From waste to food - postgraduate final project

special thanks

Our special thanks go first to our teachers who dedicated their time to share their knowledge with us. Thank you for all the patience with our mistakes and doubts.

To our tutor Silvia Lleras for guiding us throughout this journey.

To our coordinator Cristina Bustillo for helping and supporting us in all the steps of this project.

To our coleagues for sharing with us their ideas and their own works, it was really helpful.

To our interviewees and everyone who served as inspiration and cocreated with us.

Thank you!

SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

06

MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

08

PROCESS

10

DISCOVER

12

DEFINE

34

DEVELOP

44

DELIVER

62

CONCLUSION

66

INTROduction Every year, one third of all produced food is wasted around the world. This is 1.3 billion tonnes of food that could feed 3 billion people. Culturally there is no awareness of what it takes for food to get plated and served.

Research from 2013 shows half of all food waste in the world comes from Asia. With Europe, North America and Oceania holding second place. This proves that, for the most part, developed countries waste more food. Salads are half of the food that goes to waste.

Right after are fruits and vegetables. In the world potatoes are the most wasted vegetable, bananas and apples are the most wasted fruits. Breads and cereals are in third place, and meat and fish are last with a 10% waste.

Within the European Union, Britain is ranked number one for wasting food; followed by Germany. Together, these countries throw out almost 25 million tonnes of food per year.

- Velasco, Marina. (27/10/2017). Los datos que explican el desperdicio de alimentos en EspaĂąa. Huffington Post. https://www.huffingtonpost.es/2016/07/05/datos-desperdicio-espana_n_10772726.html - Juul, Selina. You Have the Power to End the Global Food Waste Scandal. Think Eat Save. http://thinkeatsave.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=391 - Reducing Food Waste (2016). Ad Council https://www.adcouncil.org/Impact/Case-Studies/Reducing-Food-Waste-2016

France occupies 4th place, but have become the first country in the world to place a national bank on food waste in supermarkets, with donations of “ugly” food but safe to eat.

Spain is ranked in 7th place in the U.E. for food waste. Wasting 8 million tons of food per year. Catalunya wastes 262 thousand tons; which is equivalent to 51 thousand African elephants.

The government of Catalunya has started campaigns about conscious consumerism in the hopes of educating people about this problem. A book with concepts and actions to reduce waste is available online as well as videos explaining about the production in the region. These campaigns are available online, but they’re actually difficult to access. The lack of education and awareness causes this impactful problem to keep growing unmeasurably.

- Definiciones y cifras. Ministério de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente. http://www.mapama.gob.es/es/alimentacion/temas/estrategia-mas-alimento-menos-desperdicio/Definiciones_cifras.aspx - Tovar, Andrés. (02/05/2017). El desperdicio de comida en España continúa siendo enorme. Cambio 16. https://www.cambio16.com/actualidad/el-desperdicio-de-comida-en-espana-continua-siendo-enorme/

mission, vision, values

From Waste to Food is a project that was dedicated to finding the most common problems that lead to food waste in small homes of people living alone or with roommates. After identifying these problems, the solution was focused on the management of leftovers.

With this in mind: Keep was created. This service is composed by a glass container with a lid that has a camera that takes a picture of the leftovers with just one click. The “smart� lid connects to a mobile app that provides recurring notifications in order to alert the user of what they have stored, ideas of recipes that incorporate the leftovers, and a quick supermarket list to keep track of what products the user needs or does not.

MISSION

vision

Keep is directed to those users who find themselves wanting to waste less food but don’t know where to star solving the problem. Users who are aware of the severity of food waste but lead a busy life that prevents them from giving the problem their full attention, and therefore need a solution that is easy and convenient.

Keep aims to give its users an effortless way to reduce their food waste by focusing on their leftovers and how to manage them. Providing them with reminders, recipe ideas, and a quick list to check while shopping for food.

values SIMPLICITY The user will have to put very little effort into the process of using Keep. A simple click will take a picture and set the date in which the leftovers have been stored.

This information will be automatically transferred to the mobile app, directly to the users hands.

ECO FRIENDLY The Keep container will be made out of glass, to ensure the most eco-friendly solution to managing leftovers. Every part of the process of creating Keep will strictly respect the environment. Due to the fact that minimizing food waste goes hand in hand with saving the environment.

CONVENIENCE Having the Keep app on a mobile device gives the user easy access to the information stored and constant reminders of what they have stored. These reminders will also be customizable.

