Overview

Timeframe

Role

Team

Tools

Jan 2021 - May 2021

UX Designer/Researcher

Esha Saini

Figma, Hand Sketching

Background

For my User Interface Design class, each team was given the task of creating an interface of any kind that would aid the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) in their daily efforts to help those dealing with food insecurity. Our project was focused specifically on helping families of K-12 students impacted by the online transition of schools due to the pandemic. Many of these families would rely on reduced or free meals provided by the public school system which they were no longer receiving. To combat this, we aimed to design a mobile app that would allow parents of these children to order free meals to their homes via delivery by an ACFB representative.

How do we create an interface that bridges the gap between ACFB and food insecure individuals?

Benjamin Choo

Katherine Fei

Dae Son Park

Victoria Rodriguez

Process

Research

Design

Assess

1

Existing Tool Analysis

Design Brainstorming

Figma Prototyping

Hand Sketching

Usability Testing

Final Report

Prospective Improvement

Community Questionnaire

Requirements Gathering

2

User/Stakeholder Interviews

User Storyboards

HTA Task Prioritization

SUS Scale Evaluation

Existing Literature Review

3

Research

For this phase of our project, it was crucial to understand the problem space that we were addressing: K-12 students impacted by food insecurity. In order to gain a better understanding of what food insecure individuals face on a daily basis, we conducted both user and stakeholder interviews. Following this initial gathering, we dug into existing tools that mirror an interface that we aim to achieve and past studies focused on the factors causing food insecurity. Lastly, we sent out a community questionnaire that provided direction as to whether our project trajectory would actually be beneficial.

We spoke to a representative from Atlanta Community Food Bank who in the context of our project served as a second stakeholder. Additionally, the interview gave us insight about the barriers for children and their families to access foods in the community: transportation, time, lack of information and knowledge, close availability, judgement, eligibility, and language. Through our discussions with her we learned how the pandemic heightened food insecurity for specific demographic groups due to the overwhelming effects of unemployment and housing disruptions. We also gained insight into how ACFB has been combatting this phenomenon through a 65% increase in efforts.

Stakeholder Interview

We decided to speak to someone who fit our target demographic in order to gain insight into the harsh realities of food insecurity throughout Atlanta. We spoke with an individual on ACFB’s contact list who recounted their experiences regarding the pandemic and it's effect on his family. As an individual with a job threatened by the pandemic, it was that much more crucial for him to be at work in order to prove valuable. Due to this, he and his wife struggled to put consistent food on the table for their kids as they once did. The sheer lack of time to watch and care for their children who are now at home rather than at school, impacted the family harshly. This served as the sole basis for creating an interface that mattered.

User Interview

Community Questionnaire

As another part of our research we sent out a community questionnaire via ACFB’s contact list. The main purpose of this questionnaire was to gather more specifics in terms of how these individuals relied on in school food services and their general tendencies when providing for their families.

Existing Tool Analysis

Since we had decided upon a food delivery application as our interface of choice, we found it necessary to assess similar existing platforms. We mainly assessed the major food delivery applications we knew of such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Through this we gained a deeper understanding of all the features our application would need to have in order to be functional.

Existing Literature Review

By reviewing existing studies conducted on topics such as food insecurity and the effect that the pandemic had on many single income families, we hoped to understand our problem space from multiple angles. The main pieces we analyzed were “Children Are Going Hungry: Why Schools Are Struggling To Feed Students” and the monthly Food Security Supplement (FSS) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Census.

Design

This phase of the project required a variety of different brainstorming activities due to the sheer amount of freedom we were given in choosing the type and design of the interface. In order to get these creative juices flowing, activities such as Crazy 8 Brainstorming, HTA Task Prioritization, and User Storyboards were completed. Following this thorough brainstorming, the initial rounds of design work were completed through hand sketches which were later turned into a high fidelity, clickable Figma prototype.

HTA Task Prioritization

One of the first design exercises that we conducted was an HTA exercise so that we could better understand the requirements needed of our tool. After curating a list of tasks that the tool had to accomplish, we proceeded to create subtasks that would fall under each major task and rank them in order of priority.

User Storyboards

We then moved on to think about how our potential users would utilize the interface that we create in real world scenarios. In order to best visualize what these situations would look like, we decided to draw out storyboards. These storyboards were based off specific user stories inspired loosely by families that ACFB aids.

Hand Sketches

Figma Prototypes

Assess

Upon having a viable prototype that not only included all the necessary features, but was interactive, we began the usability testing process. Our interface was tested by individuals chosen at random who participated in the completion of three simple tasks: set up a user profile, enable in-app notifications, and schedule a meal delivery via order. The tasks were solely centered around testing the level of intuitive design and real world functionality. We then evaluated our prototype via SUS score in order to determine implications and future next steps. Our final report was presented to both our professor and ACFB representatives who gave us applicable feedback in terms of the context surrounding potential usage of our tool.

Post Demo Questionnaire