Lilia Ransom

April 1st 2023

1. Project brief
   For this project we were tasked with designing a Mobil app, tablet ap and web page that would help a community issue. I chose to do a community fridge app. We had to create a concept that would work across all platforms with minor changed. The design needed to be responsive and clean.
2. Your project idea, and why you found it interesting
   When I was growing up in a low income household I was always aware of how much food cost.\Healthy food tends to cost more and more every year and people who have low income tend to struggle with being able to afford food from places like Whole foods. I also noticed that we have a lot of food waste in the food industry and in lift in general. I can’t tell you how many times I have thrown out an unopened thing of yogurt because I wasn’t going to eat it, or how many times I haven’t been able to finish the loaf of bread. So for this project I wanted to create an app/website that would allow people in similar communities to share food that they may not be able to use up in time to help prevent food waste and help people have access to safe food. When we throw away food we are not just wasting food according to the rescuing leftover cuisine they state “Half of the U.S. land, 80% of fresh water, and 10% of the energy budget is spent bringing food to our tables*. When we waste 40% of food, we waste 40% of these natural resources.” meaning we are wasting more and more resources every year when we waste food. Think of all the food fast food workers throw out throughout the week. I work for Starbucks and they do alright because we are able to donate to shelters, but places like Dunkin donuts have to throw out all of their extra food at the end of the night. My app will allow people to share food they may have going out or extra of by putting them in community fridges. I used to have one of these when I lived in a rough neighborhood and it really helped us be able to eat foods we might not have had enough money for thanks to the kindness of the community. I want to make both a web and app design because I know that not everyone can have access to phones to download an app but I think that if it can also be viewed on the web then people could potentially view from a library or community computer. It is important that everyone has access to safe food, so let’s make it more accessible.
3. A written description of the work you completed.
   I wanted to create something that would be able to help all sorts of people. Not just people who might be struggling but people who might be donating to the fridges so they know what can and can not be donated. I also thought about doing this project last semester but I wanted to make it accessibly from all platforms. I am still really struggling with Figma, but tried some other software like adobe XD and couldn’t produce something I really loved and thought worked well. I do think that this design is much better than last semesters.
4. Design research
   I created two different personas, First Grace, a 34 year old mom of 2 who loves to coupon. Her kids change what they like and what they don’t like every day and with the price of food always getting more expensive she tends to buy a lot of what her kids like at the time. But kids change what they like so much that she always seems to have an excess amount of food and sometimes her family doesn’t go through it all and it gets thrown away. She hates to waste food so she saw a facebook add about an app that shows you were community fridges are and once a week when it looks like her kids have cycled through what they like again she take a field trip to the closest community fridge with her kids and help teach them that when you have the ability you should always give back to the community. It is also helpful that the app tells her what she should and should not donate to the community fridges to make sure everything gets eaten. The second person is Josh. Josh lives in low income housing and is trying to go to school and work full time to provide for his brothers and sick mom. Someone at work told him about a website that shows you where the community fridges are in your area and he can access it from the computer at the library. Thanks to the donations of others he can bring home fresh veggies to help his brothers grow strong.
5. Individual screen designs

1. Design feedback
   I collected feedback from my peers as well as some of my friends and family that are in the Ux Ui design field. I got some feedback on the discussion post, mainly about the lay out for the computer and iPad. I did work on this and modified and added some graphics to make the web and iPad flow better but struggles because I didn’t want to have more information that was available on web versus the app. I also got some feedback on the color palette witch I modified a but as well to be more muted and less busy.
2. Prototype video narrated walkthrough
   

1. Link to Figma prototype (or embed prototype on your website)
2. App: https://www.figma.com/file/VaWOCmAOQ5YtxpPDA3OVFt/Untitled?node-id=0%3A1&t=vkgFVJq9ipKmT4Of-1
3. Ipad: https://www.figma.com/file/ddYixuuwskjl286Sbbz6Xb/Tablet-view?t=uOrSI8fVo0vXd0bu-1
4. Web: https://www.figma.com/file/geyDHHPOKYtYKNciMq5IUh/Computer-view?t=uOrSI8fVo0vXd0bu-1
   external site.
5. Sources and citations
   
6. Ma, Runbai. “The Challenge: Wasted Food & Food Insecurity.” Reducing Wasted Food |Rescuing Leftover Cuisine,https://www.rescuingleftovercuisine.org/challenge?gclid=CjwKCAiAleOeBhBdEiwAfgmXfw9fwmFfVifbeUCBDejIfi7Jk8fVcP17orFBgbybwt1FmZG9KUF5KxoCe6oQAvD_Bw\E.
7. “How Much Food Does the Average Us Household Waste?” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/study-suggests-u-s-households-waste-nearly-a-third-of-the-food-they-acquire#Waste-across-the-board. Oung, Katherine. “Community Fridges Are Lifelines for the Neighborhoods They Serve .”
8. Vox, Vox, 17 Feb. 2021, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22285863/community-fridges-neighborhoods-free-food