treatsure
Specialist Diploma in User Experience and Product Design
User Experience Research
A solo project done as part of my Specialist Diploma in User Experience and Digital Product Design for the module User Experience Research.
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treatsure is Singapore’s first mobile reservation platform connecting businesses and hotels with surplus food to consumers.
UI Design, UX Research
Introduction
What is
treatsure?
treatsure is Singapore’s first mobile reservation platform connecting businesses and hotels with surplus food to consumers.
A start-up company and a food waste solution app with the aim to lessen food wastage through technology.
Has a lot of opportunity due to the rising level of awareness over sustainability issues.
But bad user experience doesn’t cultivate eco-conscious grocery shopping habits and push users away.
Services
treatsure's app offers multiple services
Buffets
treatsure collaborates with chains to allow app users to pick out and collect a “buffet-in-a-box” of food that would otherwise be thrown out, for a tenth of the buffet price.
Groceries
treatsure shares and reallocates excess food resources to people who would treasure them, minimising food wastage
Online-to-Offline Grocery Concept Store
treatsure shares and reallocates excess food resources to people who would treasure them, minimising food wastage
Competitors
Some of their competitors locally and globally has massive success that is backed by good user experience that encourages consumers to reduce food waste. This is an opportunity for treasure to do the same especially with increasing amounts of food waste that Singapore has been seeing over the years.
Just Dabao aims to redistribute the unsold surplus food by connecting last minute consumers and eateries.
Eateries sell their surplus food at 50 to 70% discounts. Consumers discover new food at ultra low prices.
UglyFood sells surplus or ‘ugly’ produce, all with the goal of promoting sustainability and reducing food waste in Singapore.
Olio is the app that lets you pass on what you no longer need to people who live nearby.
The world’s largest free sharing app that connects neighbours to help them share (rather than bin) food and household items.
Too Good To Go is the app that lets you rescue unsold food from an untimely fate at your favourite spots.
Use the app to explore shops and restaurants in your local area and save Surprise Bags of surplus food from going to waste at a great price.
User Journey
The treatsure
Experience
Methodology:
Contextual Inquiry
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Participant:
28 years old, female, civil servant, frequent grocery buyer, home cook
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Task:
Purchase some grocery items that you will utilise for your home-cooked meals from the treatsure app.
Strengths and Opportunities
treatsure's
Fruitful Advantage
Strengths
Gained a lot of publicity from ‘buffet in a box’
Has physical retail store that they can leverage
Attractive discounts from different ranges of items and service types
Opportunities
Rising level of awareness over sustainability issues
Creating a sense of community amongst users movements
More government support towards sustainability
Desk Research
The Growing Appetite to Reduce Food-waste
Growing amount of food waste
The amount of food waste generated has grown by around 20% over the last 10 years. To reduce pressure on resources for the land-scarce city-state, the government, businesses and consumers have to do their part.
Numerous Government Agencies and Non-Government Organisations supporting the cause.
Government agencies such as the National Environment Agency and movements such as Initiatives such as Towards Zero Waste and Zero Waste SG has active in managing and reducing the food waste in Singapore. Some of the efforts include raising awareness and public education, and supporting R&D developments.
Government Initiatives for Awareness
& Adopting Habits
NEA Food Waste Management Strategies
Steps and strategies to minimise waste and recycling
Towards Zero Waste
The Zero Waste Masterplan aims to reduce the waste sent to Semakau Landfill each day by 30 per cent by 2030
Consumer Attitudes Toward Food Waste
Based on existing studies and surveys.
Consumers are increasingly concerned about food waste and adopts habits to curb it. They also show positive attitudes towards companies that put in effort towards sustainability
UX Problems
The User Experience
Bad user interface and experience
Does not effectively show what is open or available.
Unintuitive design that takes users longer to complete a task.
Cumbersome to sieve and browse through various shops/eateries.
Lack of design hierarchy and visual aids leading to users reading walls of texts.
Lack of Information
Lack of information for eateries, establishments and condition of some food items. Does not instil confidence in already doubtful users to purchase items.
