Recipe Genie

A mobile app that helps reduce food waste by letting users scan leftover food items with their camera (AR) and find a recipe to reuse them.


Platform
Mobile, Platform-independent


Team
Hyunah Oh (myself)  UX Designer, solution idea, main prototyping
Rebecca Yang  UX Designer, research, prototyping
Yuri Shareef  UX Designer, research, art direction
Rulisha Chetty  UX researcher, usability testing

Project Goal
Find a way to reduce food waste using digital technology.


Role
UX Designer & researcher
Main idea & prototyping


Year
2022 / 7-day Sprint


Scope
Design Sprint, UX Design, user research, prototyping, usability testing


Methods & Tools
Slack, Figma, Google Slides, Photoshop, sketching, user research, user testing

PROBLEM SPACE | RESEARCH

Every day, millennials around the world throw 1.7 meals away

• Secondary research
  
• Market research

Food waste is a serious issue around the world. According to RTS, the United States alone produces 40 million tons of food waste each year.

Shockingly, an article from Dailymail UK pointed millennials as being the main culprit of this phenomenon. This intrigued us as a team, and we decided to target millennials in this project.

EMPATHIZE

Millennials waste food
because it is cumbersome
to do otherwise

• User interviews
  
• User persona
  

With millennials on mind, we reached out to fellow millennials and found that although they were aware of their food wastage, time and effort were the biggest barriers in preventing them from doing so.

Based on our interview results and secondary research, we created a persona that represents our research insights.

DEFINE

When will be the perfect
timing for our design
intervention?

• User journey mapping
  
• HMW question
  

Based on our persona, we mapped the entire journey of interaction with food items from Jane’s perspective. We identified key moments where we can intervene and help millennials reduce food waste.

• Shopping
  
• Storage
  
• Disposal
  

In making a decision to select a moment of design intervention, we went back to the interview scripts and decided to tackle the disposal stage.

IDEATE

A quick solution to save food waste 
before food items get thrown away

• Solution finding
  
• Sketching
  

Now that we have decided on when to intervene, it was time for ideation. After considering the timeframe, technical/business feasibility and user needs, we decided to design an app in which users can scan leftover items and find a recipe to reuse them. 

PROTOTYPE

Focusing on the user
& the project goal

• Wireframing
  
• Prototyping
  

Based on my sketch, I started wireframing the flow. While wireframing, we often found ourselves tempted to add features, such as reward points and social sharing.

Through numerous discussions and debates, we tried to stay on track, focusing on the key product offering and showing an impactful prototype.

TEST

Incorporating user feedback & strengthening the prototype

• Usability testing
  

In the usability testing sessions, users provided us with honest and helpful feedback that simplified and strengthened the prototype. 

FINAL SOLUTION

Helping users reduce
food waste with AR

Our user persona, Jane’s problem was that she wants to reduce food waste, but she has limited time and effort to invest in the initiative.

The final solution solves this problem by providing users with an easy, fun way to recycle leftover food items using phone cameras and help users quickly find recipes that use those food items.

LEARNINGS & REFLECTIONS

Discovering the value of
real-time collaboration

AR scan was indeed a key part in our project that made it easier for millennials to reduce food waste in their daily lives. We learned that being creative with existing technology could be a great way to fight problems like food waste.

Through this fully remote team effort, I also learned to appreciate the power of constructive criticism and discussions even more.

As I was prototyping, my teammates were on the same Figma file, constantly helping me fill in the blanks with photography and real recipes and giving me feedback on the prototype. This real-time digital collaboration was what made the quality of this project much stronger.