Wanna go 'Halves'?
With praise for its strong research and concept delivery, this concept was selected for presentation at the Vice Chancellor's Evening in 2022.
The 'Halves' app addresses food waste on campus by creating an option of a half-portioned meal size.
By partnering with cafes and restaurants, students are able to anonymously buy half a meal with another student, alleviating their concerns with food safety and anonymity while keeping costs low and portion sizes small.
My Role:
- Concept research
- Concept design
- Assisted with UI design
- Assisted with usability testing
introduction
THE BRIEF
The 'Halves' concept was designed in response to a design brief for a digital concept addressing issues surrounding 'Environment and Sustainability'. I chose to focus on the area of food waste in particular.
What's the big deal with food waste?
Although food waste reduction is often overshadowed by more heavily promoted sustainable actions such as the plastic-free movement and the renewable energy movement, we were convinced of its importance after Project Drawdown's 2020 study concluded food waste reduction would be the single most impactful action amongst individuals to tackle the climate crisis (Project Drawdown, 2020).
The most wasteful demographic
I chose to focus on the 18-34 year old demographic as a study by Zero Waste Scotland found this to be the most wasteful demographic in terms of food waste (Acheson, 2022). With university students fitting this category, and their accessibility for research and testing, this would help with the feasibility of delivering a thoroughly researched and tested concept.
Although food waste reduction is often overshadowed by more heavily promoted sustainable actions such as the plastic-free movement and the renewable energy movement, we were convinced of its importance after Project Drawdown's 2020 study concluded food waste reduction would be the single most impactful action amongst individuals to tackle the climate crisis (Project Drawdown, 2020).
Therefore, our concept aimed to achieve major sustainable outcomes through equipping university students to take individual measures in reducing food waste.
RESEARCH
Research Objective
The research objective was to understand the patterns and behaviours surrounding food waste and overconsumption, and identify ways to change food waste patterns at the individual level. Our research questions included:
What barriers prevent students from reducing their waste?
What factors lead students to contribute to waste food?
This would be achieved through looking into gaps in existing design precedents. The selected methods chosen:
- Secondary Research
- Focus Groups and Interviews
- Surveys
THE PORTION PROBLEM
(Secondary Research)
Student Motivations for Wasting Food:
In a study conducted by Zero Waste Scotland examined the food waste behaviours of 155 undergraduate students at the University of St Andrews (Zero Waste Scotland, 2022). The study was conducted over a 7-day period in which participants were asked to keep a food waste journal.
The most common reasons for why students wasted food were:
- They did not enjoy the food
- The portion was too large
- The food was expired
This study highlighted that 23% of the students found food items were sold in too big a quantity, leading to more food waste.
Unfinished Restaurant Meals:
According to a study by Sustainable America (2014) across the USA found 17% of restaurant meals were unfinished. 55% of these unfinished meals were never boxed up to be taken away, yet 38% of leftovers taken home are never eaten (Eating out without Waste, 2014).
An Increasing Portion Size:
Research by the George Institute of Global Health and the Heart Foundation found a 66% increase in discretionary foods including pizza, processed meats cereal bars and ice cream from 1995-2012. Pastries and snack foods including potato chips had increased by 40% (Zheng, 2017). A study conducted by the USDA found that food served outside of home was larger and contained on average 134 more calories than the same meal cooked at home.
The Restaurant's Perspective:
The motive for restaurants to serve large portions to the increase profit margins. While doubling the size of the meal may only cost the restaurant fifty cents more, they are able to justify doubling the price they charge for the meal. Furthermore, there is a cost to "miniature" ingredients. For small burger buns, smaller packaging, and buying in singular ingredients rather than in bulk (Jenkins, 2015).
A COMPARISON OF ATTITUDES IN MEAL EXPERIENCES ACROSS GENDERS
(Surveys)
Barriers To Meal-Sharing:
Participants answered the question "What stops you from sharing food with other students?" by selecting multiple answers they agreed with.
The findings suggested that females generally felt higher levels of distrust towards students they did not know, whereas no males did not indicate this was a concern for them. However, the main barrier for males was that they wanted to eat the rest of their food later. Concern for hygiene and general discomfort in talking to strangers was a relatively balanced across both genders.