Unclear information on how cycles work
Complicated pickup information
Rigid and Unwelcoming
The lack of guiding icons hierarchy and use of white space makes it difficult for users to digest information quickly. It also makes the experience unintuitive and takes users longer to carry out a task. Moreover, reducing food waste is a social issue and having a friendly tone-of-voice can help users more feel welcomed. Wet markets and supermarkets often serve as a central point to bump into neighbours you know. It is a highly social experience where one look forward to the opportunity to talk and bond. The environment of the app can reflect that to increase user returns.
Heuristic Evaluation
Browsing
No search or filtering system to quicken the browsing process. Users have to painfully browse through each stores to look for what they want.
Heuristic Violation
Flexibility & efficiency of use
Severity & Priority
3
Service Menu
Users are welcomed by the landing screen showing eateries for the Buffet-in-a-Box feature. Other services are hidden away and it takes users a bit of exploration to find other sections.
Heuristic Violation
Recognition rather than recall
Severity & Priority
3
Service Menu
Groceries and other products are split into smaller sub categories. This makes it confusing when users realise there are a lot of overlaps when they browse the same shops in different categories. This happens because a shop may hold many products that cover more than one stated category.
Heuristic Violation
Match between system & the real world
Severity & Priority
2
Checking Out Error Missing Card Info
Error that CC info is missing only when the user is checking out. Does not direct to the missing field in question. User has to scrub through the text-heavy page to find the field.
Heuristic Violation
Error Prevention
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Severity & Priority
2
Checkout Screen
Too much information shown or repeated, competing with the relevant info and reduces its visibility.
Heuristic Violation
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Severity & Priority
2
Problem Statement
How might we improve the experience of the treatsure app to instil eco-conscious grocery purchasing habits in users to reduce food waste through the app?
Methodology
User Research
Research Objectives
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To find out about user behaviour when purchasing food items.
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To find out motivations and barriers when it comes to purchasing food items that are near expiry or surplus
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To understand pain points of users with trying to reduce food waste
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To find out what can instil their confidence to buy such food items
Research Methodology
Quantitative Research
Survey
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A survey was done online to get quantitative data on the general motivations and barriers as well as habits when purchasing surplus or expiring food items.
51 Responses
Target User Types
Working adults who buys groceries or purchase other food items for daily consumption like bakery goods, food from take-away kiosks, snacks and ready-to-eat packaged food.
Qualitative Research
Contextual Inquiry
To understand the user experience of using the app to purchase surplus or near expiry food items by observing their actions and decisions.
Female, 28 years old Frequent grocery shopper and home cook
Qualitative Research
Desk Research
To gather secondary research information on already available data for on consumer behaviours that should come into consideration when forming insights.
Qualitative Research
Interview
Interviews were conducted to understand the participants in-depth about their habits when grocery shopping and behaviours when reducing food waste. Participants were also asked about the issues they face and what motivates them to reduce waste.
Male, 27 years old Typical gym rat Cooks for meal preps
Female, 28 years old Mother of one Household of three Frequent home cook
Female, 34 years old Lives alone Frequent home cook
Designing for Behaviour Change
#1
Identifying Key Behaviours
Quantitative Research
Survey​
Examples of questions
What are the kind of discounted food items (near expiry, clearance, surplus) you would purchase?
To assess the comfort level of consumers when it comes to purchasing various types of food ranging from raw meat and canned processed items.
What would you do to buy such food items?
To assess the amount of effort consumers are willing to invest to purchase a discounted food item.
Qualitative Research
Interview
Examples of questions
How often do you go grocery shopping?
How are your shopping habits like?
Do you look out for discounts?
How do you typically find out about discounts on food items?
To understand general grocery shopping habits
How do you plan your grocery trips?
Do you consider food waste when planning your shopping list?
To understand general grocery shopping habits
Qualitative Research
Contextual Inquiry
Observations were made on the participants approach when buying discounted food items, the type of item the participant buys and why. Observations were also made on the participants decisions when checking out and choosing between pick-up and delivery options.
When looking at food items on discount, what do you look out for to help you make the purchase?
