Use leftover groceries smarter
OVERVIEW | PROJECT SCOPE
Why is this project relevant?
One of the largest and most underrated contributors to food waste is a household. Households in America waste nearly a 1/3rd of the groceries purchased at the grocery store and contributes to nearly 43% of the overall food waste.
Our main goal this project was to understand how people are using their groceries at home and find a solution to subtly encourage the goal of minimizing household food waste.
My Role
Team Lead + UX Designer
Timeline
2 week sprint
Tools
Figma, Miro, Otter.io, Zeplin, Google Surveys, Zoom
Methods
Secondary Research, User Interviews, Affinity Map, User Persona, User Journey, User Flow, Problem Statement, Feature Prioritization, Sketching & Design Studio, Prototyping & Iterating, Usability Testing
Design Challenge
How might we encourage home cooks to maximize their most recent grocery haul while minimizing food waste ?
Core Features
Our team and I designed a native mobile application that
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allows users to find recipes based off groceries they already have in their fridge
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discover seasonal produce and recipies
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search for local produce suppliers in the users geographical location
Reception
Our team and I designed a native mobile application that
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14s increase on task success
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20% increase in task completion success
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20% increase in average time to complete tasks
Meet Perfect Fit
Home cooks can now find new recipes that use groceries they already have while gaining knowledge about seasonal produce and places to shop in their locality
DISCOVER | PROBLEM SPACE
Food waste in America
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that each year, U.S. food loss and waste embodies 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide 42 coal-fired power plants. EPA data show that food waste is the single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U.S., comprising 24 and 22 percent of landfilled and combusted municipal solid waste, respectively.
RESEARCH | USER INTERVIEWS
Who are we looking for?
RESEARCH | USER INSIGHTS
What do households have to say?
After affinity mapping, a technique to aggregate user insights based off the user interviews run, I came away with over fifteen user insights. The ones highlighted above are listed below
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Home cooks search for recipes to use what they have at home already, then grocery shop to supplement missing ingredients - the reverse of our initial assumption.
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Home cooks want to use or repurpose scraps and leftovers and avoid waste.
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Home cooks value simplicity - they want minimal ingredients, minimal cleanup, and minimal time actively cooking.
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Seasonality affects people’s eating habits by influencing the produce they buy and the food they’re in the mood for.
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People have an emotional and sentimental connection to food.
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People like visual aids to illustrate their recipes, but find cluttered pages and starting/pausing/rewinding videos while cooking annoying.
RESEARCH | USER PERSONA
Who is our target user?
To humanize our audience and aggregate our research findings into a simplified manner, our team built Ashley. Ashley is a fictious persona and her journey outlines what goals, needs, and frustrations we should focus on while she is encountering this problem in her day to day life, and provide insights on where we can help Ashley during her experience.
RESEARCH | USER JOURNEY
Where is she running into problems?
IDEATE | BUSINESS PARTNER
Which business is best suited to partner with Perfect Fit?
Part of our research goals included finding a channel business partner to help bolster our value prop. We identified Misfits Market as the best channel partner. Misfits Market shares our core values of sustainability, seasonality, and reduced food waste.
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Misfits Market is a subscription grocery service that initially reduces food waste by providing high-quality seasonal organic produce that would otherwise be considered “surplus” because it is too big, too small, or otherwise funny-looking. Customers subscribe to Misfits Market and receive a weekly grocery box, and can add and subtract items from the order in their online account. We found that while the sustainable food box space is growing more competitive, Misfits is able to compete well based on its relatively inexpensive prices, focus on high-quality organic groceries, and brand name recognition.
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By partnering with Misfits Market, Perfect Fit can source users directly from the already existing customer base that Misfits Markets has. To bolster this process, building a direct pipeline from Misfits to Perfect Fit will be crucial for the design phase.
IDEATE | FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
What to include in the minimum viable product?
IDEATE | MID-FIDELITY TO HIGH FIDELITY
Did we build the right features for our users?
DESIGN | THE SOLUTION
The "Perfect Fit" Prototype
DESIGN | USABILITY TESTING
What did the users have to say?
DESIGN | NEXT STEPS
What does the future state of Perfect Fit look like?
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Add upload receipt option to enable users to link groceries from other sources.
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Enable user-uploaded modifications to group around base recipes.
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Expand social functions such as likes, comments, and creator following.
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Potentially pursue additional partnerships with FCA’s and local food producers.
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Additional rounds of testing & design. 

As more and more people are looking for ways to streamline their meal planning and grocery shopping, this application could become an essential tool for many households.
The application could evolve to include features such as personalized recipe recommendations, grocery list suggestions based on previous purchases, and meal planning tools that incorporate dietary restrictions and preferences. Additionally, the application could integrate with grocery delivery services to make the entire process of meal planning and grocery shopping even more convenient for users. As technology continues to advance and more data is gathered on user behavior, this application has the potential to become a staple in many homes, helping users to save time and money while making delicious and healthy meals.