Yuki, minimize food waste
The project was done as a part of the Circular economy Challenage 2020 organised by VTT, Aalto University, GTK, Luke and SYKE
Online Pitch: The idea was presented as a pitch during the Circular Innovation Fair organised by Sirtra's World Circular Economy Fair
Best Pitch Award: Our team was awarded first place for the best pitch among 26 other teams. Certificate here.
Teammates: Apurva Ganoo, June Park, Katarzyna Wojdalska, Noah Peysson
Mentors: Kata Fodor, Hanna Hartikainen, Inkeri Riipi
Research method: Desktop research, expert interviews and in-depth interviews
Service design tools used: UI/UX design
My role: Focus Interviews, Research Synthesis, Idea Development, Logo Design, Visual Design
Duration: 3 months (approx.)
Project Background 🥘 🗑️
Yuki is a self-initiated project done by a self-formed team of a multidisciplinary group of students from Aalto University with the aim to participate in the VTT's Circular Innovation Fair pitching and networking event. The broad theme that the team started with was 'food systems'. On further collaboration with experts from Luke (Natural Resource Institute of Finland), the team decided to narrow the scope of problem-solving to the food waste generated by households in Finland.
Design Brief:
How might we create both user-friendly and convenient solutions for households to minimize food waste?
Solution Summary 🧑🤝🧑📱
The application-based solution has three main features, namely organize, discover and share. The combination of these three features is aimed towards establishing good food management practices among university students in Finland since they lack culinary skills, are managing a kitchen for the first time and building good habits is important since they are the future families of tomorrow. The purpose of the application is also to generate a strong sense of community by being able to not share tips and tricks to best utilise the food items but also to minimise any food waste by being able to share within trusted social groups. Our unique selling point is to provide opportunities to minimize food waste at every stage of the consumer’s “food journey”, from shopping, to cooking, to leftover management.
Context
The problem of food waste is so paradoxical. On one hand, there is obesity and on the other, there is starvation. And under the same sun, there is food waste and food insecurity. So our team decided to intervene about the problem of food waste in our immediate surrounding.
Some of the facts that we gathered from UNEP's report are as followed:
• Per capita waste by consumers is between 95-115 kg a year in Europe.
• In medium and high-income countries, food is wasted and lost mainly at later stages in the supply chain.
Define
Wasting food, particularly when it can be redistributed efficiently, is irresponsible! Not to mention that all of this food has taken several of our important resources like soil, water, energy, and money! Hence we used the Ice berg model to dig deeper into the mental models of the underlying reason behind the food waste among consumers.
Research
User Persona
By using BMI's user persona canvas, we have classified two types of users one who is pro-active in making sustainable choices and second one for who sustainability is not a prime focus. To be able to conceptualise a service that is catering to a broder user group, we mapped out the fear, hopes and goals of both the types of personas.
Findings
With 120-160 million kg of food wasted in Finnish households due to a lack of culinary skills, fast-paced lifestyles and forgetting about expiration dates, efficient food management services are needed. Food waste is a topic associated with several societal challenges. We aim to support working households by collaborating with housing companies, helping them best utilise their food products by providing a reliable, intuitive, community-based and environmentally-conscious solution.
Idea Development
Our Solution: Yuki_your kitchen
Technology and intuitiveness combined for a holistic, end to end solution for tackling food waste. If we empower citizens by providing them with the right tools, they will have the ability to collectively create a larger systemic change. By shopping less, cooking smarter and re-placing sharing and trust at the centre of our society's values, we can develop a more socially sustainable food consumption system. Plan more, share more, waste less!
1. Organize
By collaborating with grocery stores, our app would track our user’s purchases. By scanning the barcode, it would automatically update the app’s content.
This content can later on be manually adjusted to keep track of what is still remaining.
This content can later on be manually adjusted to keep track of what is still remaining.
2. Discover
Based on what you have bought and is in your fridge, you would access information summary cards. Those would provide condensed information regarding your groceries too.
If they are interested, the application provides access to more extensive and relevant information.
Finally, to make it entertaining, the app would also provide the users the opportunity to test their knowledge in the form of a short quiz.
If they are interested, the application provides access to more extensive and relevant information.
Finally, to make it entertaining, the app would also provide the users the opportunity to test their knowledge in the form of a short quiz.
3. Share
As a last option, food could also be shared, either because you’re going away for the weekend, cooked too much, or bought something you don’t like or can’t eat.
To share it in a fast and convenient way, users would take a picture of the food, describe what kind of food it is, and choose which group to share it with. They then just have to wait until someone reserves and comes to pick it up.
Other aspects, such as new stakeholders, spaces and scenarios could also later be included.
Pitching Event
On 26th November 2020, VTT organized the Circular Innovation Fair where a representative from our team piched our concept. There was an audience of more than 400 persons and almost 100 different companies/ organizations, from about 10 countries!
Reflections
The self-initiated project was a fabulous opportunity to apply my learnings from project management and design leadership gained from coursework. For the project, our team had collaborated with scientists from Luke. This experience helped me gain insight into the skillsets that make designers ability to visualise unique. The project was a part of a larger circular innovation initiative. Having my background in product design, I somewhat had a narrower understanding of circularity as it being something restricted to manufacturing and dismantling processes. However, this experience and its success made me realise that circularity could be an ingrained part of sustainable consumption.
