My Pantry
As someone dedicated to reducing, reusing, and recycling, I wanted to explore the challenges people face when trying to minimize food waste at home. This involves effectively tracking existing groceries and expiration dates, identifying missing items, and monitoring consumption patterns. Alarmingly, the average US household throws out $200 worth of food per month. In addition to the significant financial loss for grocery shoppers, this waste strains natural resources and contributes to excessive environmental pollution. Starting as a student project, I decided to dive deeper and refine my solution after the conclusion of the course.
Role
- User experience
- UI design
- Prototyping
Date
Jan 2018, revised 2020
Tools
- Sketch
- Photoshop
- InDesign
- Gliffy
- ProtoPie
My Pantry
Your essential mobile companion for saving time, money, and the environment. My Pantry offers an efficient and customizable food inventory system that is accessible on the go and shareable within your household. Easily track your groceries, monitor expiration dates, compile shopping lists, and estimate your spending – all in one place.
Adding Pantry Items
- Quickly add items by typing, scanning, or selecting from your history.
- Track food freshness by entering expiration datesvia calendar or voice command.
Pantry Views & Editing
- Personalize your pantry with custom lists to easily manage your inventory.
- Reuse items from your pantry to restock in a flash.
- Browse your inventory by category or list.
- Store item photos for quick scanning and effortless shopping
Shopping List
- Keep all your shopping needs centralized in one place, accessible anytime, anywhere.
- See estimated costs ahead of time to better manage your expenses.
- Share your list with household members to easily divide and conquer the shopping.
- Customize your categories based on your needs. For example, save time at the store by aligning them with the store layout.
- Filter your list by store and specific needs for an efficient shopping experience. Check off items as you go, and add more on the fly—maybe even surprise your loved ones with their favorite snacks!
- Move purchases directly to your pantry—no extra typing required.
Discovery
With the problem identified and a rough idea in mind, I needed to learn more about the market and the audience. Given the short timeframe for discovery, I had to limit the research to existing data. I analyzed competitor apps and numerous customer reviews to pinpoint market gaps and met/unmet user needs, which helped guide the direction of the new app.
User Pain Points
User Needs & Motivations
Personas
Using the insights, I created three primary personas inspired by real people who match my audience. This helped me keep their individual needs, behaviors, and goals in mind throughout the design process and made it easier to visualize scenarios and identify potential opportunities for support.
Create
Content & Flows
Through quick sketches and flowcharts, I explored layouts, content prioritization, and the information architecture.
Wireframes
Creating simple wireframes and a rapid prototype was valuable for identifying issues early in the process.
Prototype V1
Once I was happy with the direction, I started working on the visual identity and creating assets in Sketch. Since it was meant to be a native iOS app, I tried to follow iOS components and guidelines as closely as possible while maintaining the brand identity. However, I had to make many assumptions about what could and couldn’t be customized, since it was a solo project with no development team collaboration. Using the new assets, I created a high-fidelity prototype to test a more realistic version of the design.
Evaluate
The prototype helped me pinpoint additional areas in need of improvement. I went back to the drawing board to simplify some flows and enhance the overall experience, with a focus on accessibility, navigation, and UI ergonomics. Ideally, I would have liked to conduct more user testing, but to accommodate a tight deadline, I settled for a few informal testing sessions and A/B tests with my network to guide my decisions along the way.
Deliver
Visual Identity
Research findings not only guided the app’s functional direction but also emphasized the role of visual design in user experience. During the A/B tests, participants expressed a preference for a clean design and the ability to organize content using a variety of colors. Reviews also highlighted that some users find it straining on the eyes to read dark text on white backgrounds in bright, fluorescent-lit environments, such as grocery stores.
With that in mind, I created both a dark and an off-white/warm background theme, along with a diverse color palette for categorization. Providing such flexibility presented challenges when selecting colors—ranging from accessibility to ensuring overall harmony. The colors needed to define the app’s visual identity and effectively represent various food groups. If I had continued iterating, I would have simplified the main color palette. To infuse delight into the often stressful task of household organization, I aimed for friendly and lighthearted elements, such as calm colors, rounded shapes, and encouraging messages.
Prototype
Ergonomic interactions in any environment
Workflows to optimize productivity and time
Simplified grocery shopping
Waste reduction support
Emotional design for a positive experience
