Let me tell you a story about
Sur+ desiring to help reduce food waste & save you money
The basics.
Team Size: 3 | Role: UX Researcher
Tools: Figma, Google+ | Time Frame: 1 Week
The motivation.
In a weeklong Thinkful design hackathon, my team tackled a real-world problem developing a low-fidelity prototype. We divided tasks by specialty—research, UX, and UI design—while collaborating virtually throughout. Why this topic? I’ve always had a deep desire to address food scarcity, inspired by my experiences involved with low-income communities. Everyone deserves access to nutritious meals, and this project aimed to make surplus food more affordable and accessible.
The questions.
Our goal was to create a sustainable app for quick, efficient food purchases, focusing on reducing food waste. We explored questions like:
What current solutions exist?
How do they compare, and how could we improve them?
What features do users want?
Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Exploring what’s currently available to us in our day-to-day lives can inspire innovation. We conducted competitive analysis by researching apps and reading user reviews, uncovering gaps and opportunities to improve what we know and create what could be.
The Survey
The Survey
Surveys have many purposes. We wanted our survey to tell us who our users are inside & out. We distributed a survey through GoogleForms and social media for free, quick design & analytic reports to explore product desirability and gather user preferences. The surveys led to creating user personas & user journeys which then informed my UX & UI team members of the direction for design.
Usability Testing
Usability Testing
The full circle coming back around . . . After the design was passed back to me from our designers, I moderated usability tests with real users, guiding them through tasks and gathering feedback on their hesitation points, impressions, and overall experiences to shape future feature improvements.
The impact.
We presented our findings and prototype to Thinkful stakeholders and international teams, showcasing how our product could offer a better alternative to current food waste solutions, winning 3rd place in the hackathon. The total data gathered: SWOT analysis of four top competitors to guide opportunities, 39 survey responses, two key personas, and pain/desire points from two users through testing and interviews.
The takeaway.
This project, Sur+, is about making life easier & more enjoyable—by saving money and the planet through surplus food purchases. A future that is inclusive of anyone who is in need of a break from the ever-increasing cost of living—that is a world I desire to be a part of.
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