UX Researcher, 02/2023-05/2023

Background

Food Distro is a project commissioned by our client, who is looking to create a platform that connects people who have surplus food or household items to those who are in need of them. The client's vision is to reduce food waste and help those who are struggling to make ends meet. As a UX researcher for this project, my role is to conduct quantitative and qualitative research to understand user needs, preferences, and behaviors, and to use these insights to inform the design of the platform in a way that aligns with the client's vision.

The Challenge

  • Food safety concerns are a significant challenge, particularly if the platform is intended to facilitate food sharing between individuals.

  • Another challenge is to determine the scope of the platform. It is uncertain whether the platform will exclusively facilitate food sharing or whether it will also include grocery and other items.

  • Need to determine the appropriate business model for the platform. The client is unsure whether the platform will operate on a B2C (business-to-consumer) or C2C (consumer-to-consumer) model.

Project management methodology:

Instead of using the Waterfall methodology, we adopted the Agile methodology for our project. The Agile approach is collaborative, allowing for flexibility and adaptability throughout the development process.

Every two weeks is a sprint, with each sprint focusing on specific features and functionalities of the platform. This enables continuous improvement and refinement based on user feedback and market conditions, leading to a better end product.

Problem definition:

Research Questions

  1. What are our target users?

  2. Which business model is best suited for our platform, and how will it generate revenue? Should we consider a B2C or C2C model?

  3. What is the scope of the platform? Should it be limited to food sharing, or should it also include other household items?

  4. How do people currently manage their surplus food or household items?

  5. What are the motivations and barriers to sharing surplus food or household items?

  6. What features and functionalities would users like to see in a platform that facilitates sharing?

Research methods

Competitor analysis

However, only conducting competitor analysis may not be enough to make a decision about our business model and platform scope, we also need to hear customers’ opinions about whether they prefer receive food from individuals or business, and whether they prefer receive household or solely food.

Survey:

138 responses

Survey Analysis

- Tableau:

Visualize the data

- R studio:

ANOVA analysis

T-test

Chi-squared test

Results:

  • our target users are individuals between the ages of 21-40 who work full time and are not caregivers.

  • Messaging, geolocation, and verification are the most important features

  • Safety and pickup inconvenience are the main concerns

In-depth interview

Structure: Semi-structured in-depth user interviews

Length: 45 mins

Participants: 7, based in US

We come up 5 themes based on users’ pain points in current tools by infinitive mapping and labeling the data.

User personas

An example of the personas I created:

User stories

Project Reflection

we have found that the primary business model for this type of platform is customer-to-customer (C2C), but there are also some business-to-customer (B2C) platforms in the market.

Additionally, we have found that most of the C2C platforms include not only food but also other household items for sharing.

Survey consists of two parts:

1. users’ previous experience of using the similar platform(s); users’ motivations, challenges; and users’ preferences and expectations.

2. The second part:

Users’ demographic information

Some survey results examples:

Challenges we met:

•Imbalance in team pace during the early stages of the project.

Lessons I learnt:

•Proactively communicate with other teams

•Flexibility and the ability to adapt to unforeseen challenges.