The user will be able to set how many reminders he or she wishes to receive, for how many days he or she wishes to receive them and at what time of the day to receive them.

ALTERNATIVES Keep will provide its users with recipes and ideas based on what food they have stored. This will encourage the use of the leftovers and minimize the amount of food the user wastes.

process

In-Depth Interviews

User Personas

Diaries

Secondary Research

Shadowing Insights

discover

In the discovery phase of our project we used the following types of research methodologies: - secondary research - interview with expert - in-depth interview - diaries - shadowing - insights - user personas

secondary research The secondary research is considered an easy and quick way of acquiring knowledge about a specific topic, because it consists on gathering already existing data of external fonts. It helps guide the focus of any subsequent primary research that will be conducted.

Objective: To understand the general context of the topic we are exploring, which is food waste.

Gain quick knowledge on what is going on in a global and national context regarding this theme.

RESULTS: In the world, per year, 1/3 of all food produced go to garbage. IN U.S. 40% of all food never will be eated by a human, and 30% never will be consumed by animals.

A research from 2013 shows that half of all food waste in the entire world happens in Asia. Europe and North America plus Oceania holds the second place.

Spain are in 7th place in the U.E. ranking of waste. Britains waste more food, followed by the Germans. They throw out almost 25 millions of tonnes per year. France occupy the 4th place, but they are the first country in the world to place a national bank on food waste in supermarkets, with donations of “ugly� food, but safe to eat.

Salads are half of food that we throw out mostly. Right after are the fruits and vegetables. In the world potatoes are the most wasted vegetable, and bananas and apples the fruits that go to garbage.

Breads and cereals are in the third place, and meat and fish are in last place with 10% of waste.

Food waste is responsable too for a huge waste of resources. The production of any food have a big spend of water, energy, fuel, time, human resources.

Other problem is the difficult to find packages with portions for small families or people who lives alone. With the crescent number of people sharing houses, they don’t have much space to storage food properly and lose a lot of food in this way.

85% of all food lost aren’t prepared.

The prepared food is only 15%. Spanish people have 3 mainly reasons to throw out food: they can’t organize their shop; forgot to freeze or throw the rests.

The government of Catalunya started a campaign about conscient consum trying to educate people about this problem. A book with concepts and actions to reduce waste is available in internet as well as videos explaining about the production in region. This campaigns are available online, but they’re actually difficult to acess, requiring a search,. This can result in a big part if popoulation without know this campaigns.

- Velasco, Marina. (27/10/2017). Los datos que explican el desperdicio de alimentos en España. Huffington Post. https://www.huffingtonpost.es/2016/07/05/datos-desperdicio-espana_n_10772726.html - Juul, Selina. You Have the Power to End the Global Food Waste Scandal. Think Eat Save. http://thinkeatsave.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=391 - Reducing Food Waste (2016). Ad Council https://www.adcouncil.org/Impact/Case-Studies/Reducing-Food-Waste-2016 - Definiciones y cifras. Ministério de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente. http://www.mapama.gob.es/es/alimentacion/temas/estrategia-mas-alimento-menos-desperdicio/Definiciones_cifras.aspx - Tovar, Andrés. (02/05/2017). El desperdicio de comida en España continúa siendo enorme. Cambio 16. https://www.cambio16.com/actualidad/el-desperdicio-de-comida-en-espana-continua-siendo-enorme/

interviews interview with expert Since the focus of our project is the city of Barcelona, for this is where the project is being developed, we contacted Generalitat Catalunya and where able to schedule an interview with the Health Secretary, Juan Marcos de Miquel. He is in charge of the department that is responsible for the projects regarding food waste that are being developed in Catalunya.

The most important pieces of information gathered in the interview are listed below: “In Catalunya 262.000 tons of food are wasted every year, which equals to the weight of 51.000 african elephants.”

“Food waste is the cause that makes that part of what is produced does not end up being consumed.”

“In Catalunya food waste is concentrated in big cities, and in home of small families.”

“In Spain 8.000.000 tons of food are wasted every year.”

“It is possible to minimize waste by eating less, buying less, reusing leftovers, planning your shopping, buying intelligently and not entering the consumerism world”

“The most important projects we are developing regarding food waste are: Nevera solidaria and Recooperem”

“Our focus from now on is to develop projects in schools, hospitals and prisons, because these big entities are also huge wasters.”

