About this project
This app helps students and young adults reduce food waste and manage their expenses by allowing them to plan their meals and find recipes that fit their budget.
In this group project, Participatory Design (PD) methods, including Future Workshop, were used to create a design together with users. In participatory design, the researchers and the users come together to co-create, co-operate, and co-design. This means that those who are meant to be the end-users are actively involved in the design process.
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After identifying students and young adults as the target group, data was gathered, leading to the development of the app BudgetBites.
TIMELINE
Oct - Dec 2022
MY ROLE
UX/UI designer
UX research
PLATFORM
Figma
Miro
Challenges
As a student, life can already be stressful and being able to focus on education should be a main priority. The inability to afford the student lifestyle may lead to students dropping out and opting to work for a better income that can cover their costs.
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Main challenges identified:
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Items not available at visited store, which makes it difficult to plan meals ahead
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Difficulty navigating different store layouts
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Lack of knowledge about expiration dates and ingredients
Solutions
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Recipes based on ingredients that users have at home, thus reducing food waste
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Scanning function which helps to find affordable recipes
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7-day meal planning where users get suggestions based on their preferences and sustainability
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Education about sustainable food consumption
Discover
Define
Design
The process
Methods and solutions to users' pain points
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Future workshop and survey - Defining pain points
We used both quantitative (SUS survey) and qualitative (future workshop) methods to collect as much valuable data as possible.
In the Future Workshop, users were encouraged to name their pain points regarding meal planning and cooking at home, and come up with innovative solutions to these problems. There were limits or expectations that these solutions should be realistic.
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The System Usability Scale (SUS) measures the usability of a product and enables designers to conduct valid usability tests with participants.
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02
Categorizing user pain points and finding solutions
At the end of the Future Workshop, we categorized the solutions and identified which could be implemented in our app.
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For example, users struggled to know what to cook with the ingredients they had at home. We addressed this with a scanning function that provides nutritional information and recipes for scanned ingredients.
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Another issue was users not knowing how long products actually last. We solved this by educating users about products that often last beyond their expiration dates and recommending they check products before discarding them.
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Wireframes
After identifying the pain points of the users and organise the solutions that they have come up with, it was time to create a wireframe which included the functions that were most prioritised by users but also were realistic and innovative. ​
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The most important functions were meal planning, tailored recipes by the preferences that the users choose during registration, finding recipes and nutritional information by scanning of ingredients, displayed discounts,
education about expiration of products, favourite recipes and grocery list.
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Mockup
Our interactive prototype displays some of the final product's functions. Here is the full prototype, which illustrates the functions with some interactive elements. The user can navigate from the start page to “News feed” and from there, explore the pages “Recipes”, “Meal Plan”, and “Grocery List”. We chose to showcase these functions as we wanted the user to get a full experience of our final product.
Major screens
Budget-friendly
recipes
Tailor-made recipes
Recipes that reduce food waste
Advanced search bar with scanning function
Scanning of ingredient
Recipe based on
the scanned ingredient
Weekly meal planner with nutrition guide
Recommendations based
on user preferences
Adjustable recipes
and nutritional information
Add ingredients to grocery list
Final thoughts
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The underlying question of this study was, "Can we help students manage during inflation?" Our data suggests we can. Half of respondents are unemployed, and 75% rely on CSN grants and loans, indicating most have no extra income and are in debt, necessitating budget management.
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The need for BudgetBites is supported by our data analysis. Initially intended for current students, this tool can also assist graduates in managing debts, as budget management remains crucial after graduation.
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To further develop BudgetBites in the future, we would collect additional data in future workshops to identify any missed functions or designs. Including visually impaired participants in these workshops would ensure our app's accessibility.​​​