Food Equity App Design Sprint

Food Equity App Design Sprint

Food Equity App Design Sprint

I created Potluck! – a P2P food-sharing app that upgrades the university dining experience by leveraging the existing power of college communities and the innate joy of gathering around food.


My collaborator took on graphics and user interface, while I conducted primary and secondary research, interaction prototyping, and user experience. All the research analysis, features, wireframes, and interaction designs in this case study were designed by me.

I created Potluck! – a P2P food-sharing app that upgrades the university dining experience by leveraging the existing power of college communities and the innate joy of gathering around food.


My collaborator took on graphics and user interface, while I conducted primary and secondary research, interaction prototyping, and user experience. All the research analysis, features, wireframes, and interaction designs in this case study were designed by me.

I created Potluck! – a P2P food-sharing app that upgrades the university dining experience by leveraging the existing power of college communities and the innate joy of gathering around food.


My collaborator took on graphics and user interface, while I conducted primary and secondary research, interaction prototyping, and user experience. All the research analysis, features, wireframes, and interaction designs in this case study were designed by me.

Timeline

Timeline

2 weeks

2 weeks

2 weeks

Team

Team

2 designers

2 designers

2 designers

Deliverables

Deliverables

Design System

Figma Prototype

Design System

Figma Prototype

Design System

Figma Prototype

Awards

Awards

Best in Class (23S)

Social Impact Award

Challenge

Challenge

Challenge

Create a fully-functional app prototype in 2 weeks, in a team of two. Starting all the way at identifying a digitally-solvable problem:

More than 1 in 3 college students on US campuses experience food insecurity (HOPE Lab). Food insecurity in college students is linked to significantly lower academic performance and delayed graduation, which can then feed into increased debt from student loans.

An app is not a complete solution to a complex problem like food insecurity, but as college students ourselves, I knew firsthand the number of untapped opportunities for access to food on our university’s campus. We decided to focus in on increasing food equity among students, while increasing their agency and joy through creating a community culture and a playful, gamified approach.

This was a capstone project in a computer science course at Dartmouth College, which makes it unique in that we not only needed to design the “how” but also first discover that “what” and “why” in only 2 weeks.

Create a fully-functional app prototype in 2 weeks, in a team of two. Starting all the way at identifying a digitally-solvable problem:

More than 1 in 3 college students on US campuses experience food insecurity (HOPE Lab). Food insecurity in college students is linked to significantly lower academic performance and delayed graduation, which can then feed into increased debt from student loans.

An app is not a complete solution to a complex problem like food insecurity, but as college students ourselves, I knew firsthand the number of untapped opportunities for access to food on our university’s campus. We decided to focus in on increasing food equity among students, while increasing their agency and joy through creating a community culture and a playful, gamified approach.

This was a capstone project in a computer science course at Dartmouth College, which makes it unique in that we not only needed to design the “how” but also first discover that “what” and “why” in only 2 weeks.

Create a fully-functional app prototype in 2 weeks, in a team of two. Starting all the way at identifying a digitally-solvable problem:

More than 1 in 3 college students on US campuses experience food insecurity (HOPE Lab). Food insecurity in college students is linked to significantly lower academic performance and delayed graduation, which can then feed into increased debt from student loans.

An app is not a complete solution to a complex problem like food insecurity, but as college students ourselves, I knew firsthand the number of untapped opportunities for access to food on our university’s campus. We decided to focus in on increasing food equity among students, while increasing their agency and joy through creating a community culture and a playful, gamified approach.

This was a capstone project in a computer science course at Dartmouth College, which makes it unique in that we not only needed to design the “how” but also first discover that “what” and “why” in only 2 weeks.

Results

Results

Results

The app features a community-oriented and engaging user experience with a youthful and joyful interface.

Usability testing showed 90%+ task completion rates, positive user feedback, short learning curves, and short completion times.

We were awarded best project presentation in class and the Social Impact award due to our improvement of a problem with high-impact through user experience.

92%

92%

92%

task completion rate

task completion rate

task completion rate

88%

88%

88%

of testers would use this app

60

60

60

NPS (net promoter score)

NPS (net promoter score)

NPS (net promoter score)

My Process

My Process

My Process

Research & Analysis: One reason for the success of Potluck! was my approach to research. Instead of keeping it as a short portion of the 2-week time crunch, I valued conducting extensive multi-pronged research to discover a well-specified problem. I constantly asked "why" to get to the deepest of root issues in the realm of campus dining. Through 12 user interviews, 100+ survey responses, and competitive analysis, I collected pain points around missing the agency to buy ingredients and cook at home, lack of spiritual or cultural connection to food, inevitably running out of money on college meal plans, and that college dining simply didn’t taste good.


Still, there were things people liked, like the "let's grab a meal" culture on campus — using food as a means of gathering.


I used qualitative analysis methods to uncover themes from our research, organizing them into deliverables like the diagrams below.


Inspired by the active Free Food @ Now chat and exclusive-to-campus apps like Fizz where students can post their thoughts freely to a highly-engaged feed, I drew on students’ habit to post amongst themselves and their perpetual search for free food on campus to create a unique and novel solution.