Juan Marcos de Miquel PROFESSION: Health Secretary of Generalitat Catalunya interview: 02-02-2018

Amongst the relevant information brought by this interview is the fact that food is wasted more in homes and especially in homes of small families. And that is exactly what this project is going to focus on.

interviews In-depth interview A qualitative data collection method, in-depth interviews offer the opportunity to capture rich, descriptive data about people’s behaviors, attitudes and perceptions, and unfolding complex processes.

OBJECTIVE: To understand how people manage their daily activities regarding: shopping, cooking and meals we planned in-depth interviews with our target users - people who live by themselves or share flat, from 25 to 45 years old.

The guideline used for the activity was composed of the following questions:

THE GUIDELINE USED FOR THE ACTIVITY WAS COMPOSED OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: Intro How old are you?

Where do you live?

What is your living situation?

What do you do for a living? How much time do you spend at home?

Eating Habits What is eating for you?

Do you consider yourself a healthy eater? Why? Do you like to cook?

How important is it for you to cook your own meals and why?

Do you control your meal portions?

How many meals do you have each day?

Are you responsible for cooking in your home?

If not who is?

How often do you cook?

How often do you order/eat out?

Do you eat the same food you cooked the day before?

Storage How do you organize your purchases?

Where do you store your fresh produce?

After you cook and eat, whaVt do you do with the leftovers?

Do you separate your organic from recycled trash?

Shopping Habits Who is the responsible of buying the food at your house?

How often do you go to the supermarket?

How do you plan your trip to the supermarket? (do you check your refrigerator to see what you need and don’t need? do you make a list?)

Do you stick to your list? Do you buy extra?

What percentage of your purchases are fruits and vegetables?

What percentage are industrialized items (items that last longer ex.canned goods, snacks)?

Food Waste Are you aware of food waste?

What do you think about it?

In what extent do you think you waste food?

When do you consider that you waste more food: at home or at the restaurant?

What was the last thing you threw away and why?

How do you feel when you throw food away?

Do you think you waste more raw/fresh food (fruits, vegetables, bread...) or cooked food (meals)?

SOME RELEVANT QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEWS ARE PRESENTED BELOW:

“Me and my girlfriend share the responsibility of cooking.” - David, 33

“I never order food. I prefer to cook it myself.” - Alberto, 38

“I usually cook for the several days in advance, but since I am out a lot I end up eating in restaurants.” - Eric, 33

“ I end up wasting more cooked food than raw ones, because I tend to forget them in the fridge. They always go to the rear area and since I don’t see them, I forget I have them stored.” - Luiana, 27

“I am very unplanned and I have a busy schedule at work. It is hard for me to plan my meals. Sometimes I forget what I have in the fridge and thins end up being wasted. Especially leftovers.” Rosa, 30

“I don’t know how to manage the food portions. I end up putting too much stuff on my plate and I sometimes have to throw it away because I am not able to eat everything.” - Rita, 25

“I almost don’t waste any food. I have already had a restaurant and I am very aware about food waste.”- Aline, 35 “I order food often. I store the leftovers in the fridge to eat them on the following day.” - Fabio, 31

DIARIES Diary studies collect qualitative information by having participants record entries about their every day lives in a log, diary or journal about the activity or experience being studied. This collection of data uses a longitudinal technique, meaning that it is reported by the participants over a period of time ranging from some days to more a few months, meaning that it studies the same variables over a period of time.

This research tool can offer a vast amount of contextual information.

OBJECTIVE: The diaries were conducted over a whole week. During this period the interviewee should take pictures of the leftovers of each meal and of everything he/she threw away during the day and send to the members of the group. The objective was to identify (in a visual way) how much food people waste. Confronting the results from the diaries with the results from the in-depth interviews we where able to identify what people do instead of what they say they do. Most of the cases what they have said, didn’t match with what they did. A lot of interviewees waste big amounts of food, mostly because they tend to forget what they have in their fridges, or because the products get expired or because they don’t know how to control portions when cooking.

SHADOWING This technique provides a rich, comprehensive data set about the patterns of actions, interdependence and motivations of users. Observation is enhanced with information about mood, body language, pace and timing in order to give a full picture of the world from the user’s point of view.

OBJECTIVE: The shadowing was conducted in the supermarket to observe the behavior of the target users during their grocery shopping.

