EconoMarket: A solution to save money and avoid food waste
This case was developed by me under the mentorship ofGeorgia Demas(Product Designer, currently at Gympass). The project lasted two and a half months, from November 2020 to January 2021.
My performance: Product Designer
Technologies used:Miro, Figma and Google Forms
double dare
Market purchases are one of the biggest monthly expenses, and with many company benefits suspended and wages cut in half due to the pandemic, spending retention is even more necessary. But how can this expense be reduced?
In addition, every day, in supermarkets, food close to expiry, but still good for consumption, is thrown away because it is about to expire and replaced by the most recent, generating more and more waste and harming the environment. And here comes the second challenge:how to reduce food waste?
These themes were born from my perception, but also because I found data that supports this information. According to Project Drawdown, a group that advocates for action on climate change, around 30% of the world's food is never eaten, and waste accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Source:Economic value).
And there are even companies moving to reduce this waste, as is the case of Danone.
Scenario
In a country like Brazil, where there is still a lot of hunger and poverty, it is possible to change this scenario, even if in short steps, with a considerable decrease in the value of foods close to expiration date. Added to this is the fact that buyers can use the amount saved for other purposes, such as:
And for markets, the chances of more sales, and automatically more profit, may increase.
Results da Search
In order to better understand the behavior and pains of customers in the markets, a survey was carried out using Google Forms with quantitative and qualitative questions. 39 people answered the questionnaire.
The research showed that a potential audience is people between 19 and 30 years old who visit the market at least once a month.
More than half of those interviewed get a discount for apps on market purchases.
There was an assumption that people avoided buying food close to the expiration date, but here it has been proven that with a good discount, most people don't bother.
Complement: Research with market employees
Two face-to-face interviews were also carried out with market employees, to understand the level of waste.
In the first, in the case of a small establishment belonging to a large chain, the employee stated that an average of 30 kg of food is discarded per day, mostly meat and dairy products.
*This is a small establishment. A larger market wastes dozens of times more.
In the second interview, the employee could not specify how many kilos are discarded, but values. Approximately R$2,000.00 worth of products are wasted daily (taking all departments into account). Around R$60,000.00 wasted per month.
CSD matrix
Based on the survey responses, I structured a CSD matrix to analyze project opportunities and user pain points.
Persona
The potential target audience is people aged 19-30 who live with other people and visit the market at least once a month.
The structure of the persona translates some of the collected data, showing the pain and goals of the users.
Insights
Based on respondents' responses and the CSD matrix, these were the insights for the project.
The solution
As many users are already used to using applications to check purchase discounts, I decided to apply this format to the project.
Two fronts are needed: the application for the customer (which will monitor the discounted foods and their locations) and the application for the market employee (which will register the foods). However, for the scope of this project, the focus will be on the customer-facing application, as further research is needed to understand the bureaucratic part of partnerships with supermarkets, which ones are willing to register and the logistics issue.
Flowchart: Fulfilling the function that matters most
As previously mentioned, the application must be easy, fast and practical from the moment the user accesses it until the moment he closes it.
wireframes
This phase was developed in order to test the composition of the elements in the interfaces, without applying the project's style guide. The program used for the construction was thefigure.
high fidelity prototype
After research, interviews, readings and studies, it's time to show the face of the project!
This was one of the most delicate stages of the project, specifically with the name. But, putting the two themes of the project together, the name came almost automatically, thus giving rise to EconoMarket.
Style Guide: Typography and Color Palette
Final interfaces of the EconoMarket application
For the interface frames, I applied the Android screen dimensions (360 x 640). As with the wireframes, I used the program Figma for construction.
With monitoring,Users will be able to check how much discount food items close to expiry have and which market these products are in.An appfast and easy to use, so users save time as well as money.And, in case of doubts, criticisms or suggestions, the “Contact Us” interface was inserted. If the user has any questions, it is mandatory to enter the e-mail for return. However, if you choose the options “Suggestion” or “Criticism”, the user can enter the contact email only if he wants to have a return on the comment.
It is also important to mention that the registration and login interface was not inserted because EconoMarket is a product catalog without the need for registration. This would involve collecting sensitive data that would not be used.
Access the prototype by clicking here.
After a few months of use, a conversation with the owner or manager of the establishment is necessary to check how much the waste rate has been reduced, using this justification so that more markets can adhere to the solution and thus contribute to building a cleaner world
Conclusions and lessons learned
From the beginning, it is always necessary not to do the steps in a hurry, as every mistake not corrected at the beginning can harm the project later on. Fortunately, this did not happen. Despite the difficulties in some stages, such as structuring the survey forms, the project flowed smoothly. I know there's a lot to improve at each stage, but that will come with time, with each new project.
Having a theme like this, of social responsibility, not to say global, brought me many interesting challenges, especially for someone who rarely went to the supermarket and, until recently, didn't care so much about “small” discounts. Knowing how to collect all the information and pains of the users was a great task, requiring re-reading of the answers, in addition to exercising a more analytical look to see the opportunities.
A major concern was having left the project very simple, but I learned, throughout this process and from my reading over the last few months, that: 1) The product will never be definitively ready, as there will always be something to improve; 2) Do, do and do, test, test and test.
It is also worth mentioning that being guided by a professional in the area made a big difference in the process, so that I can take the first steps in the profession.
If you are interested in my work, send an email todanielrenatino@gmail.comor write me at LinkedIn.