Bite2Get

Reducing food wastage

Overview

Context: A UX research/design project to Respect food and reduce food wastage, by encouraging users to buy and consume misfits/ugly food. The project was designed based on the idea of "Respect" and was a part of the graduate coursework.

Team: Andrew Yang, April Chen, Kamala Payyapilly Thiruvenkatanathan, Ying Pan

Duration: 3 Months (September 2019 - December 2019)

Process: Research, Synthesis, Ideation, Prototyping, User testing

Design Tools: Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, Construct 3

My Role: As the Lead User researcher I was responsible for sketching out the research outline as well as conducting user interviews. I was also the developer of a working prototype as well as responsible for the documentation of the design process. Having said that, every member of the team had equal involvement in each phase of the project.

Background

Webster's dictionary defines "Respect" as "an act of giving particular attention". Respect is a virtue and can be given to anyone and anything. So, with "Respect" as our project’s topic, we had tons and tons of ideas. The question we then faced was "What do we respect?". We came up with different ideas, such as respect for people (elderly, homeless, differently abled etc.), Environment (Food, ocean etc.), culture, religion, and time. The ultimate decision was to go with "Respect for Food".

Although food is an indispensable resource, it has been ignored and wasted. As a result, almost a billion people are going hungry and undernourished. Further, degradation of food releases a large amount of carbon dioxide, which is also a major contributor to the greenhouse effect. Therefore, we came to a consensus that Food needs to be respected.

What better way to show respect for food than trying to reduce food wastage?

The Problem

People are unaware of the amount of resources used for food production as well as the amount of food wasted. Our goal was to create a product that is sustainable, that spreads awareness about food wastage and changes consumer's attitude and behavior towards food thereby reducing food wastage.

The Solution

"Bite2Get", an interactive game that educate players about misfits and encourage them to purchase and consume misfits. The players are kept engaged by capturing their camera input and asking them to bite every time a falling misfit is closer to their mouth, which symbolizes consumption of misfits. Further, the game also rewards the players with free misfits box/discount coupons that encourages them to consume misfits.

The Process

Research

Research methods overview

Predispositions

From farm to fork, food wastage occurs at various levels ranging from the farmers to the grocery stores to the kitchen. Even before we began the research process, we observed that there are multiple contradictory assumptions about food and food wastage, in general. The predisposition that most of us were unaware of, was about consumer's approach towards ugly food/misfits.

In order to prove/falsify the predispositions, we had to gather data through primary and secondary research.

Secondary Research

Our first research approach was to review existing literature to gather statistics and information about the sources of food wastage and how people approach food wastage. From the pile of data gathered, we found the below to be the most insightful:

Primary Research

We had to gather more first-hand information, in order to identify the various sources of food wastage. The two primary research methods that we performed were Photo-ethnography and user interviews. From the data gathered through photo-ethnography, we particularly observed that buyer behaviors change based on the form of food being sold. To gather more insights on the same, we visited the local farmer’s market to interview buyers and sellers, about their approach towards misfits/ugly food.

Photo-ethnography helped us capture buyer/seller preferences towards misfits. It was observed that buyers had least interest purchasing misfits from the farmers market, thereby impacting the corresponding seller’s emotions.

Interview was particularly conducted to understand seller/buyer behaviors based on the form of food being sold. The interview was conducted at the local Bloomington community farmer's market. A total of 6 farmers, who were also sellers in the farmer’s market was interviewed and a total of 6 buyers (both randomly selected) were interviewed. Questions asked to the farmer’s included the amount of misfits produced and wasted and how they deal with it. Questions to the buyers focused on their attitude towards misfits and if they would buy misfits.

Responses from buyers/consumers showed that most of the buyers preferred purchasing perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. Few of them, however, felt that the perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables are raised with chemical pesticides. In other words, they wanted to buy misfits as they found them to be the most organic. From farmer's responses, we understood that around 20% to 25% of foods produced by farmers, are misfits. Further, they had a unanimous response that, if buyers put aside their bias and preferences for the best-looking food and look for the taste, they will notice that even misfits taste the same as a perfectly shaped fruit/vegetable. We were also informed that grocery stores do not accept misfits/deformed fruits and vegetables.

Key Research Insights

#2 Food wastage occurs at various levels ranging from farmers to consumers, however the most prominent reason is the consumer’s attitude and behavior

“I know it has nothing to do with the taste or the quality, but when you set it in a bowl you want them to look good.” - Consumer

#3 Consumers and grocery stores prefer purchasing the perfect looking fruits/vegetables that result in food wastage of sub-optimal food/misfits/deformed foods, at the farmer’s end.