Results ALBERTO Did not make a list Did not check prices, he simply bought the items he wanted to and from the brands he likes Did not check expiration dates While buying he tried to think about the rooms in the house to try to find out if he was forgetting something (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, laundry) ALINE Make a list observing her kitchen; Goes with her partner and they plan the mealsfor the following week; Buys some things that are not in the list; Observes prices and offers, and buys some things in a biggest quantity than they had planned

insights With the information obtained from the research we start the Insighs phase.

To do this, we join all the data that collected and start to analyze and filter the results.

OBJECTIVE: Start to progress from research to definition, observing the results and converting them to questions. To organize all the information collected during the research and interviews, the insights was separated in different topics, that includes storage habits, packaging and eat habits, for example.

MANAGING LEFTOVERS

PORTION SIZES IN RESTAURANTS

- How to know if they are still consumable - How not to forget them in the refrigerator

- People believe more food is being wasted when they eat in restaurants - They feel they are being served a large amount of food (specifically side dishes) and aren’t able to finish everything

PORTION CONTROL - People have difficulty on calculating the amount of food they have to cook when it comes to side dishes like rice, pasta, etc.

- They have no guide or reference to what is the appropriate amount for a single person - They cook more thinking they will eat it, but end up not being able to consume it - They feel lost on how to calculate portions

STORAGE OF FRESH PRODUCE - Fresh produce is wasted because of how fast it expires - The way fresh produce is stored can help elongate their consumption period

EXPIRATION DATES - People trust too much on expiration dates.

Food that is still edible is thrown away

PORTION SIZE OF PACKAGES - Portions are too big for a single consumer - People can’t finish these and end up throwing them away

personas

After analyzing and synthesizing the results of the research, profiles to understand the needs of the public were necessary.

With all the information we created three different personas: - A persona who doesn’t wastes food (or waste little) - A persona who wastes but feels guilty, and is trying to change her behavior - And a persona who wastes and and is not aware of the problem.

In this step we could start to define the way that our project goes and refine our work. This tool was very important to go ahead with the design thinking process. These three personas are described in details in the following pages.

XAVI

LAURA

SIMÓN

33 yo ~ He wastes little to no food at all ~

29 yo ~ She is aware that she wastes food and wants to change her habits ~

25 yo ~ He ignores the fact that he wastes food ~

“I was educated not to waste food”

“I feel guilty throwing food away”

“I end up eating out most days of the week”

P PERSONAS Name: Xavi Age: 33 Descriptor: The conscient guy Quote: “I was educated not to waste food.�

Who is it: Lives in Barcelona city center, works as Digital Design Engineer/Developer. Wastes little to no food at all, because he was raised and educated to be aware of this problem.

What goals: destinations like Asia, wants to improve his cooking by taking classes.

What attitude: Ambivert, quiet, polite, thinks long term, avoids wasting food as much as possible Which behavior: Very organized, responsible, scheduled routine, steady work out/exercise routine, when shopping he makes a list and follows it as much as possible, recycles trash, rarely orders food, does everything he can to make his fresh produce last longer, enjoys cooking

Weekdays

Weekends

wakes up early goes to work

tries new recipes

brings his own lunch to work

indulges himself

works out 3x / week

I have to check what I still have in the fridg e

I have to make th e supermarket list

cooks food for the next day prepares his own dinner

I am going to the supermarket tomorrow.

goes out with friends

Name: Laura Age: 29 Descriptor: The scattered girl Quote: “I feel guilty throwing food away.”

Who is it: Lives in Barcelona city center, works as Social Media Strategist. She’s What goals: Wants to improve her career, wants to take road trip across Spain, be more organized and understand how to waste less food.

What attitude: Extroverted, sociable, communicative, feels guilty everytime she throws food away.

Which behavior: lists. At the market, she always buys things she thinks she needs, but in fact doesn't. She gets nervous while preparing food because she doesn't feel secure about calculating the portions; and she feels insecure to eat the leftovers because she always thinks they are not good anymore. She wastes food more than she would like.

Weekdays

Weekends

wakes up late

does not cook

works from home 3x / week

LOOK! MANY DELICIOUS THINGS! I THINK I'LL BUY THEM.

cooks food for other days (ends up not eating it)

sleeps late

I AM NOT SURE IF I STILL HAVE BREA D

goes out with friends

I'D BETTER BUY IT ANYWAY

P PERSONAS Name: Simón Age: 25 Descriptor: The clueless guy Quote: “I end up eating out most days of the week.”

