The pantry is an application that allows users to inventory food items in their home, manage incoming inventory from grocery shopping, and utilize recipes tailored to food items they already have to minimize food waste.
I was responsible for guiding this project's research. I conducted a competitive analysis, creating screening surveys, developed and moderated usability testing, and utilized maze for unmoderated testing.
The Stardust Studio team also consisted of:
• Kelsey Murzyn (liaison)
• Deandra Eubanks (content)
• John Thacher (accessibility/usability)
• Ben Hull-Garwood (craft)
• Sabrina Glass (storytelling)
• Natalie Lima (interaction)
“I'm tired of looking at my pantry and not knowing what's in there, and as such, not knowing what I can make. Usually, I just go out and buy more stuff specifically for a recipe I found, leading to more unused leftovers or items.”
- Chris Whitney (client)
We found two audiences for this product:
For the purposes of this project and its scope we focused on audience one.
Create an app that serves as a digital inventory of what users have available in their pantry. Food items will be accounted for by the user from their pantry, grocery receipts, and removed by the user when completing a recipe. The app will personalize recipes based on user inventory and cooking appliances they own, inform them of expiration dates, and provide tips on item storage.
View Prototype
Google forms were utilized to collect data from potential users.
Survey results confirmed that our potential users.
Our interpretation was that an application for managing their food inventory and suggesting how to make the best use of the food they have would be beneficial to users. This application should reduce the pain points associated with managing your food, making the most out of your food, and reducing food waste.
As part of our research:
Based on the target audience, we came up with a Persona, Hungry Bob.
Bio: Young professional living in Seattle with three roommates who are all extremely busy. Due to many roommates he has a pantry filled with food but isn't sure what to do with it. He's tired of looking at his pantry and not knowing what he can make with the ingredients he already has on hand. Usually, he goes out and buys more stuff specifically for a recipe he found, leading to more unused leftovers or items.
- To save money
- Want's to make fast and easy meals
- Upgrade his meals and feel satisfied after
- Wants to learn how to cook with the assets he has around him
- Wants to be able to keep track of what food he has at home
- Wants to get to a point where he feels comfortable in the kitchen
- Wants to be able to rely on making food, instead of ordering takeout
- Share s space for foods so does not always know what is theirs to use
- Never taught how to cook or what meals to make on a regular basis
- Not able to create a lot of recipes due to lack of equipment and space
- Dishes aren't always cleaned by roommates so equipment always changes
- Never buys a lot of food at once so ingredients are always changing
As a team, we have created this empathy map for Hungry Bob. This empathy map helped us visualize what Hungry Bob is Saying, Thinking, Doing, and Feeling so that we can empathize with him. We went through several points to understand his perspective. We believe using our Pantry app that Hungry Bob would be able to avoid exasperated feelings associated with mealtime.
Using our Pantry App:
To further establish the functionality of our app and understand how it might be used we developed this storyboard where a user checks their inventory.
As part of our process as a team we brainstormed “how might we” statements in Figma, sorted them into categories as a team, and then voted to find our top three “how might we’s” to focus on.
Our final how might we statements were:
These user stories were developed and prioritized based on the "how might we statements we developed". These were also modified based on feedback from the client and user survey data.
As a working professional, I want to look into my pantry and see what i have with a glance.
As a mother, I want to cook fast nutritious meals for my family with the items I have in my pantry.
As a student, I want to look for recipes that include the items I already have in my pantry.
Our goal was to keep our users flows as simple as possible with very few steps.
All members of our team contributed sketches based on our sitemap. We then discussed sketches as a team and voted on concepts and designs we wanted to move forward.
All members of our team contributed sketches based on our sitemap. We then discussed sketches as a team and voted on concepts and designs we wanted to move forward.
For our moderated testing, we created a research plan for interviewing users
During our usability testing we:
For the purposes of this project and its scope we focused on audience one.
For the purposes of this project and its scope we focused on audience one.
This project didn't call for brand development or any UI.
For the purposes of consistency and accessibility, we did select a palette for presentations along with accessible typography.
We made a paper prototype to experiment with new ideas, which allowed us to try out several iterations quickly before committing to a prototype.
We made a paper prototype to experiment with new ideas, which allowed us to try out several iterations quickly before committing to a prototype.
After further clarification with our client we found that the main role of the app was to act as a pantry organizer and recipe suggested. We took this information and removed the grocery list function and instead added a camera recipe intake function. This function would take a recipe image and digitize the items into the pantry. Interviews also found that all user’s wrote their list with pen and paper.
Tasks Tested
Quantitative Results
Qualitative Results
This project did not require a high-fidelity prototype.
As a team we found that there is a market for a pantry tracking application. We found that our initial approach was headed in the right direction. The way myself and the team designed our research questions did help us pinpoint where we needed to shift our energy. Feedback we got from user testing and interviews prevented us from pursuing paths that weren't worthwhile.
If I were to work on a project like this again. Despite what we were asked to do as a team we should have pushed harder for initial research. We had a strong idea, but we would have found out earlier that a shopping or grocery list in the application wouldn't resonate well with users. Additionally we need to rework our tab feature, the way our tabs work isn't the most user friendly, but we failed to catch this earlier due to our narrow testing. I would like to conduct usability testing that is covers more features in the application as a way to combat this issue in the future.
We want to rework our tab system. We would then like to conduct more robust usability testing to hammer out any issues with features. We anticipate that after at least one more round, potentially more of usability testing. Once we have confirmed our direction we as a team need to check in with developers about creating the scanning feature. It will need to be feasible before it can be implemented. If everything checks out from there we would move on to branding and adding fidelity to this application.
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