Sprout
UX
Sprout was made to provide students with a single platform to help combat food insecurity by giving students a platform to share food-related resources.
Problem.
Many students can’t reliably afford or access healthy food, and campus resources are scattered.
Solution.
One platform where students rescue surplus food, find resources, and build a food community.
Project Outline
Develop a platform that allows students to share food-related resources and skills to help combat food insecurity and to encourage community building around food.
Western Washington University
Provide students with a single platform that can help combat food insecurity by giving students a platform to share food-related resources.
Better access to healthy, affordable food and other food-related skills and resources, and more people to share them with.
Zach, Taylor, Adele, Jasmine, Daniel McMorrow
Problem Identification
50% of US College students polled said they ate less than 3 meals every day.
Key Obstacles.
Lack of time, money, new social dynamics surrounding food, poor access to food resources, and skills on campus.
Effects.
Malnutrition, stress, drop in academic performance, lack of social interaction.
Opportunity.
A platform that bridges the gap between students and food resources, connects local food surplus with food shortages experienced by students, and provides a space where students can help each other meet their needs.
Personas
Emma | 23
“I wish I had resources to be able to get healthy, fresh foods; it's nearly impossible to afford.”
Goals: Cook more at home to spend less going out, as well as meal prep. Try to buy local ingredients whenever possible, especially produce. Throw away less food; it goes bad because they don’t cook it in time.
Obstacles: A busy schedule means it’s hard to find time to shop and cook at home. Local options are often too expensive and outside their limited budget. Only having a part time job means that their food budget is limited.
Main food sources: 01 Grocery Outlet 02 On-campus Vendors 03 Local Co-op
Brie | 21
“I’m trying to cook at home more, but I’m always throwing away produce, it goes bad faster than I can cook it.”
Goals: Learn to cook their own food and feel less scared in the kitchen. Eventually cancel their meal plan, because the food is unhealthy. Start eating healthier in general, especially by eating more produce.
Obstacles: No experience cooking makes it daunting to start learning now. They don’t know many people that cook, and classes are expensive. As an honors student and athlete, they have very little time to learn.
Main food sources: 01 On-campus Vendors 02 Dining Hall 03 Haggen
Joshua | 19
“I wish I had a variety of healthy options available all day, I end up eating the same things all the time”
Goals: Try new foods outside of their comfort zone, mix up their routine. Looking to eat more fresh, local produce. Rely less on meal plan by finding new meal options.
Obstacles: Without a car, it is harder to get off campus to find diverse food options. Poor selection of food at the dining hall limits leads to repetitive meals. Lack of cooking space in dorms makes it hard to make food for themselves.
Main food sources: 01 Dining Hall 02 On-campus Vendors 03 Fred Meyers
How can we help feed students and save food?
Our initial brainstorming sessions involved putting up ideas on how a digital platform could provide features to help students gain access to fresh food and produce, find cheaper options, and find people to share excess food items. This included brain dumps, plenty of sticky notes, and mind mapping.
Food Rescue.
Connect Students to Wasted Food
Gifting/trading food
Rescuing food from restaurants
Badges/points for active rescuers
Food rescue from local Vendors
Food Information.
Access to Food Resources
Nutrition Guides
Local food donors/resources
Recipes for students
Seasonal Produce info
Local sales info
Student forums / discussion boards
Cooking videos / lessons
Food Community.
Organizing Food Gatherings
Hosting Meals
Skill exchanges
Cooking lessons
Student events
Contests
Educational Events
Local Events
Encourage Community building around food.
Our task was to develop a platform that allows students to share food related resources and skills to help combat food insecurity and to encourage community building around food.
A Digital farmer’s Market for college students.
Exchange feed, the app’s main feature, allows students to post items for sale, exchange, or for free. Students can meet up to exchange goods, helping those who need food connect with those who have excess.
Information architecture
After mapping out potential user flows and defining what features we wanted the app to contain, we started sketching out app wireframes. This process involved collaborative sketching and research, in which we did market research and testing to see how other applications were managing user flows and defining how we might adapt those strategies to fit our use case.
Screens
