Ceres
A smart food storage system designed to promote resourcefulness and empower households to take actionable steps in reducing food waste.
Time Frame
10 Weeks
Role
PM / UX Lead
Contribution
Research / UI Design / Lead Presenter
Tools
Figma / Adobe Suite / Jittr
Team
Aarya Bapat (Project Manager)
Hung Vin
Yemisi Sanni
Problem Space
~62%
Approximately 62% of the estimated global wastage is contributed by consumers. Of that percentage, young consumers (Millennials & Gen Z) have the weakest practices in food management and wastage. With the lack of education in preservation practices and awareness in food wastage, it hinders the consumer’s ability reduce waste.
They feel guilty about their habits and feel incompetent in keeping up with an organized lifestyle. They express desire for a simplified system that can raise awareness about their habits and facilitate actionable steps toward improvement.
Are People
Food Conscious?
More people are aware of food wastage than three years ago.
Majority people “feel guilty” when food is wasted in their house.
Outside of sustainability people want to save money.
More people want statistics of their habits in food wastage.
How do we Incentivize?
Appealing to values
Engaging customers
Evoking social comparison
Providing feedback
Providing how-to information
Our Solution
Food management can be overwhelming, leading to guilt as resources go to waste. To change this, we developed a smart food storage system that tracks pH levels in your fridge using an electronic pH monitoring strip, alerting you to potential spoilage and helping you make informed decisions.
Food management can be overwhelming, leading
to guilt as resources go to waste.
To change this, we developed a smart food storage system that tracks pH levels in your fridge using an electronic pH monitoring strip, alerting you to potential spoilage and helping you make informed decisions.
The Tech
How does it work?
Food with a pH level higher than the normal range indicates spoiled food . So sudden pH changes in food storage indicates possible food spoilage.
The pH level is measured by the concentration of hydrogen ions found in a substance or solution.
The chip can monitor pH levels consistently, integrated with RFIDs to send freshness alerts.
The flexible pH sensor is only 2 millimeters in length and 10 millimeters wide, making it possible to incorporate the sensor into current food packaging methods, such as plastic wrapping.
Primary Research
Surveying
28 Participants
Our objectives of the survey were to:
Reaffirm target audience
Understand self assessment of users storage habits
Assess the most popular ways of storing produce
Understanding alternatives ways users track their food management
Surveying
28 Participants
Our objectives of the survey were to:
Reaffirm target audience
Understand self assessment of users storage habits
Assess the most popular ways of storing produce
Understanding alternatives ways users track their food management
Interviews
4 Participants
1 Expert
My team conducted interviews with people of various backgrounds to understand behavior.
To better under their behaviors, we also asked participants to send us a picture of their fridge. This helped get a glimpse into storage habits.
Design
We began the design process with sketching screens.
We translated those sketches into low-mid fidelity wireframes to conduct A/B testing to receive initial reactions to our direction in design.
From those insights we began pulling features from each of our wireframes to start on our prototype.
Usability Testing
Staging
To test our prototype we created a scenario of our participants receiving the storage system for the first time.
We wanted to test the effectiveness of our onboarding, intuitiveness of navigating platform.
Final Prototype
Onboarding
Once you receive your containers, the app will guide you in connecting your containers to your phone..
The Container View
The Container View provides a comprehensive overview of all your containers. By analyzing the food you’ve logged, the pH forecast predicts when items might spoil, allowing you to cook them before they go bad.
Inventory + Recipes
View all of your logged items in an inventory to get a comprehensive vew of your food.
Recieve recipe reccomendations based on food that you already have, allowing you to be more resourceful!
Reflection
This project provided valuable insights into user behavior and the design process. A key challenge was ensuring intuitive onboarding for a complex concept. Through rigorous testing and iteration, we crafted a streamlined, user-friendly experience. Moving forward, there’s potential to refine the visuals and conduct additional user testing to further enhance the system
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