SUMMARY
15-week group project through USC's Master of Science in Integrated Design, Business, and Technology.
Inspired by the disrupted food supply chain during COVID-19, my team created a concept of a grocery delivery service. 5 team members within the business and design industry collaborated and presented our idea to the class. We used the 7 steps of the creative problem-solving process to guide our project.
MY ROLE
UX Designer
Researched and conducted a competitive analysis
Created user flow
Developed wireframes in Balsamiq and Sketch
Created clickable prototype in InVision
SOLUTION
Mobile grocery delivery service that brings affordable fresh produce into neighborhoods facing barriers
PROBLEM STATEMENT
While there is sufficient food supply in America, vulnerable populations face limited food supply options due to insufficient supply chain reach.
ACCEPT & ANALYZE
Can you believe that the world’s farmers produce enough food to feed 1.5x the global population, yet more than 37 million people struggle with hunger in the U.S.? How is this possible? Our group decided to explore food production and food access within the current distribution system. Major issues include:
Food waste: Americans throw away food because of unyielding cosmetic standards, over-buying, and poor planning in households, restaurants, and retail businesses.
Food loss: food discarded in the food chain; farms, packing houses, manufacturing facilities, and transportation/distribution networks.
Food deserts: low-income families are located far from a supermarket and do not have access to vehicles.
DEFINE
We decided to focus on the vulnerable population such as students, homeless and economically disadvantaged, especially during the shutdown. We wanted to create a safe grocery shopping experience during COVID-19 and we wanted to use technology to solve this issue.
IDEATE
We brainstormed many different ideas as a group and we narrowed the top 3 ideas down through a voting system. We decided to get feedback on our ideas from an urban gardener and founder of Epic Gardening, Kevin Espiritu. He said one of the main problems with low-income neighborhoods is not accessibility and affordability of fresh foods but the cultural unfamiliarity of fresh foods. More grocery stores need to stock affordable fresh food that is part of the popular culture’s cuisine in the area to eliminate food deserts.
SELECT
We decided on a farmer’s market truck that sells prepackaged soon-to-be expired foods and deliver to the population with limited access to a vehicle. Customers will use their mobile phones to pre-order groceries and pick-up at the nearest location. For further research and planning, I conducted a competitive analysis and created user personas. The truck will drive to remote/rural areas, college campuses, and senior living homes to deliver pre-ordered groceries. We also surveyed 90 people to understand grocery shoppers’ behaviors and discovered:
The majority of participants shop at a supermarket but the second most popular way of grocery shopping is through online shopping (including subscription services)
Participants most valued the quality and affordability of produce
If produce was more affordable then participants would purchase more
IMPLEMENT
While other team members focused on the business model and supply chain process, I focused on the user flow and designed a prototype. Since our grocery delivery service mimics a bus service, I added a bus tracking feature to notify users of the bus location and calculate the time. In order to reward users to pick up their order the same day, we added a reward system. From our research, we discovered that people who live in food deserts often face the problem of finding culturally appropriate food. The recipe generator helps users find quick and easy recipes using unfamiliar ingredients. You can find a clickable-prototype here.
EVALUATION
After user testing, users showed concerns about missing their pick up time. In order to alleviate this issue, our team discussed that the bus would go around the same route 3-4 times a day. As for a design perspective, I would add a field that shows the preference of pick up time into the check out process and add the next bus stop time in the track screen. I also thought about notifying the users through the notification app and text.
As a multidisciplinary team, each team member contributed a different perspective to the process, which made me feel confident in finding the best solution. However, we often digressed and focus on the granular details that our meetings would run over the scheduled time. We tried to have a time keeper and time box ourselves as a team but rarely worked. I wish we had used the “parking lot” technique to capture ideas and follow up at a later time.