Pockitchen 

A kitchen in your pocket to help reduce food waste and for smart grocery shopping plans.

Project overview

Food wastage has been one of the most common problems in developed countries. It’s also one of the common issues that cost problems to the environment. On a personal level, many had the experience of disposing of expired food while needing to purchase new inventory at the same time.

With food prices raising significantly in the post-Covid era, reducing food wastage becomes increasingly relevant to ordinary New Zealand families, both in economic and environmental concerns.

This project will explore and discover the process and habits of grocery shopping and meal planning for New Zealand families and individuals and their current existing strategies of consuming food before expiry dates, and prepare and plan solutions to reduce potential food wastage.

Findings and insights

Problem framing and design principles

How may we help people to consume groceries before the food expire, and help people buy groceries cost efficiently?

Design overview

• “Pockitchen”: A kitchen in the pocket
• Personal PA for organizing your kitchen and groceries 
• Catered for young families and singles who are working professionals or parents 

• Easy, fun, efficient and convenient

The initial idea was a basic cooling compartment and a freezer. Then a cupboard was added for dried food etc. The three parts can be placed on one page in the App. The idea is to store the groceries all in one place for easy management.

Initially, I think an alarm for food expiration is crucial for the App, because the App supposes to remind the users before something expires. However, the challenge lies in how to define the length of the expiry date for each food. Will the alarm require too much attention that will annoy the users? Do we require the user to physically type in the expiry date for EVERY grocery that they put in the App? That can be too much work. (And we don’t want the users to work too much lest the App makes no difference from a paper shopping list (which is never used by our participants!)

Lo-fi Prototype and usability test

The most important objectives for usability testing to find out:

• Can people navigate their way between different compartments of the App?

• Is it easy enough for people to add groceries to the inventory? (0-1 mistake = easy; 2 mistakes = moderate; 3 or more mistakes = hard. )

• Is it necessary to include an alarm for the expiry date? In this Prototype, the alarm is not included.

Usability test findings

• Participants didn’t find it entirely easy to navigate between the compartments in the App. The locations needs redesign.

• Participants found it easy to add groceries to the inventory. More improvements can be possibly provided for convenient input methods.

• Participants preferred to see an alarm for the expiry date. The App needs to provide an easy way to input and adjust the expiry dates.

Hi-fi Prototype design

Prototype Display

Next step

To enhance the App’s interaction with users, and to promote stronger positive emotions, more features can be included, such as adding “thank you” and appreciations wordings and pop-up icons from the groceries that are saved in time. Another idea is to set a reward system for saving food, eg. earning treats when saving up to a certain amount of food. In short – Keep it fun!