Product Design: Discovery and Exploration

Nobody Hungry: A Case Study

Inspiration

I watched two separate news stories. One was about the extremely large number of people who live with food insecurity in the US. The many children who would starve if it was not for school lunch programs and community programs which keep free lunches available in summertime. The other story was about the huge amount of food that is wasted, ending up in landfills. It was upsetting and my mind kept coming back to it. Perhaps there could be a tool to get the food surplus, which would end up in the landfill, to the people in need of free food? There had to be a solution!

Research

I started googling about food insecurity and food waste, and also watched a few of documentaries. I was astonished to learn that 40% of food in the US is wasted and goes to landfills. Also, there are large charitable organizations raising money and working hard to feed people of limited means who are hungry. Food pantries, soup kitchens, and community dining rooms are plentiful in towns and cities across our country. There are many kinds of events to raise money for charities, including events to support folks challenged to get a healthy meal. I think most people have either run a marathon to raise money for those in need or donated to a friend or family member who has.

Sampling of products and organizations working with food rescue or food insecurity

Empathizing While Reviewing

While looking at products and organizations that support people dealing with food insecurity there was a pattern I noticed. Many of the organizations and products are very broad in scope. It is great that charities offer so many different kinds of support, however it was not quick and easy to find specific information using their sites and products.

If you need some healthy groceries for your family there are plenty of community kitchens, food banks, and social services but the path to getting help seemed overly complicated. At minimum there would be a few hoops to jump through before receiving assistance. You might need to fill out forms, meet eligibility criteria then wait for approval to participate in a program. You might need to provide certain kinds of documentation. Maybe you are only expected to attend a social gathering at the community center. However, if your schedule is packed even a social event can be a pain point. Many charities encourage donors to organize food drives or various kinds of fundraising events.

These “standard” steps don’t seem to support the user who needs groceries and healthy meals. Nor does it support the busy professional who wants to spend free time helping people with food insecurity. I thought there must be more direct ways to get healthy food to people than organizing fundraising events.

Interview Preparation

I wanted my questions to be as open ended as possible. My goal was to understand the subject of food insecurity and food waste from the point of view of the people who really knew about these issues. I wanted to hear what they thought and any ideas they had about solving these problems. I wanted to understand their wants and needs and also hear their pain points and complaints.

Interview script summary

Learnings From Interviews

One of the people I interviewed was Jaye Andrews, Director of a local Food Pantry in Connecticut. Jaye shared that one of her biggest frustrations was getting groceries to her clients that don’t drive or don’t have a car. Also, some of her clients have cars that are unreliable. A client’s car might unexpectedly break down and they just don’t have money for repairs. This regular user of the Food Pantry suddenly can’t get there to pick-up groceries. Before meeting with Jaye I envisioned the app having two primary user types, a food donor and a food donee. After meeting with Jaye, I knew I had to include volunteer drivers to support people with transport services.

How Might I Create an App of Value That People Will Love Using?

I sat down to do some initial sketches in order to figure out how the app might work. My first instinct, before research, was for the solution to be as simple as possible. I thought of Tinder except with free food instead of a date. After some thought and research I could no longer envision a solution which was that simple, however that was my benchmark.

Benchmark: “Quick and simple”.

The app would need to support 3 different user types with symmetrical, but different experiences.
• People who donate food
• People who receive donated food
• People who transport donated food

My goal was to create an elegant design solution that would integrate the separate user journeys. Also, I thought it would be great if I could figure out a common goal to unify the 3 separate user groups and weave that into the brand values. I wanted the experience of the app to convey values of community support, comradeship, equality, and inclusion.

I wanted all users, regardless of their user role to feel equally special! All people should be valued regardless of their current life situation. I initially wanted to call the product “Food Share” or something like that. However, I felt that name did not convey the kind of “equality in humanity” brand vibe I was after. I decided to name the product “Nourish”. All humans need nourishment and being nourished happens on many levels, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Splash Animation + Welcome For All Users

Introducing Melanie Thomas (Donee)

Melanie’s Problem

Melanie is a busy mom with a demanding career who needs help sourcing healthy meals for herself and her daughter because she’s carrying a lot of debt and having trouble making ends meet.

Melanie’s Experience Using Nourish

View a Loom presentation describing Melanie’s experience.

Introducing Alex Mitchell (Grocery Donor)

Alex’s Problem

Alex is a busy entrepreneur who needs to find a quick and easy way to give away leftovers from his restaurant as well as a sporadic overabundance of produce from his farm because he hates wasting food and he knows there are people in his community that could use the help.

Alex’s Experience Using Nourish

View a Loom presentation describing Alex’s experience.

Introducing Joe Anderson (Delivery Services Donor)

Joe’s Problem

Joe is an energetic and bored retired man who needs to keep busy because his wife passed away last year and when he has too much free time he thinks about how much he misses her.

Joe’s Experience Using Nourish

View a Loom presentation describing Joe’s experience.

Moving Forward

Gather feedback, iterate on feedback, build prototype, user testing.