FoodMe for UofT

Overview

Food services on campus are an important part of student life. While the University of Toronto offers over 30 on-campus food locations, students are often limited by their budget, dietary needs, schedule and location. The goal of this project was to develop a solution that would help alleviate some of these pain points and improve the overall food experience for students on campus.

Research

Our first step was to understand the challenges faced by students in regards to campus food. To do this, we conducted both primary and secondary research.

Secondary Research

Our secondary research consisted of a literature review and a competitive analysis of existing solutions. Based on this research, we identified the following:

Primary Research

Our primary research consisted of semi-structured interviews and online surveys. Participants included both graduate & undergraduate students who were above the age of 18 and purchased at least 3-5 meals on campus each week.

Interviews

We conducted 10 semi-structured interviews. Interviews were done in-person near popular cafeterias around campus. Questions were mainly open-ended to help us gain qualitative insight into some of the challenges faced by students.

I feel like I'm missing out on great options because of the lack of time to look around.

I think there are quite a bit of food options around campus, but two days of the week I am a vegetarian and finding food on those two days becomes a challenge [...] I usually just give up and go to Tim Hortons.

Survey

We collected a total of 67 survey responses—56 of which met screening requirements. Surveys were distributed through online platforms commonly used by UofT students, such as Reddit, Instagram and Facebook. The survey allowed us to expand our sample size while also asking broader, closed-ended questions to obtain more quantitative data.

Overall Findings

Our primary research provided us with a deeper level of insight into some of the frustrations that students experience when it comes to campus food. These pain points can largely be defined by five general themes:

Defining the Scope

As an embodiment of these five themes, we created a persona named Bilal. We stepped into his shoes and explored some of his food-related challenges on campus based closely on our research findings. We organized these thoughts and ideas into an empathy map and an as-is scenario to better understand and identify areas of opportunity to improve Bilal’s and other UofT students’ food experiences.

Design

Ideation

Our next step was to ideate based on the areas of opportunity we identified. As a team, we came up with over 20 different ideas — six of which were my own. To narrow down this list, we voted on the ideas based on feasibility and impact before plotting them on a prioritization grid.

We then chose four of these ideas that ranked highest on 🔵 Feasibility and 🔴 Impact:

Storyboards & Sketches

Using our top ideas, we created storyboards to brainstorm how Bilal and others would use our app. We each sketched screens of how we imagined the app would look.

We took features we liked from each of our sketches and refined them. Together, these features formed the core functionalities of our app, FoodMe for UofT:

Low-fi Prototype

Based on these core functionalities, we designed a low-fi prototype, which I personally sketched out using pen and paper:

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Usability Testing

To understand if we were on the right track, we conducted formative usability testing with 4 representative users using our low-fi prototype. We gave them 5 tasks to perform using a think-aloud protocol:

1. Search using the filter menu
2. Select a store
3. Choose a food item to order
4. Customize the food and place an order
5. Checkout and view directions

We ended each test with an interview to gather additional feedback. Shown below are some of the findings and iterations we made to our mid-fi prototype.

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Evaluate

We further evaluated our prototype by conducting a summative usability test with 3 representative users. Using similar tasks and protocol, we discovered the following:

Strengths

Considerations

Key Lessons

1. We are not the user. While it is often tempting for us to use our own personal experiences to inform design decisions, we must recognize the reality that our needs and users’ needs may not always align. Instead, we must set aside our ego and immerse ourselves in research to find the pain points that truly matter.
2. Asking the right questions is challenging. It’s true what they say, “Great questions lead to great design.” By asking the right questions, we can identify the right problems and come up with the right solutions. Figuring out what those questions are, however, is often half the battle and this project proved no different.
3. Storytelling is powerful. After four presentations in front of industry professionals, I’ve learned the importance of visual storytelling in establishing emotional connection with audience and demonstrating product value. As a fundamental human experience, a good story can help build a memorable and engaging atmosphere where empathizing with users becomes a much easier endeavour.
4. UX design is a team sport. Developing a product requires a whole range of skills that one person alone will never possess. Working as a team with diverse backgrounds provides us with the opportunity to collaborate while leveraging our individual strengths to achieve a common goal.