Overview
What is Food Nexus app?
Food Nexus helps build a direct connection between farmers and users to get easy, direct and transparent access to information of the food product. This app would not only make the customer’s life easier in terms of food access, but also provide healthier, non-GMO based organic food options.
It does not intend to restrict non-GMO based food products as the term is in the middle of various controversies. It aims to be a knowledge carrier for the users and empowers them to make the right decision for themselves and their families.
Role & team
UX Research, Concept Ideation, Wire-framing, Prototyping
Team - 2 UX designers, 1 visual designer, 1 Industrial designer
The problem
To recognize a problem related to food in Savannah, conduct a research to generate insights and design a solution.
Savannah is majorly considered a ‘food desert’ and there are several problems in and around the city encompassing food related issues.
Our take - Our team tried to understand the trends in eating habits of people which were not just limited to Savannah but the United States in general. We wanted to provide a solution that was initiated with an insightful research in Savannah but could be implemented in any geographical location.
Trends suggested that people are becoming more conscious about food jargons such as GMO, Gluten, Lactose, etc. We wanted to bring value to the process of buying and eating food so consumers don’t have to depend on these industry-made jargons.
We started the process with defining our problem areas - Transportation, Storage and Market; along with our target areas - Farming and consuming.
Research process
Double diamond process
We used the double diamond diagram to follow the process of convergence and divergence in our research process
Research tools
With our primary and secondary research, we started seeing our initial opportunities. With our Buzz reports and popular media scan, we understood that there was a major issue of accessibility. Food was available, but was difficult to access as it was majorly in the outskirts of the city and farmers did not have the means to source it in the city.
After our primary research and majorly through the image sorting exercise we realized that the factor that fueled lack of access was lack of awareness. Thus, it was established that our initial focus should be making people aware about healthy eating patterns. In our image sorting exercises, the participants mentioned lack of trust in commercial labelling. Hence, we found opportunity in creating awareness through clear-concise information communication through an efficient labelling system.
Primary research tools
Secondary Research tools
Synthesis
Opportunities map
With the affinitization process, we made five clusters of opportunities in the end.
Our aim was to target each of these opportunities with a holistic solution.
Finally, we narrowed down to focusing in two directions; as stated below -
Awareness
Defining a visual framework to allow clear information communication so that consumers can make well-inforned decisions.
Accessibility
Facilitating a solution to connect the consumers directly to the farmers. This would empower the farmers and consumer will develop healthy eating habits.
Concept Ideation
Mobile application
Food Nexus application is an opportunity which solves the problem through a business model that solves the food issue in Savannah with the lenses of a service and a system solution.
Business model - The app was a means to connect consumers directly to farmers by providing detailed nutritional information. This would help in generating revenue for the farmers while allowing consumers to easily source fresh produce.
Service - The snapshot system is an added service provided by the application to allow clear concise visual communication about nutritional information.
System - It generates a relationship between producers and consumers, developing a sustainable ecosystem within the city.
Hexagonal model
The hexagonal model is a framework based on which the quality of each product is rated.
Depending on the food product, each vertex acts as a scale for the nutrient. As the scale goes towards the outside, the quality of product goes higher.
Note: The nutrient names on vertices are abbreviated for reference. Actual nutrients will vary depending on the food product.
Work in progress