Who is it: at night. Believes he doesn’t waste a lot of food.

What goals: Finish his studies, get a good job at a hotel.

What attitude: He changes his mind constantly, is not happy with his job, easy going, ignores the fact that he wastes food.

Which behavior: He procrastinates, doesn’t recycle, he eats anything. Barely eats at home so most of the food he buys goes to waste. He buys in big quantities so because the packet is too big for just one person. He doesn’t know how to manage food portions.

PERSONAS - J OURNEY Weekdays

Mondays

wakes up late

works as a waiter

sleeps a lot

DAMN IT! I'LL HAVE TO BUY THIS 1L CARTON OF MILK EVEN THOUGH

eats out

studies at night

cooks extra food for the week (ends up eating out)

I BETTER TAKE ALL THIS CAUSE I DON'T WANT TO COME BAC K I KNOW I'LL NOT BE ABLE TO DRINK IT ALL BEFORE IT GOES BAD

Empathy Map Canvas

Stakeholders Map

Brainstorming

Value Proposition Canvas

define

In the definition stage we applied the following tools to refine our project: - stakeholders map - empathy map canvas - value proposition canvas - brainstorming

stakeholder map

The stakkeholder map is a useful tool to go deeply to understand all the relationships envolved in the project and related to our consumers. Through it, it was possible to understand in which channels we could act to provide an efficient solution to reduce food waste at homes.

empathy canvas We used an Empathy Map to get to know our target audience in order to align or value proposition with our customer’s wants, needs, goals and feelings.

This tool created the conditions to discover qualitative insights about our customer, and was also a great input to design the Value Proposition Canvas.

We used Laura and Simon which are the personas that waste the most. The questions that we answered to complete the canvas are:

What is the customer thinking and feeling?

• What is the customer concerned about or afraid of?

• Is the customer satisfied?

• What are the customer’s priorities?

• What causes an emotional reaction for the customer?

• What is the customer hearing?

• Where does the customer get their information?

• What is the customer saying and doing?

• What is the gap between what they say and how they act?

• What obstacles does the customer need to overcome?

• Why hasn’t the customer been able to reach their goals?

• What does the customer gain?

Both Laura and Simón throw away a lot of food because of numerous reasons. Our product needs to answer the customers needs that are: • Being able to remember leftovers • Being able to control food portions • Wasting less food • Spending less money on food • Having smaller packages available With this information, we have now a better understanding of the costumer for whom we are designing our product.

VALUE PROPOSITION GAIN CREATORS

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

GA

PA

PAIN RELIEVERS

The Value Proposition Canvas has two sides: the customer profile that clarifies our understanding of the client, and the value map that describes the form in which we want to create value for the client. Because at this phase we weren’t sure what the product would be, we’ve created a Value Proposition Canvas in which we did not include Products & Services.

Based on our Empathy Canvas it was possible to know what would be the gain creators and pain relievers.

ORS

ERS

GAINS PAINS

CUSTOMER JOB(S)

brainstorming After analyzing our initial Value Proposition Canvas, we conclude that there were six main reasons why people wasted food: • They have difficulties managing their leftovers • They have difficulties controlling their portions • They couldn’t control the portion sizes in restaurants • They couldn’t control the portion sizes of packages • They relied a lot on expiration dates • They didn’t stored properly fresh produce

Having all this information in mind, we started the process of brainstorming, hoping to a find solutions for the problems above.

We had a question though that was: ‘‘How might we dramatically reduce food waste?’’

This process allowed to everyone involved to express their ideas.

The results are:

• Campaigns • Educational Programs • Strict laws • Ticketing • Platforms to exchange food • Guide for potion control • Automated supermarket list • Manual scanner • Scanner in the fridge

• Lids • Tupperware Containers • Community fridges • Ideas of recipes that use leftovers • Ideas how to preserve fresh produce • Partnership with supermarkets • Stickers that detect when fresh produce are rotting • Warning of expiration dates

Although, we gathered fantastic ideas, we came into conclusion that one single solution would not solve all problems above and that we needed to pick just one insight. We have decided to work specifically to find solutions to help people manage their leftovers.

The top reasons that cooked food goes to waste are because people buy too much, prepare too much, and are unwilling to eat or store properly their leftovers. The questions regarding leftover are: 1. How do consumers know if the food is still consumable?

