MOBILE APP
DESIGN
8 weeks
Research, User Flows, Wireframing,
UX research, Branding UI,
Prototyping
BoostEATS
BoostEats - is a mobile app designed to help struggling families.
It’s primary function is to create a platform where local restaurants can donate meals to families in need.
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What if an app was able to help fight hunger in every community across the US?
The Final Product:
View on mobile
Boost
EATS
01.
The
Challenge
Create a mobile app that will easily connect low-income families with restaurants willing to donate meals.
Onboarding that can verify low-income families.
Home screen that allows users to easily search or filter nearby restaurants.
Reservation funnel illustrating exactly what the user will recieve and when to pick up.
Confirmation of completed reservation through push notifications.
Empathize
Surveys / User Personas / User Journey
Define
The Problem / The Solution
Ideate
Competitive Audit / Wireframes
Design
Mockups / User Flows (prototypes)
Test
Usability Studies
Final Reflection
Week 6
Key Insights
88% used SNAP/EBT and 41% visited food banks. Although beneficial these sources only provide ingredients. Many struggle to find the time to cook. It would save time by offering cooked meals.
89% of households were supplementing their dinners with instant foods and fast foods (3-7 times a week). Restaurants with nutritional meals needed to be prioritized.
94% of participates would be interested in recieving feel meals from generous local restaurants. A strong potential user base is present. However, the incentives for businesses to donate would need to determined.
02.
User
Research
Since there are no solutions quite like BoostEATS, research was carried out to determine if the app would even be viable and accepted by potential users.
Quantitative Research
A survey with 34 potential users was conducted in order to determine their views and thoughts on a meal donation app.
03.
The
Problem
Food insecurity affects 36 million households across the US. Currently, there are no mobile solutions addressing this problem.
Other apps exist but only address food waste.
Gander
Food Waste Solutions
Food Waste Solutions:
Still charges a reduced price for the goods/food.
Allows anyone with the app to participate.
Those who are in most need have less opportunities to pick up food.
Material Waste Solution
Material Waste Solutions:
The service is primarily for donating unused appliances, toys, etc.
Food can be donated, but it is not backed by an actual business, so accepting food can be risky.
What the other apps don't do…
No other app offers completely free meals to low income families.
No other app focuses on food insecurity in the home.
No other app allows community businesses/members to get involved in eliminating food insecurity.
Why would restaurants give away free meals?
Donating meals is a way to give back to the community that has supported them.
Donating can help build a positive reputation and foster goodwill.
Restaurants often have surplus food that may otherwise go to waste.
04.
The
Solution
BoostEATS tackles food insecurity in US homes by allowing local restaurant to donate free meals to those most in neeed.
It all starts here:
Boost invites are given to local school administrators
School administrators distribute invites to children who qualify for the free/reduced-lunch program.
Children give their invite to a parent/guardian
The BoostEATS app is downloaded and registered using the invite.
Families can see all available restaurant meals in real time.
They are then able to reserve and pickup a free meal within the next 2 hours.
Invitation Card
Boost
EATS
Peel to reveal QR Code
This card will allow access to the Boost app.
Boost is an assistance program for families of students.
Please present this card to a parent and/or guardian.
Further instructions are located on the back of this card.
How does it work for restaurants?
Boost
EATS
Gold
Restaurants would receive signage that simply explains that the business donates and that customers can donate as well.
After a certain amount of paid meals have been purchased from their business, a free meal would be donated.
A restaurant employee would simply take a picture of the meal and upload it to the app.
Businesses who have donated the most earn a rating, similar to that of the Michelin star ratings.
05.
Competitive Audits
In order to ideate quickly, pre-existing apps similar to BoostEATS were analyzed. The strengths and weaknesses of these apps would help shape the UX of BoostEATS.
06.
User Flows
The primary flows were created using Figma’s prototyping feature.
Onboarding
After the app’s first launch, users are prompted to choose a language, gain app access via their invite, link or create an account, and allow permission to their location.
Search
The filter options allows the user the choose the criteria most important to them. The discovery(map) options will allow users to finds businesses close to home, work, or a particular route.
Search via filter
Search via discovery (map)
Reservation
Reservation was streamlined as much as possible. Restaurants will take photos of the meals. User will be able to see the photos (enlarge them when needed) and proceed with reserving a particular meal.
07.
Usability
Tests
Tests were conducted in order to gain insights and identify pain points.
Usability Test 2
Through testing on preliminary prototypes, participants felt the visuals were too “bold” and distracting. Also due to the over use of cards/modals (outlined elements) users felt overwhelmed with the amount of touchpoints (possible cognitive overload). The solution was to use more muted colors and resort to list rather than cards.
Revisions due to testing are shown below…
Usability Test 1
A moderated test was carried out on the Lo-fi prototype. I felt testing on the Lo-Fi was key to identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the user flows.
Key Insights
Access: Users wanted to be able to set their current location and/or search region.
SOLUTION: Allow the user to drag and drop the central search location/region.
Equitable: Users wanted those most in need to have access to the services on the app.
SOLUTION: App to only be accessible for families with children in the reduced or free-lunch programs.
Privacy: Users were concerned they would be identified and judged during pickup.
SOLUTION: All meal pickups with be verified with a unique QR code and no names/usernames will be necessary.
08.
Going
Forward
This project was a keystone for me. It was a culmination of my UX and UI abilities up until this point. A lot of confidence was gained and lessons learned.
Impact
Overall, I feel BoostEats can have a positive impact on it's users, businesses involved, as well as the wider community. It aimed to help address pressing social issues and foster a sense of social responsibility and community spirit.
Reflection
I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was a big one, diligently going through each step of the design process and aligning with specific user needs helped me come up with solutions that were both feasible and useful.
