Freego
Non-profit platform
Developed at
Timeline
October 2022
January 2023
My Role
User Research
User Experience Design
User Testing
Concept Presentation
Tools
Figma
Apify
Excel
RawGraph
Maze
Summary
A large team exercise performed in the UX Design course aimed at teaching the most important UX design practices: desk research, benchmarking, digital ethnography, mapping, prototyping and user testing.
Brief
“How can we engage citizens in the adoption of lifestyles and behaviors apt to provide a positive contribution to contemporary environmental challenges?
Can digital technologies help people who want to adopt positive behaviors for environmental sustainability following the European SDGs? If yes, how?”
Outcome
One concept describing an application (or a system) apt to support the adoption of one convenient behavior. The concept should be validated.
Problem Definition
Choosing the SDG
The impact of food waste is significant, both environmentally and economically, for both consumers and businesses. When food is thrown away, all of the resources used to produce, process, and transport it are wasted as well. This includes water, land, energy, and labor. Reducing food waste is a crucial step towards meeting SDGs and achieving a more sustainable and efficient food system.
Our Workflow
Desk Research
In the research, we discovered the main driving factors that can be useful in encouraging behavioural change, and which can be leveraged as inspiration for a design brief.
In the research, we discovered the main driving factors that can be useful in encouraging behavioural change, and which can be leveraged as inspiration for a design brief.
Benchmarking
Apps on the Market
We listed a large amount of apps/systems that closely related to food and then we categorised them by purpose.
The analysis of the most usable solutions included the statistics:
Amount of downloads (for the apps)
Traffic and Engagement for the websites and apps (if available)
Evaluations of the users in Google Play and App Store (for the apps)
Food Donation & Recycling Apps Analysis
After analysis of the apps and services we figured out that the most popular solutions among the users are the apps from the categories connected to meal planning. But we decided to focus more on the “Food Donation Services” as the research shows that donation, education and composting are the solutions that people are more willing to do to prevent food waste.
We analysed the statistics of services and apps in the categories “Food Donation Services” and “Recycling Apps” and found two apps which are the most used – “Food Cloud” and “Too Good To Go”.
After that we tested them and divided the CJM into two types of the users – those who used the apps for the first time and experienced ones.
Food Cloud UJM
Too Good To Go UJM
Donation Apps Comparison
Benchmarking Insights
Simplicity
The apps and services which have less functions and are simpler are more used and more popular. For example, The Trussel Trust is much less usable than the Food Cloud. The app was downloaded just 100+ times and the traffic of the website is much lower.
Multiple Platform Approach
Many systems use a multi-platform approach, where website convey information and apps guide the user experience. This is an opportunity to combine several functions and reach different user problems without making the app too complex.
Lack of behaviour change approach
Many systems try to help people get rid of surplus food. But they do not help them change the reasons why the surplus food is there in the first place, like shopping habits and unconscious consumption, for example.
We found only one app which shows to the user some recipes that they could do with the food that is going to expire in the fridge – CozZo App.
Complex User Interface
During the testing of the Food Cloud App, Foodiverse App and others solutions, we found a lot of hidden and false affordances which lead to the longer and more complicated User Journey.
Digital Ethnography
Research Questions
What is the sentiment related to food donation?
Selected Channels
TikTok
Used Tools
Apify
TikTok
Scraper
Excel
RAWGraphs
Hashtag analysis
Quantitative data
Insights
TikTok users that watch videos about food waste awareness and food donation solutions find it really positive - with the exeption of branded content which is more often criticised
Some really interested users ask very specific questions and want to be educated on the topic.
Used Tools
Apify
IG Comment
Scraper
Excel
RAWGraphs
Comment analysis
Topic - Related to the topic of food waste in general.
Critiques - That were made to companies, institutions, and other customers.
Appreciations - Positive comments towards the posts and their the suggested solutions
Solutions - Users’ personal experiences proposed as suggestions in the comments.
Insights
No food choice
Donation companies don’t let you choose the food you can get
Greenwashing
Some companies give the impression that they only care about environmental issues for their own benefit.
CO2 emissions
Food waste management is tricky due to carbon emissions produced in food transportation and production.
Lack of clarity on data
The data published by companies is not always correct or documented
Brief
What
Why
Food Education
Learn about the food
waste problem
Learn about ways
to reduce waste
Charity
Opportunity to share
with people in need
Community
Join community
to help planet
Bringing community together
Who
People that want to make the world a better place, by wasting less food and helping others.
How
The application will be a platform that connects donors and receivers.
Food Donor
Connect with fridges
to donate food
Fridge Owner
Learn how to set up
a community fridge
Manage and show
available food
Receivers
Take the food
for free
Look for available
food
Check for the nearest
fridges
Develop strong
community
Concept Development
System Map
Stakeholder Map
Action-Interest Matrix
User Personas
With our personas we decided to represent different possible users, our goal was to transpose in the context of Milan real problem that we discovered through our research.
To create our first two personas we started by selecting the most interesting comments of our Digital Ethnography.
From Instagram and TikTok we visited many profiles that commented and through their bios we extrapolated an average age for the different users.
The motivations and problems for each persona were inspired by TikTok videos that showed behaviours and sentiments of a user base composed of young adults.
During our desk research about community fridges around the world we understood this solution is usually organised by kind people for the less fortunate; so for our last persona we decided to represent a poorer social class. In fact, we wanted to take in consideration the ones who need our system the most, elderly people and the homeless.
Persona 1
User Persona
User Story
Jobs-to-be-done
Persona 2
User Persona
User Story
Jobs-to-be-done
Persona 3
User Persona
User Story
Jobs-to-be-done
User Journey Map
Prototyping
Flowchart
Wireframes
High Fidelity Prototype
Onboarding
Home & Fridge research
Food Donation & Fridge Fund
Become a partner
Your Fridge
Learn & Settings
User Testing
Testing Method
For the prototype test we used Maze, a tool that supports Figma prototypes. With Maze we were able to create a series of tasks to complete, that cover all the things you can do with the application.
With this tool we register a lot of inputs from the users, such as time spent, misclick rate and heatmaps.
Used Tools
Maze
Figma
Testing Results
User comments
Try our prototype