2. How to proper store leftovers?

3. How to make consumers remember the leftovers in the refrigerator?

When we think about leftovers, we think of food storage, we think about the duration of food, we think of recipes, and we think of alarms to recall our memory, etc. Englobing all in a single product would be the answer to our questions.

Based on a long discussion and research, we’ve decided that our product needed to be a glass tupperware container with an adaptable camera at the back of the lid.

The idea is to be able to take a picture of

the leftover by pressing a button and this image is sent to an app that will constantly remind the customer that there is still food in the fridge.

The choice of a glass tupperware container was made thinking about the environment, health and the duration of the food. Glass containers are impermeable, air-tight, and transparent. The customer can see the freshness of food and beverages and also ensures that the products inside keep their strength,aroma and flavor. Made from all natural ingredients, glass containers are 100% and endlessly recyclable, and do not harm oceans or marine life.

The idea is that the product will be designed to help customers keep track of the food in the fridge so it doesn’t go to waste. The lid will be BPA-free and leakproof.

At the top of the lid will be a bottom and at the back of the lid, a camera and by clicking this bottom, a photo will be taken.

The product will be connect to an app. This app will notify the customer until the food is consumed. We believe that this solution will help reduce the leftover problem and also preserve longer the food or beverage.

Prototyping

Customer Journey

Business Model Canvas Prototype Testing

Develop

After finish the definition phase we started the development applying: - customer journey - business model canvas - prototyping - prototype tests

customer journey With the Customer Journey we tried the way how our customers could use the product and service and we could understand their posible problems and needs. The result was satisfatory and we felt able to continue the development of our project.

VALUE PROPOSITION GAIN CREATORS

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

GAIN

PAIN

PAIN RELIEVERS

TORS

VERS

GAINS PAINS

CUSTOMER JOB(S)

business model canvas Key Partners - Suppliers of raw material - Production

Key Activities - Production of the product and app - E-commerce and stores

- Retailers - Designers - IT - Distributers

By doing the Business Model Canvas we understood better the structure of the product.

It lead us to insights about the customers, what value propositions we are offering, through what channels, and how we will make money out of it. With this tool we were capable of understanding the values of our product.

Key Resources - Manufacturing plant - Logistics system to distribute product - Human: IT- tech, design, production, distribution, management, marketing - Digital platform

Cost Structure

Value Prop

product and

Value Propositions

Customer Relationships - Dedicated assistance (on app)

tores

Channels

nt

o distribute

esign, producanagement,

Revenue Streams

Customer Segments

prototyping video prototype The Video Prototype is a great tool to illustrate the journey that happens during the use of a product / service. Due to the audio-visual features it is possible to comprehend what is expected of the product and how it is supposed to be used. The video prototype of our product can be accessed through the link below: https://youtu.be/PY75VGKkHUw

PRODUCT PROTOTYPE In order to understand exactly how costumers will interact with the product, we needed first to test the product. The objective of creating a prototype was to help our team to think about our idea in a concrete manner, and potentially allow us to gain insights that might help us improve the product idea. We built a prototype based on the idea of how the product will look like and started testing it with different people.

Before testing the Prototype we worked with 4 hypothesis in mind: - Would it be enough to take the picture with the cell phone or is the camera on the tupperware needed?

- Is the tupperware essential for the app or vice versa?

- Are the notifications annoying or uncomfortable for the user ?

- What other features does the user want in the app?

The testing was done in two stages.

RESULTS FROM THE FIRST TEST People found the product useful and said that it would help them manage their leftovers.

- They suggested that the app should have more features than just being a reminder app. A few examples are: What to do with the leftovers / how to prevent food to rot

- The possibility that notifications start to get stronger while days pass by, for example: to display it as a bomb that is about to explode so it gives the user a sense of urgency

- The possibility of taking picture of leftovers that are stored in different containers and upload it to the app to get reminders.

- The app could track your location and send you reminders in convenient moments for example: if the user prepares breakfast at around 8am, when getting to the kitchen around this time, the app would send a notification.

RESULTS FROM THE SECOND TEST People found the product useful and said that it would help them manage their leftovers.

- That the user can define in how many days the food will be rotten

- That they would like to use the app to upload pictures of the food

- The lid should have a steady center to prevent the camera from getting damaged when closingand opening the container.