To understand the considerations when it comes to purchasing discounted near-expiry items.
Qualitative Research
Desk Research
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Research was done to look into the current consumer behaviours towards food waste, habits to reduce them, as well as initiatives by organisations to encourage reducing food waste.
What are your strategies to minimise food waste at home?
To understand the efforts and steps done to reduce food waste at home
#2
Removing Barriers
Quantitative Research
Survey​
Examples of questions
What would stop you from purchasing such food items?
To understand the factors that hold consumers back.
Why would you not encourage your family and friends to reduce food-waste by buying food items on clearance?
To understand the barriers that they recognise that would stop others from practicing such habits.
Qualitative Research
Desk Research
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Research was done to look into the current consumer behaviours towards food waste, habits to reduce them, as well as initiatives by organisations to encourage reducing food waste.
Qualitative Research
Interview
Examples of questions
How often do you find yourself discarding food items due to spoilage or expiration?
Can you share challenges faced when trying to reduce food waste?
To understand the behaviours when it comes to food waste at home and in general.
Qualitative Research
Contextual Inquiry
Observations were made on the participants approach when buying discounted food items, the type of item the participant buys and why. Observations were also made on the participants decisions when checking out and choosing between pick-up and delivery options.
#3
Amplifying Benefits
Quantitative Research
Survey​
Examples of questions
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Qualitative Research
Interview
Examples of questions
Besides discounts to attract purchases, what would you like to see to get more people to support this cause?
What would make you want to purchase such items?
Lorem
Qualitative Research
Contextual Inquiry
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Observations were made to understand the friction encountered by the participant when performing the given task on the app.
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Qualitative Research
Desk Research
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Research was done to look into the current consumer behaviours that deters them from purchasing surplus or near expiry food items.
User Research
Insights
Consumers are interested in reducing food waste and already practice habits to do that...
but they are generally more interested in saving money.
In an article by The Straits Times on a survey conducted, saving money outweights environmental concerns when it comes to consumer motivations when reducing food waste.
And an article on green businesses expanded on why some of those have shuttered.
Studies also highlighted an upwards trend of consumers being increasingly interested in reducing food waste.
In the interviews conducted, the participants already employ strategies to reduce food waste when they are grocery shopping and at home. However, they find that financial savings influence their decisions more.
The response from the survey conducted found that consumers are more financially motivated with their purchasing decisions even if they are conscious about food waste.
Another common sentiment is that the participants expressed is that they buy in bulk because they’re getting a better value or not having the option to buy in smaller quantities.
Consumers want to know about available items on discounts...
but will not go out of the way to discover them.
Responses from the survey conducted revealed that awareness of new items being available at slashed prices ranked top three on when it comes to motivation to purchase them. Participants also stated that they are hindered by the inconvenience of having to search for such food items.
Participants during the interview also don’t intentionally subscribe to any social media groups of marketing notifications to be in the know of discounts. Despite that, they are still interested in promotions and discounts as they will look out for them whilst in-store.
The participants voiced that they would want to be fed tailored information. They also prioritise their time and effort and would want to know the idea time to plan their trip.
Consumers are open to buying discounted food items on clearance...
if they can gain confidence by inspecting the condition closely.
The participants for the survey revealed that the lack of confidence is the top reason for not buying on clearance. All types of raw meat also ranked lowest on the kind of food they would purchase.
The interview however revealed that participants might buy raw meat that is on clearance but they are much more stringent about the condition. They prefer to be able to inspect the appearance closely. As for packaged and processed items, the responses were consistent with the survey conduction. The participants had considerably less requirements about the condition.
For freshly-prepared items, participants voiced that they tend to go for the discounted counterpart where the option is available.
In the contextual Inquiry research conducted, the participant was observed to look for information about the various stores available on the treatsure app. This could be in the form of images or the store description and location. When it comes to the items itself, the participant tend to seek out tags to assess the condition of the items against the images and discount before deciding whether they’d like to purchase.
Consumers wants to reduce food waste...
but are held back by the hassle.
