Design Requirements Sustainable Food Consumption - adrienerice/The_Chosen_Ones GitHub Wiki

Overview

Through research conducted in the area of food waste in shared houses/apartments, the main problem is that consumers' unconscious behavioral habits often lead to the creation of expired food. The visual presentation of the food data already available, in the form of reminders and reflections, can enable consumers to reduce unnecessary purchases and help them make subsequent food disposal decisions to reduce the rate of food waste in the home. The design aims to help users record and present reminders in the form of a food status list, and to provide one or more follow-up methods/suggestions, with the whole operating model adapted to the food consumption cycle.

Through the use of this application, consumer behavior may be motivated and prompted to change to achieve the final design goal - reducing food waste.

For the consideration of adaptability and universality, mobile applications will be used as the presentation method of prototyping, and the data in the applications will involve the following aspects:

1. Food code (production date and shelf life)
2. Camera-scan barcode to record data
3. Location positioning-location sharing with friends

The information on the food list will include the date of manufacture, the expiration date, and the date when it was added to the food. Different types of food and preservation methods will affect the remainder of the app, such as freezing and cold storage of meat, and whether snacks are sealed or not. Visual data helps users understand better, so in addition to basic numbers, designing an intelligent timeline that reminds users of the food status by changing colors may have a better effect.

The food list can be created manually or by scanning a barcode. The food that has been added will provide storage recommendations based on the type of food and the remaining shelf life. Users can also add storage methods to obtain more accurate data records.

In addition, the app can help users make decisions to help deal with food that may have been over-purchased before and may expire soon. By sliding a specific item on the food list, users can choose to cook or share it with friends in need before it expired. As the latter is not only about privacy and security, but also related to food safety issues, communication and sharing are limited to trusted acquaintances and friends added by the user.

Social & Mobile

• Social - The chat and food sharing features show what makes it different and special from other competing products.

• Mobile - Users can form their own groups and also know the status of their friends' food, a feature that is hardly available in current food logging or date reminding applications.

Target Users

The main user group is people who want to use tools to help them manage their food and avoid food waste by reminding them according to shelf life. Especially for those who live alone or shared house with a small number of people, because it is more difficult for them to deal with the food if they have bought too many.

Conceptual Model

Aim

Through questionnaires and interviews, I found that the main cause of the problem is not only single overconsumption, but sometimes they don't know what food they have at home, which leads to repeat purchases. In this case, it is important to have a simple and straightforward food list and to think about what to do with the food to avoid waste. The technology used in the design approach aims to increase the awareness of food saving by reminder functions and provide suggestions as well as practical solutions to change people’s negative habits and reduce food waste in shared house.

Problem Statement

Design and develop a mobile application to help people record food information include produced and expired dates by scanning as well as reminding them to consume on time or share with others to reduce food waste caused by unawareness.

How it works

The system is focusing on reducing food waste by reminding people about the shelf lives of food they purchased. It will record the expired date by scanning food. It can help remind people to consume food as soon as possible before expired. It will generate the recipe according to the food status. It will act as a platform for food sharing among friends.

Interaction Paradigms

• Mobile devices - Send instructions on the mobile app

Interaction Metaphors

• House in the menu bar - homepage
• Dialog box - contacts/chatting
• Magnifier icon - search function
• Gear icon - represent settings

System Requirements

Feature - Food Logging(List)

Description: Foods are arranged in reverse chronological order according to their expired dates. Added food can be searched by category，the food cards will record when they were added and how long they have left to expire, with the numbers showing different colors depending on the situation. Users can mark food to choose whether to share with friends and if they click the share button, friends can see the food they want to share.

Rationale: The whole homepage is relatively open, users can operate as they wish, and the way to add food is also optional. In addition, to prevent too much food from being difficult to manage, I also added a category search function. Foods are listed from smallest to largest according to their expiration dates, and foods that are about to expire are marked with brighter colors to provide better reminders.

Justifications: From the undertaken research and particularly conducted interviews, multiple participants explained that they did not have access to energy usage data that was meaningful or significant to them, and they did not understand their electricity bill when it provided details of kilowatt usage, nor does their electricity company provide visual data such as graphs to display this data in a way that is understandable. Additionally, research has seen that monetary value is an effective motivator to conserving energy.

Feature - Recipe Recommendations

Description: Users can decide what to cook based on the state of the food and can get recipes/cooking suggestions by sending messages to the robot. You can get recipes more quickly and solve cooking problems after seeing the more intuitive view of existing ingredients to decide, which helps users to eat them in time.

Rationale: When users decide to cook food that is ready to expire for consumption, they can get the recipe by talking to the robot and simply entering the ingredients they want to use.

Justifications: For the different needs of different people, I decided to add a recipe recommendation function after analyzing and thinking based on the results of user interviews. Although a single function is more concise, users want an application to have enough reason to exist in the phone, and this is where the design of related functions becomes especially important. For example, a chat application is often paired with the function for sharing moments.

Feature - Marking the food

Description: Users can mark foods in their food list to give them a "Want to be shared" status, which can be seen by friends if the food list is public.

Rationale: Highlighting foods that you want to be shared in a way that is more familiar to the user can increase the ease of use of the application. Because the whole process is quite simple, just like Instagram's "like", it only takes one tap to get the food seen by friends.

Justifications: I thought of many ways that food could be shared, and users made it clear that how easy an app is to use is an important factor in determining whether they will continue to use it. Directly tapping and swiping on the food card was easy and time-consuming, so adding a shareable sign to guide users to tap on it was my final decision.

Feature - Contacting with friends for food sharing

Description: When users do not feel like cooking the food on their own and prefer to share it with their friends, they can chat with them to talk about the details. Besides, users can see their friends' food list if they are public, this not only allows them to remind their friends but also a way to see their highlighted food which is prepared for sharing.

Rationale: By adding friends, users are able to check each other's food status if they are public. This is not just a traditional chat tool, but its main purpose is to show your friends their own list of food. If set to public, friends can see the foods you expect to share out and the status of your food (and tell you to eat them quickly if they turn red). Friends who are close or live together can also add groups and choose to share a food list to help remind each other.

Justifications: According to my research, I found that there are many food-sharing organizations and websites that are successfully attracting a significant number of users. However, due to the different regional and cultural backgrounds, many participants still said they had not heard of similar concepts. Even if they wanted to participate in this activity, it was difficult to contact the relevant organizations. Therefore, turning food sharing into an activity that everyone can participate in if they want to will go some way towards achieving sustainable food consumption.

Design Guidelines

Privacy protection

• Users make their own decision while using the app, there is no mandatory operation, they can decide whether to add friends or not, whether to make their food list/location public, etc.

Metaphor/Icon

• To avoid user confusion and improve usability, all the metaphors used must match between the system and the real world.

Navigation

• Menu at the bottom of the screen with brief descriptions or clear icons.

Colour

• All colors are consistent in the system. Make sure all food information is presented in a consistent format, without misleading.
• I found yellow more joyful and can increase appetite, so I chose it as the theme color for foodpro