- The app should have a supermarket list

CONCLUSIONS During this experience we have noticed that people tended to press accidentally the camera button while opening the container. Having this in mind we have decided to add another feature, the lock/unlock button as a way to avoid this from happen with the future product. Because the container will be in constant contact with water, we all agreed that the camera needed to be protected by a waterproof case. Another conclusion that we had, was that the lid needed to lock into place with four swappable tabs for secure storage and also to make it easy for people to open and close without damaging the camera.

prototyping app PROTOTYPE Apart from the product, we tested the experience of the app. Our users would send us pictures of the leftovers and tell us in what time they wanted to be reminded. We have set alarms in our cell-phones and when it was time, we would send a message to the users reminding them that they had leftovers in the fridge. Our goal was to understand the following: - How people felt when receiving the reminders of the leftovers - What they did when receiving the reminders of the leftovers - Find out if it was necessary that the camera on the lid or if people could use their cell-phones camera

• User Info Female, shares flat with boyfriend, studies and works, is unplanned and disorganized with her meals

• Experience Evaluation She thought it was useful to receive the notifications and that it helped her to plan her meals. She believes that having the camera on the lid will help her not to forget to take the picture (sometimes she does not have her cell-phone with her in the kitchen and she would surely forget to take the picture)

• Positive

• Negative

- The reminders helped her planning her meals.

- She ended up eating the leftovers in 2 days

- It is a hassle to have to enter the app to turn off the notifications after having consumed the leftovers

• Add

• Change

- A quick function that enables people to turn off the reminders or keep receiving them when they pop-up on their mobile screens

- The way to turn off notifications of what has already been consumed (not doing manually)

• Degree of acceptance The experience with the app was approved. The user was able consume the leftover. The notifications were useful.

After the results we have decided that : - It will be possible to customize the moments to receive notifications - It will be added a function that quickly enables people to turn off the reminders

• User Info Female, shares flat with girlfriend and another flatmate, works, try to plan the meals, but is impulsive

• Experience Evaluation She thought useful to remember what she has in fridge, and helps to control your impulse to buy more food unnecessarily. The camera in the lid is good, because if her cell-phone isn’t near in the storage moment, probably she wouldn’t put the data in the app;

• Positive

• Negative

- The reminders helped her not buy more food than she needs.

- She ate your food at the third day, but she could plan it with the app

• Add

• Change

- A function snooze that she can program to receive other notification in 15 or 30 minutes

• Degree of acceptance The user has aproved the app. The notifications was helpful and the experience was considered satisfatory.

Final Product

deliver

As a result of all the design thinking process we developed Keep, a container and an app to help people to reduce food waste, plan their meals and their shopping.

“keep�

This is our final product, based on what we found out, throughout the design thinking process. Keep ended up being not only a solution to managing leftovers, but also an assistant to planning meals and food shopping. We created an ecosystem in which the user interacts with a mobile app and a physical product. These two components function harmoniously to give the user a convenient way of managing their food waste.

The container is made out glass and a plastic lid with lateral wings to open and close it. On the center of the lid there is a built in camera, lock and unlock button, and a master button that takes the picture with a single click. The user is to store the food in the container, and take the picture before closing it; as to have a better perspective of the meal.

The mobile app is a platform that provides the user with information regarding their stored meals, recipe ideas involving those meals, a quick supermarket list, and reminders of what they have stored and how many days it’s been stored. The user is provided with the ability to set up their preferences on when and how many times they wish to be reminded. There is also a sense of urgency with each passing day that is made evident with bomb icons that increase as the days pass by. Keep also provides an easy way to discard reminders with a simple swipe left on the notification that appears on the home or lock screen of the users mobile.

When the user first obtains the container a scanning code will be provided. This code is to be scanned using the app. This is how the Keep app and container are connected, and later communicate through wifi signals.

conclusion After going through the whole design thinking methodology; which has been detailed throughout the document. The piece of information that has become the most relevant to the group is putting the user in the center of the process. This requires a holistic comprehension of the users reality: who he is, what he says, feels, does, wants, dreams, his pains, how he lives. And getting feedback from them to create a service or product that is highly desired and needed by the target.

The user has played the most important role during the entire process. Starting from the research phase all the way to the prototype testing. They have created Keep with us.

The techniques learned, enabled us to advance and observe how the project transforms itself in each stage. After reaching the final prototype testings we concluded that there are further steps to be taken. These being the following: researching costs, materials, technology, and production with an expert on each subject. To be able to launch the product successfully