UX Design Project: 'Fridge Assistant'
This was a personal project that I did during my UX Design studies (2017). I wanted to find an everyday problem and "fix" it with a simple mobile app. I've often been frustrated with the way I manage my food at home — either by letting forgotten food go to waste, by going grocery shopping without my list back home, or by simply not knowing what food I already have (or don't have) at home. So I decided to create a food management app. ​
Feel free to read through all the
steps in the process — or scroll straight down to the end to simply view my final presentation of the process and my findings!
Part 1: Initial Research and Defining the Problem
I started off by compiling a competitive analysis of other similar apps on the market; I looked at their strengths and weaknesses, and identified my target market. I then conducted user interviews to learn more about people's food management habits, and used this to define my Problem Statement.
Part 2: Synthesising My Research
I organised my findings through affinity mapping (see the timelapse here!) and used this - together with personas and storyboards - to create an initial user flow and find my design direction. I listed all of the features I'd want to include, and then prioritised them according to expectation and impact. I then created a revised user flow of the minimum viable product.
Part 3: Placement & Layout Design
With the user flow in mind, I organised the huge amount of information I had collected using key information architecture techniques like card sorting and sitemaps, and sketched up a paper prototype for my first user tests.
Part 4: Wireframing and Prototyping
Next I jumped into Sketch and created my initial wireframes from my sketches. This was an iterative process, and each screen changed shape several times. I also created annotated wireframes, which I would give to an engineer should I ever decide to actually develop the app. These annotations would help explain each item's behaviour so that the entire group of people theoretically working on the app would be aligned on its functionality.
Part 5: Usability Testing
Once the wireframes were ready, I created a clickable prototype from them using InVision. (Link to the prototype here.) I then selected a few candidates to test it on, using a screener, and held several user tests. I collected the feedback from each user, and used this to iterate and improve the prototype further.
Part 6: Results
An assessment of everything I learned, and a showcase of my process, can be viewed in the images below, or download the presentation in PDF-form here.