Research & Analysis: One reason for the success of Potluck! was my approach to research. Instead of keeping it as a short portion of the 2-week time crunch, I valued conducting extensive multi-pronged research to discover a well-specified problem. I constantly asked "why" to get to the deepest of root issues in the realm of campus dining. Through 12 user interviews, 100+ survey responses, and competitive analysis, I collected pain points around missing the agency to buy ingredients and cook at home, lack of spiritual or cultural connection to food, inevitably running out of money on college meal plans, and that college dining simply didn’t taste good.


Still, there were things people liked, like the "let's grab a meal" culture on campus — using food as a means of gathering.


I used qualitative analysis methods to uncover themes from our research, organizing them into deliverables like the diagrams below.


Inspired by the active Free Food @ Now chat and exclusive-to-campus apps like Fizz where students can post their thoughts freely to a highly-engaged feed, I drew on students’ habit to post amongst themselves and their perpetual search for free food on campus to create a unique and novel solution.

Research & Analysis: One reason for the success of Potluck! was my approach to research. Instead of keeping it as a short portion of the 2-week time crunch, I valued conducting extensive multi-pronged research to discover a well-specified problem. I constantly asked "why" to get to the deepest of root issues in the realm of campus dining. Through 12 user interviews, 100+ survey responses, and competitive analysis, I collected pain points around missing the agency to buy ingredients and cook at home, lack of spiritual or cultural connection to food, inevitably running out of money on college meal plans, and that college dining simply didn’t taste good.


Still, there were things people liked, like the "let's grab a meal" culture on campus — using food as a means of gathering.


I used qualitative analysis methods to uncover themes from our research, organizing them into deliverables like the diagrams below.


Inspired by the active Free Food @ Now chat and exclusive-to-campus apps like Fizz where students can post their thoughts freely to a highly-engaged feed, I drew on students’ habit to post amongst themselves and their perpetual search for free food on campus to create a unique and novel solution.

empathy map

iceberg canvas

iceberg canvas

iceberg canvas

iceberg canvas

Problems + Solutions: I directly translated my research findings into solutions that would maximize the user experience: first through on-paper sketches, then through designing low-fidelity wireframes. One of my "tells" as a designer is always being the one to pull out my trusty sketchbook and stretch my hands before I open Figma or Adobe Creative Suite.

Problem A: While clubs and campus groups do host free food events with cultural cooking or catering, invitations are either unintentionally exclusive (only sent to club group chats) or decentralized (sent in emails, which get lost in the 100+ that are sent out by the college each day), resulting in low attendance and missed engagement opportunities.


examples of previous ways to access food and events:


Solution A: I implemented a Gathering feed, a centralized place for clubs, campus groups, and individuals to post and/or join food-centered events. You can sign up, see how many others are attending, message in a groupchat for confirmed attendees, check the location of the event on a map, and even delegate ingredients out for attendees to bring.

Problem B: In dorms, buying ingredients for recipes can be expensive and wasteful. "When I bake with friends, I have to get a whole gallon of milk and entire carton of eggs, even if we use less than half of each of those," said one interviewee.


Solution B: I created a second feed for Ingredients, where individuals can post ingredients such as the remaining milk or eggs, leftovers from club events, and more. Users must "claim" the item, meaning that there is a depleting count of how much is left for the next user to claim.


Problem C: Each dorm kitchen contains a different set of specs: some have ovens, some don't, same with pots, pans, baking trays, salt, pepper, oil, and other supplies, which can make it difficult to plan events centered around cooking, or even cook for oneself.


Solution C: I designed a map feature which users can use to find kitchens and geotagged events. Users can also input information about which features the kitchen contains for other users to see.



With the MVP features identified from my research translated into app features, I moved onto refining my low-fidelity wireframes, layout, and navigation into high-fidelity, interactive prototypes from user feedback and usability testing metrics.

Usability Testing: With some my collaborator and I's iterations of UI on top of the UX I thought out, we conducted extensive user testing, including A/B testing.

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3 selected

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This Week

Anytime

Custom Range

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3 selected

Here is an example of two variations of screens we conducted A/B testing on.


One of my principles is to leverage data to drive design. Without extended time to develop the product over time and across a larger team, I especially leaned on my love of data-driven design to push this project into success. In this case, more eyes on the product through user testing made up for the lack of time and people on the project.

Ultimately, Potluck! was a challenge that elevated my ability to prioritize features, streamline my workflow to a refined minimum amount of time and steps, and effectively communicate in an agile development environment.

Ultimately, Potluck! was a challenge that elevated my ability to prioritize features, streamline my workflow to a refined minimum amount of time and steps, and effectively communicate in an agile development environment.

Ultimately, Potluck! was a challenge that elevated my ability to prioritize features, streamline my workflow to a refined minimum amount of time and steps, and effectively communicate in an agile development environment.

Conclusion

The Potluck! mobile food sharing app buildout successfully addressed the challenge specs and succeeded in addressing a tangible campus issue, resulting in a quality user experience recognized for its impact.

The UX/UI design led to potential user adoption and usability tester satisfaction, demonstrating the value of thorough research to understand a problem, and thoughtful use of empathy and cognitive reasoning to solve the specific aspects of that problem.

Designing an app in a short time is a challenging yet rewarding rollercoaster that involves thorough research and thoughtful feature creation. Potluck! aims to provide a compelling value proposition, combining the best features of existing P2P apps and food-sharing solutions while leaving behind the inconvenient pain points, offering users exciting opportunity and a reason to open the app each day.





© Yvonne Chen 2024

© Yvonne Chen 2024