Solving The Challenges of Food Deserts
The Hunger Avengers is a social impact start-up on a mission to solve the challenges faced by those living in food deserts across the US. Their business model is based on collecting unused/unwanted food from communities of privilege and redistributing them to millions living in underserved communities
The Challenge
The biggest challenge that my team faced was scope. We only had 8 weeks to move from discovery to prototype.
There were also many logistical constraints that came up along the way such as how to authenticating participants, and reserve orders.
Goals
Validate the proposition put forward by the company.
Design an end-to-end solution for two distinct user types, Donors and Recipients.
Incorporate all necessary components outlined by the stakeholders.
Explore features that will maximize outcomes for the company.
The Client
Social impact startup
Non-profit
Donors
Recipients
Time Table
8 weeks total
4 spent on discovery
4 spent on design
My Process
My Role
For this project, I worked with a team of 3 volunteer designers. Instead of assuming specialized roles, we each played a part throughout each phase.
This strategy helped us reach more people, create more wire flows, and test more users.
It also helped us maintain alignment and continuity.
1. Discovery
Stakeholder Interviews
In order to build the proper solution, we first needed to learn more about their target users. To accomplish this, we sat down with the client and laid out all of the assumptions we had about both the people who would likely donate to their cause and those who would receive aid (Donors and Recipients).
This was a great way to get to know our key stakeholders, and how they perceived their customer’s needs, motivations, and pain points. It was also a great way to see how opinions may differ between them so that we could build continuity before starting the design work.
User research
With all of our assumptions on the table, it became time to validate with real users. This was probably the most crucial step in the process because it helped us align the companies business goals with the needs of their users.
Here is a list of our methods and discoveries:
Method
Survey (Donors)
User Interviews (Recipients)
Competitive Analysis
Discoveries
Donors are both willing and able to participate in the service and could do so in a variety of capacities (including a paid subscription model).
Donors want to have control over their preferences for pick up, notifications, and method of donation.
Time and trust are the most significant obstacles donors face when it comes to contributing.
Our recipients have a diverse set of needs including dietary, health, and budgetary restrictions. Transportation however was their biggest obstacle.
Some choose fast food over healthy options out of a feeling of trust for the establishment and a desire to contribute to local business owners.
They expressed a willingness to pay for the service as long as it met their budget and they found value in the service.
The market is dominated by non-profits who have a strong online presence.
Their websites often prioritize content over anything else. Their mission is to inform the user of their service and get them to the aid centers.
Insights
1)The companies business proposition was sound. Their target users had a willingness to participate, however building trust was important to level of participation.
2) Donors value flexibility more then anticipated, which meant that multiple options could increase participation rates.
3) There is still uncertainty about how the company authenticates its Recipients - can this authentication be done via the app, or does it have to take place in person?
2. Synthesize
Personas
To manage the scope of our solution, we honed in on the experience of the individual donor and recipient. I used the findings to construct a provisional persona for the recipient user type. Ashley helped my team and I understand how we could help our recipients achieve their goals using features in the app.
Example: Recipient Persona
3. Define
User Scenarios
User scenarios helped us define the features of the product. In this fictitious story below, I depict Ashley’s journey as she completes multiple goals in the app. This scenario was meant to help the team understand what motivates the recipient as they interact with the design, which in turn opened the box to our imagination.
Customer Journey Map
To brainstorm features for the product, I also created a customer journey map. The journey map gave us a compact visualization of what the end-to-end customer experience could look like. Like the scenario, it deepened our team’s understanding of the users’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings across multiple touchpoints along their journey.
Example: Recipient Journey
Insights
1) The best opportunity for building trust seems to be in the middle of the user’s journey. If we are able to build a product that is easy for them to use, we will see increased conversions and a lower bounce rate.
2) We still need to explore multiple ways to authenticate, it is unclear how much information is needed (speak to shareholders).
3) We need to think creatively about how our users can reserve orders before pick up to ensure confidence in both customers and employees.
4. Ideation
Wireflows
With the tight time constraints that we were under, my team and I decided it would be appropriate to forego our normal user flow activity and move instead to wire flows. The rationale behind this decision was that we wanted to present to our stakeholders a flow chart that seemed less abstract than the usual boxes and arrows saw in a task flow.
The wire flows were a great way to show the screen designs as well as the interactions that would be taking place through the user’s journey. We also included annotations with each screen to provide the stakeholders with descriptions of the primary features/interactions. Using Figma, we were able to receive their feedback as well.
A small sample of Wireflow
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Along with the wire flows, we sent the client all of our frames, as well as a working prototype for our first round of usability testing. Please feel free to scan some of the low-fidelity frames below. You will notice that this first round of frames is void of color and visuals. This was intentional, for we only wanted the client to focus on the concept and basic interactions.
Sample Wireframes
Style Guides
UI Style Guides
Although UI design was not our strong suit, the team and I knew it would be important to develop guidelines before we upgraded to high-fidelity wireframes.
Below you will find a tile that we created to ensure continuity between all of our designs. Armed with this style tile, the team was able to work separately from each other without worrying about major deviations in the design.
5. Validation
Usability Testing
In all, there two rounds of usability testing, one with our low fidelity wireframes and another with our high fidelity wireframes. For the sake of your time, I will detail only the results of the second round below.
All-in-all there were 6 tests conducted with our high fidelity prototype. The overarching goal of each test was to gauge the ease of use of each feature. To measure this we timed the participants and recorded the number of errors they made en route to their end goal (reserving an order for pickup).
Each usability test was recorded using zoom recording software, and all findings were documented within an excel spreadsheet so that the team could synthesize the information together.
Example Screen Recording
6. Iterations
Armed with feedback from the usability tests, I began to make iterations on the high-fidelity wireframes to resolve the challenges faced by users in the second round of usability testing. After these changes were made, our team refined the final prototype and sent it out to our client.
Changes: Authentication screens
Changes: Full catalog view
High fidelity screens
7. Next steps
The Donor Pathway
The next step of this project would be to build out the end-to-end journey for the individual donor. These users represent the other side of the business and it is their contributions that directly influence how many people can receive aid.
I would also like to experiment with scaling this project to both desktop and iPad. The grid that I used should support that kind of responsive design.
What I Learned
This project taught me a lot about what it means to work with a design team in a remote setting. Communication was often the biggest barrier to creating a great design and although the UI style tile was helpful, continuity was still difficult to achieve. This experience taught me that even something as simple as daily check-ins can be a powerful way to keep everyone on the same page. It also showed me the effectiveness of collaborative tools such as Figma, and Miro. Without these tools, our team would have been lost.
