Eat It

Helping the environment one bite at a time

How many times have you gone to your fridge to have the raspberries you bought on Thursday...or was it Wednesday...only to find they are no longer fit for human consumption?

We've all been there and frankly it sucks to throw away food. I knew it must be bad for the environment and my bank balance, and I never found an easy way to keep track of when things in my fridge were about to expire.

I wanted to do something about it, I wanted to remember to Eat It.

Project Type

Project

Role

Native Mobile App

Concept

UX, UI, Branding

CHAPTER 1

Research and User Experience

I researched global stats to see how much of a problem food waste is around the world, to search for any clues as to why there is so much of it.

Following this I had an in-depth look at the competition my app might have, to see if there was anything I could improve on or do differently.

Afterwards, I interviewed a range of potential users - ranging from students to families - to find out how they combat wasting perishable goods and their processes of keeping track of food before it expires.

This information led me to focus on points which I wanted my product to address; an app which revolves around a list that tracks the shelf-life of the stock in your fridge.

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CHAPTER 2

Task Flow

The research had been gathered, so I went to plan how the app would be laid out.

I didn't want it to be overly complicated, so I ensured it every page linked back to the fridge list.

CHAPTER 3

Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototyping

I did some initial sketches with pen and paper as to how the main pages could be laid out, to form a basic structure.

Once happy with my structure I jumped to Balsamiq to mock up a few outlines of certain pages of the app and compared each of them to end up with my final choice. Following this, I added elements I thought would be essential such as filter choices and search bars. This exploration helped me sift through which pages looked the cleanest and provided the essential functionality.

Next I moved into Sketch to begin to build the wireframes based on my rough design in Balsamiq. When I had enough pages to test I imported it into InVision so I could send the prototype out to as many people on my phone list for feedback before going any further.

CHAPTER 4

Design

I received feedback from people I sent my Invision link to.
I also had some people use my phone to test the app provide additional comments on changes and tweaks to be made.

Below is the final version of the app which incorporates all of the feedback I received from user-testing. I call the app Eat It.

Fridge list

This is the main list which shows the products in the fridge.

It's colour-coded using a traffic light system to allow the user to readily identify when an item is close to it's expiry date.
A countdown to the actual expiry time is also shown, to give a more accurate indication and to help colour blind users.

Did you eat that?

A pop-up will appear once food which hasn't been removed from your fridge list passes its expiry date.

Scan or add

Quickly scan in items or manually insert them. Either way it's a low-effort process to add items to update your main list.

The smart AI can predict the shelf-life of each of the goods added.

Shopping list

The shopping list page allows the user to keep track of items they've collected as they shop.

The panel darkens as you 'cross things off' and because the app syncs with other users in your group, they can watch in real time as items are collected.

Don't want to see items in the shopping list at all anymore? Just swipe it off to permanently delete it.

Remove food items in bulk

Once at home, you may find yourself eating a favourite meal frequently, so rather than individually
removing items from your fridge list you have just used, these can be removed in bulk. This is a quick short-cut and time saver.

Waste saving progress

Track your personal progress on how waste-free you've been. This updates depending on how the fridge list is used in the household.

Your progress stats will be positive if you remove items before they expire or select that you've eaten them if a 'times up' pop-up appears. This is aimed to be motivational and to challenge the user to be as enviornmentally friendly as possible.

Welcome

After the app is first loaded, you're presented with a welcome screen.