Poly Pantry
A mobile app that addresses food insecurity in college students using AI-powered solutions
OVERVIEW
A 24-Hour Design Challenge
UX Fest SLO is an annual designathon competition where teams of 2-4 students have 24-hours to design an original app or website on Figma and present it to a panel of industry professionals. In March 2024, the challenge was to create a mobile or web prototype that aims to address food insecurity, health and dietary considerations, and/or culinary exploration. In addition, the app/website was required to incorporate an AI-driven feature (eg. Pinterest uses AI to populate your dashboard with recommended pins. Spotify creates AI-generated playlists based on your listening activity).
My Role & Timeline
My Role: Product Designer
Timeline: 24 Hours
Team: 4 Product Designers
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator
USER RESEARCH
How many students are struggling to access food?
To uncover challenges related to food insecurity, health, and dietary considerations, our team conducted research to identify a meaningful problem to address. We found that in 2021-2022, approximately 6,000 students at Cal Poly faced consistent food access challenges, with 27% of the student body experiencing food insecurity and 26% dealing with marginal food insecurity. Although Cal Poly provides a food pantry offering free groceries, our research revealed that less than half of students utilized this resource in Fall 2022, highlighting significant gaps in accessibility and awareness.
Data retrieved from Cal Poly Basic Needs Task Force Report
USER INTERVIEWS
How do students feel about the food pantry?
Diving deeper into the problem, we conducted 21 user surveys to identify students’ pain points and frustrations with their experiences using the food pantry.
Key Takeaways:
-
Students are unable to find the groceries they need at the food pantry
-
Inability to plan and prepare meals due to unpredictable availability of ingredients
-
Lack of suitable options for dietary restrictions or allergies
-
Uncertainty about when specific items will be restocked
User surveys were created in Google Forms, then sent out to Cal Poly students.
These surveys revealed the need for a digital solution that provides students with real-time updates on pantry inventory. This would empower them to plan meals more effectively and accommodate dietary restrictions.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Food pantry, digitized.
Poly Pantry is a moble app that strives to improve the food pantry experience by including live updates of ingredients each day. Our approach involves utilizing an AI-powered recipe generator, enabling students to make the most of the pantry ingredients. Users can add items to their shopping cart and pick them up at a designated time, streamlining the process of ordering and picking up groceries at the food pantry.
INITIAL BRAINSTORMING
Early Design Rounds & Creating Structure
Building on our research, we developed a user journey map to outline the app’s features and the steps users take to accomplish their goals.
User Journey
Crazy 8's Exercise
Based on the actions outlined in our user journey, we used the Crazy 8's exercise to quickly sketch a plethora of potential ideas for different screens.
Next, we transitioned to creating low-fidelity wireframes in Figma. These wireframes enabled use to test functionality and gather feedback earlier in the process without becoming distracted by visual aesthetics.
Low-fidelity Screens
USER TESTING
Identifying the best solutions through A/B testing
Conducting A/B testing on low-fidelity screens enabled our team to gather user feedback early in the design process. We tested two versions of a screen that allowed users to view all of the current available ingredients.
Key insights:
-
Users were able to find their desired ingredients faster when using the food categories tab from Option B
-
Option A was too crowded, making the plethora of choices overwhelming for the user.
-
75% of our test participants preferred Option B, which we later incorporated into our mid-fi
DESIGN PROCESS
Creating a design system
We decided on a bold and colorful color palette to make the shopping experience more fun and playful. Additionally, we chose a clean, easily scannable sans-serif typefaces. Montserrat was selected for headings, and DM Sans for the body text, ensuring readability throughout the shopping experience.
FINAL ITERATIONS
Finalizing designs & conducting user testing
Given the time constraints, we were only able to test our mid-fidelity designs on a few users. During testing, we gave our users a few tasks, including adding 2 oranges to their cart. However, we found that many of them were confused by the black cart icon.
Therefore, we changed the icon to an “add” button, which turns into a green checkmark after the item has been added to cart to eliminate user confusion.
FINAL DESIGNS
A walkthrough of our final high-fidelity screens
Home Page & Recipe Screen
Add Ingredients, Checkout, and Calendar
SOLUTION
Final Prototype
REFLECTION
What I Learned
Reflecting on the design process, these are some key takeaways and aspects I would approach differently:
-
Prioritizing time management: In projects with tight turnarounds, it’s crucial to plan each stage of the design process (research, brainstorming, iterating, testing, etc.). Our team did not come up with a detailed execution plan, which led to an imbalance in time allocation. We spent a lot more time on ideation and research than on designing and iterating, leading us feeling rushed during the critical final stages of testing. A more structured timeline would have allowed for a smoother workflow overall.
-
Focusing on usability over preferences during testing: With limited time for testing in a 24-hour timeframe, many of our testing sessions primarily explored user preferences rather than evaluating the usability of the interface. This was partly because we did not have time to add interactivity to our prototypes until the final design iterations, constraining our ability to test interactions effectively. Shifting the focus on usability testing earlier in the process could have provided more actionable insights.
View my other projects!
Pringles Redesign
Packaging Design • Illustration
Mustang Media Group
Editorial Design • Layout • Illustration
Guavalanche
Packaging Design • Illustration