed Imperfect Foods UI Component Library in order to simplify the design process and create consistency across the platform.
High Fidelities
With a well-established brand and defined task flows helped us to create our initial iterations of low, mid-fid, and high fidelity screens.
04. prototype
Prototypes
Flow 1 of the high fidelity design allows users to find a recipe through the IF platform, and navigate to the "Favorite Recipes" tab where all of their saved recipes are stored.
The second flow encourages users to explore recipes from an available item that week. From the chosen recipe, the customer can add all the needed ingredients to their cart.
05. test
Usability Testing
Time for testing! After finishing our high fidelities, we recruited 10 relevant participants to participate in usability tests; all tested virtually with Maze.
Testing Goals:
1. Evaluate usability of each flow.
2. Gather feedback on UI and user flow.
3. Identify common pain points.
4. Observe how users are feeling when navigating the product, noting how they feel about their overall experience.
Usability Test Findings
After the usability testing was complete, we organized the data to make sense of the findings for each task flow .
click this to expand and browse!
The Expected
Finding the recipe and adding the ingredients to cart was way more successful. 100% of testers completed this mission via the expected path
Visual design and color palette worked well. 6/10 participants mentioned a positive experience with the visual design
The Unexpected
9/10 participants expressed confusion when trying to find their favorited recipes
7/10 users wanted to find their favorites in the nav bar or dropdown menu for their account
Priority Revisions
After analyzing the testing results and sorting through the written feedback from our users, our peers, and mentor, two priority revisions were obviously needed.
Iterations needed:
• Add favorites into the dropdown menu!
• Create an additional page to house these favorites.
Old Flow vs New Flow
Flow 1
Recipe favorites lived at the bottom of the main recipes page.
after
before
Favorited recipes now can be found in a drop down in the top right corner. This brings the user to a page dedicated to their favorites,, as well as recommends additional recipes to them.
So... What's Next?
1. Retest updated wireframes using moderated usability testing
2. Hand off to app developers
3. Go live!
Reflection
• Over these 6 weeks, I learned A LOT. Adding a feature to an existing site come with its benefits and its challenges. Working under the constrictions of an existing branding package while taking the concept of a grocery deliver service out of its box was incredibly eye-opening.
• If I had more time, I would retest my iterations using a moderated test. While an unmoderated test helps in the realm of saving time, I feel like I lost valuable feedback without the ability to ask my users questions in real time.
• I love this process. App design is another UX niche that I really enjoyed! It was incredibly eye opening to design within the constraints (and flexibility!) of adding a feature to an existing platform.
Whew, thanks for listening!
questions? comments? constructive criticism? let me know.