Food For All App
Project Background
Food For All is an app that helps users with no or low income find free food in their area. It also gives information on where they can find food banks and shelters, as well as lists pick up points where they can find free meals for themselves or their families.
The Challenges & Goals
Research the current market and find out who the competitors are.
Design an app that is both easy and convenient for users to use and understand.
Identify and iterate on parts of the app users find most helpful, and rework the features that are causing user pains.
Design a clean interface with consistent branding throughout
Target Users & Personas
The target users for this app are people with no or low income that need help finding sources of free and healthy food for them and their families.
Sarah
Sarah is a 38 year old single mother of 2 that is currently unemployed. She is having a hard time supplying food for her family. She does not have a desktop computer and only has access to the internet from her phone.
Stephen
Stephen is a 46 year old husband and father of 3. He is currently unemployed and looking for work. He is having a hard time affording food for his family. English is a second language to him.
Research
We conducted interviews with users and turned what we learned into actionable steps. We used the insights we discovered to identify the following pain points our users were experiencing.
Users wanted more information on food banks in their area so we added a food bank section to the main navigation
Users wanted to know what menu items each pick up points were offering so we added a menu to each pick up point location page
We need to create both an app, and a responsive website since users will be using our product differently
Users wanted to add the type of food source you can search for so we added it to the search
Users wanted directions to each pick up point so we added a map feature
Initial Designs
First round wireframes for a lo-fi prototype.
Below you will see some changes made between the lo-fi and hi-fi prototypes. All of our research findings above have been addressed in the following iterations.
Sketches
Usability Study
Study type: Unmoderated usability study
Location: United States, remote (each participant went through the usability study in their own home)
Participants: Five participants, each completing the study individually
Length: Each session had 10 minutes, based on a list of prompts
Results: Most users were satisfied with the flow and ease of use of the app. 1 user had a hard time using the website from their phone as they did not know to scroll down. We are going to add a bar on the side that shows users that you can scroll and make it clearer in our description that you can scroll down. Overall, the app was well received and we are going to proceed with building out the app, as users thought it would be a helpful app to have.
Hi-Fi Prototype Iteration
After testing, I took the feedback and applied it to the high fidelity prototype which you can see here. Edits that were made based off of feedback were the following:
Users wanted more information on food banks in their area so we added a food bank section to the main navigation
Users wanted to know what menu items each pick up points were offering so we added a menu to each pick up point location page
Users wanted to add the type of food source you can search for so we added it to the search
Users wanted directions to each pick up point so we added a map feature
Accessibility Considerations
The color palette was run through WebAIM to pass accessibility standards
The images on each page use al text to allow a screen reader to read the content
Takeaways
While designing the Food for All app, I learned quite a lot about research, process, and ideation. User testing and feedback is essential to creating a successful product. I very much enjoyed learning which parts of the app needed work and which parts were working successfully. As the design improved from feedback and ideation, the app really started to come together and take on a new life. Moving forward, I would like to keep testing and make further improvements on this app. I think it is in a good spot but still has room for improvements, and I plan on making them after another round of testing.