INTHYME
HOW CAN FOOD WASTE BE BETTER ACCOUNTED FOR? IN WHAT WAYS WILL MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO WASTE LESS?
ROLE: Product Designer
TOOLS: Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, Whiteboard
TIMELINE: 48 Hours
HACKATHON PROMPT:
What sustainability issue could be solved through a hack? How can we utilize the power of technology through our mobile phones to help progress sustainability? The possibilities are endless from educating young girls to promoting a plant rich diet. With the freedom to make any hack that would create a sustainable future, we looked into a direct change within everyone's household.
How can one keep track of all the food in the refrigerator and make sure they eat as much of it before it goes bad? Everyone is too busy to keep track of everything! Who wants to spend time jotting down all the dates? Or keeping that hefty log in the head with your long
to-do list? And with all this collected information how can I use it moving forward?
inThyme allows users to take a photo of their receipt or also their shopping cart and it then itemizes that list to add to your inventory of food, similar to technology used at AmazonGo stores recognizing when products are put into shopper's cart. When it itemizes the purchase, it provides a generalized expiration date for each item. And as expiration dates approach and pass, inThyme gathers the monetary value loss allowing for users to see exactly how much they're losing.
With the information, inThyme collects and provides, users can then act quickly in reducing their food waste by creating meals inThyme recommends based on what's already in their kitchen and close to expiring.
By creating a seamless experience that allows users to quickly and easily add their purchases to their food inventory, it makes it more inviting to continue tracking their food. It visualizes their food inventory and brings it all in one place for users to refer to. No one wants to do write it all down all this information but they want to reevaluate their spending and food intake habits. Users can then take an active step in using their expiring food by curating a list of recommended recipes based on their expiring foods and what's based on their home.
BUSINESS CASES
What purpose does this product serve? Why does it matter to businesses? After brainstorming and compiling a list of business cases, our team highlighted that these cases were the primary focuses:
PERSONAS
Who are the typical users? Who do we see using this product and caring about the issues In Thyme is trying to tackle?
inThyme is made for people who care about the environment, the food waste they contribute and their spending habits. Whether it's someone looking to be smarter about how they spend their money or someone wanting more insight into their food consumption and waste.
USE CASES & USER FLOW
From those personas above, we curated a list of use cases as to why the typical user would want to use inThyme. In what way does inThyme enhance their goals?
The top use cases are defined as:
This flow depicts the main use cases of inputting new food into your inventory as well as looking for new recipes with what's already in your inventory.
WIREFRAMES
When drafting initial wireframes, we wanted to see how we can organize the extensive list of food in your household and what the main categories users would turn to when looking to make changes to their consumption habits, both food, and money. Surely people are aware money is lost when they throw out food, but we never really know as it piles on day by day. Here in inThyme, it's right in your face. Clear as day.
Now with all that information on what's in the kitchen and going bad, what can we do with it? We can find ways to use those foods! inThyme searched for recipes with whatever ingredients you've selected. While you may not have all the ingredients for the recipes, you've got some, and inThyme will cross those out so the list is smaller and more manageable. It makes the recipes more approachable and easier to complete and easier to use those foods approaching their dates.
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
When creating the visual language for inThyme, our team looked to colors reflecting the environment (green) and calming. inThyme is looking towards the future in creating a better environment for everyone and utilizing green in the interface helps push that idea further. Having a clear and minimal sans serif font keeps the interface modern and easy to read. With a bold font, it also makes it easier to read than than fonts with thin lines. inThyme wants to be approachable so that anyone and everyone can move forward to create a better environment for ourselvesand the future.
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Opportunities to partner with local grocery stores to provide feedback on
inventory trends. What is everyone buying yet ends up getting the most wasted? -
Collect data from users on what the grocery stores can do
to better improve their inventory plans
JULIE
24 YEARS OLD // STUDENT TEACHER // PORTLAND OREGON
Julie recently graduated from college and is starting her career as a student-teacher at
an elementary school. Unfortunately, wages for teachers is struggling so Julie's working
with a tight budget. Because she's so conscious about where her dollars go, she wants to make sure nothing's going in the waste, both for her wallet and for the Earth. She composts her food scraps and is always looking to integrate new reusable items into her lifestyle that are within her budget.
THOMAS
31 YEARS OLD // CIVIL ENGINEER // SAN FRANCISCO
Thomas is well adjusted to his career as a civil engineer in busy San Francisco. Living in a busy city, Thomas recently made the switch to sell his car and just take public transportation or rideshare wherever he goes. With his background, he had learned a lot about our environment and wants to take steps to create a smaller carbon footprint. He's looking to come at the issue from aspects of his life.
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As a food entuasiast, I want to track how much of my food goes to the trash so I can better assess how to better use more of my food.
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As a busy mom, I want to see recipes using foods that are approaching their expiration date so it saves time from googling recipes and going to the grovery store.
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As a frugal individual, I want to know how much money I waste so I can better budget what to not buy in the future.
HOME/TOTAL INVENTORY
ADDING TO INVENTORY
DETAILED RECIPE
RECIPE SEARCH RESULTS
HOME/TOTAL INVENTORY
CAMERA
ADDING INVENTORY
SEARCH INGREDIENTS
RECIPE SEARCH RESULTS
DETAILED RECIPE
REFLECTION
It's exciting to think of new ways to contribute to a greener environment beyond what's repeated everyday. Plus we always come across food waste whether it's leftover we don't want or the food we never got around to using. It may be small throwaways but it adds up quickly like many other things in life. It's our job to create a more sustainable world for us and the people after us. It's amazing what technology can do for us and it's exciting to see limits are only going up up up. Using Amazon's technology to recognize what's in our cart or on our reciept, it allows us to easily compile a list of what we have and needs to get used asap! And with that knowledge, the changes we can make in our daily lives is endless!
