Demeter

How can we help minimise domestic food waste?

Solution/Process

Demeter is a domestic food management app that aims to prevent food waste by providing possible recipes based on the contents and combinations of a user's kitchen. 

Functions

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• An expiration date, tracking solution that scans barcodes and automatically discovers the name and expiration date of each item. If it is produce, it will calculate the average lifespan, notifying users when use-by dates are approaching to help prevent unnecessary food waste. Though this can also be done manually for fruit and vegetables that may not have a barcode. ​

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• Suggest recipes using an algorithm based on the remaining contents of your kitchen. The results can be gathered from external food blog partners e.g. ‘BBC Food’, though users can also make and share their own recipes.

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• Helps write smarter shopping lists within the app, optionally tracking your buying behaviour and making suggestions e.g. auto-populating particular recipe ingredients.

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• Data can also be shared utilising the internet of things platform if the user has a smart fridge.

Run-through of concept

‘Households waste £13bn of food each year or roughly £470 per household, in the UK alone’

Solution/Process

User Research

• Family with young children

• Students

• Users interested in politics (the environment)

• Savvy users interested in saving money

Sample User

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Jayne lives with her partner Chris and 3 children aged 9,12 and 16. She works as a hairdresser and makes the sole buying decisions for her families food shopping. She said she “finds it a challenge, regularly budgeting, buying and cooking for 4/5 people within a limited time, after full-time work”. 

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Motivation

• Interested in the environment 

• Concerned about the level of food waste her home throws-away on a monthly basis.

Goals

• Actively wants to set a good example, teaching her children about the importance of recycling and the value of the: Environment, Food and Money. 

• Would like to be more creative in the kitchen.

Pain Points

• Concerned about her children's diet; eating healthy, well-balanced meals

• Is price sensitive

• Is dubious about her children’s over-use of technology 

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Conclusion

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It was clear that Jayne would benefit from having a hassle free-way of finding new healthy recipes that are not too time-consuming, but are also healthy for her dependants, whilst eliminating food wastage and thus saving money.

“I’m concerned with how much food we throw away each month”

User Research

Card Sorting

Nourishing

Unresourceful

Disorganised

Creativity

Personal

Adjectives

To help build a style board. Sample users were asked to generate words relating to the concept of ‘food shopping’, ‘cooking from recipes’, ‘your kitchen’ and ‘wasting food’.

Sample users were then given the app’s concept ‘Demeter is a domestic food management app that aims to prevent food waste as well as providing possible recipes based on the contents and combinations of ones’ kitchen‘ and reduce this list into the ones that resonated most, aiming for 5 keywords.

Summary

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From our user research, it was established that:

• The app should be straightforward but allow for creativity in recipe selection and generation. 

• Food shopping is ultimately, a very personal experience, shaped by taste.

• The app should seem personal, like an assistant.

• The colours should look modern and use blues and greens as they symbolise sustainability and wisdom.

Concept Development

Mapping & Wireframing

Concept Development

Taskflow

To better understand the user flow in maintaining and using pantry content we mapped the necessary processes.

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This also allowed us to better communicate what benefits can be achieved from using the Demeter digital app solution.

Digital Prototype

To view and interact with the full digital prototype. Please click here or scan the QR code below.