“The grocery store wants plenty of showcased stuff, they reject a lot of Misfits, or something if it’s just not perfect … because the average buyers just want the picture postcard looking product.” - Farmer

Synthesis

Stakeholder Mapping

Based on the insights gathered from research, we generated a stakeholder map, to identify every point where food is wasted. We tried to be as exhaustive as possible. Find below the map, with the points of food wastage indicated by numbers from 1 through 5.

Sketching out the stakeholder map helped us identify the sources of food wastage. Our focus to generate design principles followed by concepts, was on household, farmer's market and grocery stores because they seemed to be generating most of the food wasted.

Design Principles

From research insights and user responses, we derived three major design principles that would drive our ideation process.

Ideation

Brainstorming

Synthesis of research data not only gave us a chance to notice the situation of food wastage in many perspectives, but also inspired us to figure out some solutions. After a thought provoking brainstorming session that generated more than 20 different ideas, we picked the 5 most preferred concepts, based on voting.

Each of the concept focused on a different source of food wastage. What was intriguing was the fact that while people are aware of food wastage caused by throwing away excess food, very few are aware of wastage caused by misfits/deformed/ugly food. This resulted in narrowing down the source to "Farmer's market" and its consumers, where buying/selling/wastage of misfits occur.

Design Goal

We wanted to design a product that educates people about misfits, make them understand that misfits are absolutely normal and taste the same as a perfectly shaped fruit/vegetable and eventually encourage them to consume misfits.

The concept however went through several iterations, with each of them fine tuning the idea and the game design itself. Ultimately, we landed on the idea of Bite2Get

Implementation

Final Concept

Bite2Get is an interactive game, that encourages players to metaphorically consume the falling misfits, by capturing their camera input and asking them to bite every time a misfit is closer to their mouth. Further, the game also rewards the players with free misfits box/discount coupons that encourages them to consume misfits.

Why Bite2Get?

Although all the ideas that we came up with was fun and easy, none of them was quick and rewarding as Bite2Get. Further, Bite2Get encourages people to consume misfits while playing the game, through the metaphorical act of biting.

Storyboarding

The first step of the design process was to create a Storyboard that would narrate the sequence of workflow, when a consumer plays Bite2Get.

Concept Evaluation

A quick evaluation of the concept was conducted with the help of Behavioral paper prototype. The prototype consisted of a simple workflow of the game, with interface sketched out on sheets of paper and each sheet representing a screen in the workflow.

Based on the results from concept evaluation as well as research data and insights, we proposed the final design solution.

Evaluation of the concept showed that people are interested in the game. Some of the feedback involved making the Intro animation as educative as possible as well as making the game play quick.
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Based on the results and feedback from concept evaluation as well as research data and insights, we proposed the final design solution.

Final Design Solution

"Bite2Get" is an interactive game that educates players about misfits and encourage them to purchase and consume misfits.

User Testing

The game was tested on both laptop as well as mobile phone. Each player was given a background of why the game was created, along with all the functionalities that the actual game would have i.e., including the free box of misfits and discount coupons that players get, each time they play the game. We received positive feedback about the concept while receiving mixed reviews about the prototype, as a result of the constraints.

#1 Players were not aware of what misfits were.

“I don't think anything is like that you know like, I didn't know there’s a misfits.com I had no idea about that…and I don’t know if a lot of people knowing about it or I might just be the one who doesn’t know.”

#2 The free misfits box for a new user sign up, was rewarding and encouraging.

“I think it would definitely help bring awareness to the situation with misfits because after I played it, this is the first time I would want to do the box thing, at least once.“

#3 Overall, players felt that the game will spread awareness about misfits.

“Yeah because I think it just brings awareness like I feel like this is one of the things they gave them like word-of-mouth, like you can just get the game out there.”

Reflections

#1 The more the research, the more you uncover

In the beginning, food wastage to us was excess food being thrown away. In other words, we believed rotten food or cooked, unconsumed food, causes food wastage. However, our research showed that so many people, like us, are unaware of the wastage caused by "Misfits/ugly food" that eventually turned out to be our point of focus.

#2 First step to being a user researcher is to be able to empathize with the user

A major part of our research involved interviewing farmers in the local community farmer's market. As the lead UX researcher, my role was to approach farmers and interview them regarding the state of misfits in their own farm. While I had all the questions prepared, I was initially awkward to approach a farmer, build a rapport with them and proceed with the interview. At the end of our project, however, I became an expert in breaking the ice with strangers and getting into the interview process. And how did I achieve this? by empathizing with them!

#3 Every iteration leads to a better design

The first idea that we generated and the final design solution that we delivered had vast differences, although the foundation of focusing on misfits through a game remained the same. Every iteration during our design phase resulted in a better solution. If given some more time, the resulting solution could be even better!