The findings suggested that females generally felt higher levels of distrust towards students they did not know, whereas no males did not indicate this was a concern for them. However, the main barrier for males was that they wanted to eat the rest of their food later. Concern for hygiene and general discomfort in talking to strangers was a relatively balanced across both genders.
Struggles With Portion Sizes
When students were asked what reasons led them to contribute to food waste, 50% of females stated that they found food portions too big, as opposed to only 29% of the males selected this reason
This demonstrated that the issue of portion sizes predominantly affected females.
A COMPARISON OF PARTICIPANT RESPONSES TO MEAL-SHARING SCENARIOS
(Surveys)
Scenario 1:
(Student facilitated meal sharing)
"Imagine you are in line at a campus cafe, and the student in front of you (who you do not know) turns to you and asks if you would like to split a meal between the two of you. The meal will be packaged separately, halving the cost as well as the portion. What would your response be?"
Scenario 2:
(Restaurant facilitated meal sharing)
"Imagine you are in line at the campus cafe. Someone has just ordered half of a meal. The cafe owner offers you the second half of the meal, for half of the price. Would you take it?"
Between Scenario 1 and 2, Participants were more than twice as likely to say yes to a meal sharing experience which was facilitated by the restaurant owner as opposed to another student.
The students' were asked to justify their response with a few sentences. Some of the reasons against sharing a meal initiated by the students fell under themes of finding the situation too strange and awkward, distrust of the other person, an uncomfortable pressure from an unexpected situation, and shyness.
Problem Framing
We reframed the problem through using the 5 Why's method to synthesise the research findings.
1. Why do people waste food?
Because they have leftovers after a meal.
2.Why do people have leftovers after the meal?
Because the portion is too big, or they don't enjoy the taste of the food.
3.Why do people order things that they can’t finish?
Because they don't have anyone to share it with. Lots of people share meals, both intentionally and incidentally. Many have fathers or brothers who eat their leftovers, and outside the home there is no one to do that.
4.Why don’t they have someone to share it with?
Because they find it too awkward or they don’t trust other people to share it with them. It can seem unhygienic. It also feels too strange because the idea of meal-sharing with a stranger is too unfamiliar. It requires stepping outside of their social comfort zone.
5.Why does it seem strange, unhygienic, unfamiliar and awkward?
Because there is currently no system in place to share food. It’s too uncommon and out of the ordinary to ask to share food with people they don’t know. We don’t want to talk to them.
THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
How can we create a comfortable meal-sharing amongst students to reduce food waste?
USER PERSONAS
Fictional personas were used to summarise and humanise the focus demographic and their goals, needs and frustrations.
LILY BRUNWICK
ABOUT:
Lily is a university student in her 2nd year of Primary Education. She is 21 years old and is loves photography. She is shy and doesn't like interacting with strangers. She enjoys socialising but is cautious when it comes to talking to strangers.
GOALS:
1. Finish her food without overeating.
2. Try lots of different kinds of foods.
3. Spend less money on food.
FRUSTRATIONS:
1. The large portion sizes on campus which she can never finish.
2. The hassle of taking leftovers home, and then forgetting to eat it.
3. Gaining weight when she eat out and has to forces herself to finish her food.
4. Uncomfortable situations with strangers.
5. Being rushed or put under pressure to make a decision.
VICTOR HUNG
ABOUT
Victor is a university student who loves to spend time with his friends watching movies and eating lots of food together. He is often hungry and has a big appetite which can be helpful as he is a big foodie! He has tried most of the cafes on campus, and has visited the top restaurants in Sydney. Overall he loves all kind of food and is not very picky.
GOALS:
1. Spend less money on food.
2. Have satisfying meals.
FRUSTRATIONS:
1. Not having enough to eat until satisfied.
2. Spending more money than necessary on
food.
CONCEPT DESIGN
Crazy 8's were used to quickly generate ideas which were critiqued with the class.
ITERATIONS
prototype
See our live prototype down below:
