FoodCoup
Overview
Project Type: Mobile iOS App Prototype
Roles: UX/UI Designer, UX Research
Summary: Tasked with completing a 10 week capstone project for BrainStation’s UX Design program, I created FoodCoup, a mobile iOS app that helps users easily discover, save, and use digital grocery coupons. Throughout this project, I utilized the design thinking methodology and maintained a strong focus on human-centered design to ensure that my product was an effective solution to the issues faced by my target demographic.
The Problem Space
In the last year, inflation, rising fuel costs, labour shortages and supply-chain issues have caused the price of food to become extremely expensive. Given that everyone needs to eat, this is a pressing issue for all Canadians. Not only do increased food prices put financial stress on consumers, studies have have shown that an insecure food supply increases vulnerability to a variety of diseases and health conditions. For parents responsible for their families, these issues are even more imperative.
Hypothesis
From my own personal experience and secondary research, my hypothesis was that the rising cost of food is a point of frustration for parents and is imposing an increased financial burden on families.
Primary Research
To better understand my problem space, I conducted 1-on-1 interviews with 4 parents who have children living at home and reside in Toronto. From the information I gathered through my interviews, I took relevant statements from each interviewee and categorized them into individual pain points, motivations, and behaviours. I then used affinity mapping to identify specific themes and key insights.From my affinity map, I identified Theme 1 as my key insight.
Key Themes
1.
Theme: Access to coupons, promotions, and rewards
Insight: Parents are open to the idea of using coupons and taking advantage of promotions but find them inaccessible and annoying to collect and organize.
Key Themes
2.
Theme: Food Quality
Insight: Parents value the quality of food they’re buying alongside value when shopping for their families.
Key Themes
3.
Theme: Price is a key factor
Insight: Price is the most important factor in the grocery buying experience and increased prices have shifted buying habits.
How Might We?
Focusing in on the insight of parents being willing to use coupons, but struggling to access, collect, and organize them, I arrived at the question of;How might we help parents find the best available grocery prices in order to save money?
The Process
Persona and Experience Map
After analyzing the information I collected from my interviews, I created a persona and experience map to highlight the
needs and goals of my target user and ensure that my design solution addressed them effectively.
Creating an experience map helped me to visualize my persona’s current end-to-end experience of grocery shopping.
This process further helped me to identify design intervention opportunities.
User Stories and Task Flow
Focusing on my persona’s frustrations and motivations, I began writing User Stories with a digital solution in mind. From there I categorized individual user stories into 4 key epics. Out of all of my epics, easy access to coupons aligned the most with addressing my target users’ needs.
By narrowing down and organizing specific user stories within my primary epic, I was able to create a Task Flow that reflects the needs of my Persona.
After creating my task flow, I came to the realization that my design solution could be useful for people other than just parents. That said, moving forward I was less focused on creating a product targeted towards parents, and instead put my efforts into designing a solution that could be easily used by anyone.
Sketches
At this point, I had a strong idea of what my app would be and how it would function. With my task flow in mind I created a UI Inspiration Board and began to sketch out my ideas. I created a collection of exploratory sketches to get as many ideas out as possible. From there I selected my favourite screens and features and combined them to create a series of solution sketches. Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Once I had my sketches created, I translated them into mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma. After designing wireframes for each screen in my task flow, I stiched them together to make a functional, interactive prototype.
View Mid-Fidelity Prototype