‘Laziness’ and ‘Inconvenience’ ranked top three as the reason that is holding consumers back from reducing food waste. The participants were also asked if they would encourage such habits to reduce food waste. Many of the participants that responded no attributed it to knowing that they would not go through the hassle.
Moreover, a study by National Environment Agency found that households could have taken steps to reduce food waste.
But the responsibility of reducing food waste should not only be borne by consumers. In the study, the participants suggested that food retailers and manufacturers can do more to reduce food waste by offering different portion and quantity sizes.
The lack of smaller portions to reduce food waste is consistent with the sentiments from the interview conducted.
During the contextual inquiry research, the participant was observed to have felt inconvenienced by the unintuitive UI and having to read through long walls of information. The participant also lamented that the pick-up location and timing was not convenient before opting for delivery.
User Research
The Users
Customer Journey Map
Erina's Balancing Act
Proposition & Hypothesis
Design Recommendations
Value Proposition
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As we’ve seen in Erina’s story previously, there are many pains for her just to perform a simple task, in this case, grocery shopping for her family. Based on that, as well as the personas and customer journey map, we note down the customer’s job, pains and gains and how treatsure can address them.
Hypothesis​
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From the value proposition, the hypothesis were crafted with each focusing on a different area.
Recommendations
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Based on the findings from the previous research, Value Proposition, Prioritisation Matrix, we have narrowed down the solutions to ones that will help us test out hypothesis.
Recommended Solutions
Prototypes
Prototypes of the recommended solutions were created to be used for testing.
User Testing
Testing & Validation
Validating Through Testings
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Usability testing interviews were conducted where participants were instructed to perform tasks using the prototypes created. The aim of this interview is to validate our hypothesis.
Selected Participants
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The participants that took part in this test were selected as they were either similar to the personas or were a previous participant of the research.
The tasks were crafted to allow the participants to experience the various features that were created as part of the recommendations. In addition to that, the participants were also asked about specific features implemented.
User Testing Outcomes
Findings & Validation
Participants were observed to gravitate towards items that are marked with tags like “Price Drops” indicating that there is further reduction in price. They also noticed the discounts and instinctively looked out for items that offers good deals.
Participants agreed that the notification feature was useful and they would want to know when there is a good deal on the app. They also mentioned that they will definitely click into the notification if they receive one about an item they are interested in.rice Drops” indicating that there is further reduction in price. They also noticed the discounts and instinctively looked out for items that offers good deals.
They were delighted by the feature that showed the amount of money they saved over the course of using the app as well as the amount of food saved from wastage. When asked whether it will encourage them to keep on using the app, two our of three participants agreed.
The participants expressed that they liked that they can purchase ‘by weight’ for some items as it means that they do not have to commit to a bulk purchase, ultimately saving money and food from wastage.
The participants did not immediately recognise the ‘Mix & Match’ feature to be something that can benefit them. This because the initial thumbnail did not communicate that and the participants glossed over it.
However, when it was brought to their attention, they expressed that they liked the possibility of getting to purchase more variety but without having to commit to multiple regular-sized versions.
Participants viewed the details and description of their selected item to assess the condition of it before confidently deciding to add it to cart.
Participants mentioned that they clicked on certain products as there was a ‘freshness guaranteed’ sticker. They were observed to be delighted and interested in the product.
Participants noted the various tags on each item, noting whether they are expiring or surplus products and it encouraged them check out the product details more carefully.
There were instances where the participants didn’t notice all the details and tags on item. This could be a design issue where the tags could have been bigger.
Participants were observed to instinctively want to use the search bar or filter function to find the item in mind.
Participants were receptive to the recommendations on the homepage and were observed to stay on the homepage for a while to look through the items shown. Some even wanted to immediately click into the item or add item into cart as they were interested.
Participants found the checkout experience to be instinctive to go through. They did not experience any hiccups.
Participants were observed to not have trouble reading, understanding or performing tasks and mentioned that the design and layout was clean.
Conclusion
Back to the
Project Statement
Did the participants feel that they may
cultivate habits to reduce food waste through the app?
