The Problem
Food waste is a prevalent problem across the United States with over 80 billion pounds of food waste being generated each year. Across the supply chain of producers, distributors, and consumers, food waste can be seen at every level, but consumers, specifically households, are the largest contributors, accounting for over 40% of the annual food waste. As a result, this group has the largest potential for reducing food waste and positively impacting the environment.
Target User Group
Our target user group is households, specifically with people that are environmentally conscious and value financial savings. These individuals hold busy lifestyles and need a solution that does not consume a lot of their time. Therefore, the device needs to be able to track food waste without user input and record food waste patterns. The data must be displayed for the users to see, as this quantifies their impact on the environment and potential money savings. Followed by quantitative data, effective recommendations on how to reduce user food waste and personalized insight on their food habits are needed to direct users on the path to food waste reduction and cost savings.
Our target user group is households, specifically with people that are environmentally conscious and value financial savings. These individuals hold busy lifestyles and need a solution that does not consume a lot of their time. Therefore, the device needs to be able to track food waste without user input and record food waste patterns. The data must be displayed for the users to see, as this quantifies their impact on the environment and potential money savings. Followed by quantitative data, effective recommendations on how to reduce user food waste and personalized insight on their food habits are needed to direct users on the path to food waste reduction and cost savings.
Existing Solutions
Current products that cater to reducing household food waste are most notably stand-alone apps. These help users track the movement of food through their household but tend to require too much user input. Hardware solutions like Genican (a trash can attachment to scan waste) tend to be too costly need a lot of external motivation for users to purchase them. Lighten the Load hopes to balance the app and hardware divide by providing a solution that is time and cost efficient.
Current products that cater to reducing household food waste are most notably stand-alone apps. These help users track the movement of food through their household but tend to require too much user input. Hardware solutions like Genican (a trash can attachment to scan waste) tend to be too costly need a lot of external motivation for users to purchase them. Lighten the Load hopes to balance the app and hardware divide by providing a solution that is time and cost efficient.
Use Context
The solution is intended to be seamlessly integrated into the users' daily lives. Sustainable living is a practice that more individuals wish to take part of given the proper time allotment. We hope to emphasize that incorporating even small actions can accumulate to benefit the future of the planet. Any hardware should be easily added into someone's home, while app usage should be useful and display meaningful information quickly.
Stakeholders
Young Adults include individuals in the twenty to thirty age range who shop about once a week for themselves or roommates, but often do not have other dependents such as children. This group is directly connected to the product as they will be interacting with it on a daily basis.
Food suppliers and producers include supermarkets, farmers, restaurants, and individual food vendors. They will be indirectly impacted by how our product will change young adults’ food purchasing habits.
Disposal facilities include municipal waste collection, recycling centers, and landfills. Waste facilities can aid our product’s success by increasing food waste awareness by collecting and publishing quantitative food waste data.
Food suppliers and producers include supermarkets, farmers, restaurants, and individual food vendors. They will be indirectly impacted by how our product will change young adults’ food purchasing habits.
Disposal facilities include municipal waste collection, recycling centers, and landfills. Waste facilities can aid our product’s success by increasing food waste awareness by collecting and publishing quantitative food waste data.
User Research Insights
To better understand the problem and gain insights, our team conducted user research through 1-on-1 interviews, dyads, expert interviews, and observational studies.
Synthesis
By communicating with multiple stakeholders, we were able to develop personas that highlighted our target user groups. An empathy and journey map that summarize the experiences of a typical users are presented below.
Product Requirements
From our research, we performed a Value Opportunity Analysis to generate a requirements our solution must, should, and could fulfill.
Concept Generation
Our team generated 88 concepts to address our product opportunity gap through design methods like forced analogies, attribute listing, design heuristics, and 4-3-4 brainwriting sessions. To select a concept, we sorted them initially on a positioning chart and filtered through the ideas to obtain our final one: a weighted trash can.
Prototyping Process
After selecting our final concept with design methods, our prototyping evolved from a quick generation sketch, to functionality sketching after team discussions, and finally engineering drawings.
The Solution
Our proposed solution to the household food waste problem is Lighten the Load, a weighted, compartmentalized trash can that can be integrated directly into homes. It is accompanied by an app that monitors waste output and provides suggestions to the user.
The above diagram shows the physical trash can. It is modeled after a traditional foot pedal trashcan. The lid has LCD weight displays (left) which shows the user the weight of each compartment in real time. The compartments on the inside of the trash can are customizable - the user can define what type of waste goes into each - and adjustable up to two inches using the dividers (top right). The weight of each compartment is measured using two load cells attached to an acrylic platform (bottom right). The trash can comprises of six such load cells.
The app developed alongside the physical trashcan will consolidate the weight information gathered from the trash can in an easy-to-visualize manner for the user. This limits the amount of input needed from the user. It will also provide suggestions based on the user's waste patterns.
Composite Character
The team also developed a composite character, Jessica, to map out a user's interaction with the product and their motivations for purchasing the product. Jessica's journey is defined below.
Testing
We tested our final concept with two methods: experience and envisionment.
Tangible Prototype Experience
To safely test our product, one team member tested the physical prototype within their household with different users. This initial prototype was built out of wood. One user can be seen interacting with the prototype in the bottom right image. These interactions allowed us to gauge functionality and live reactions only in-person contact could portray. The overall feedback was positive: the device was easy to use and would be overall beneficial in the home. When asked if they would buy this product, users noted cost being the main constraint as well as needed greater motivation to buy the product themselves.
Envisionment Video Survey
We created a two minute product video that prefaced a survey for users we initially researched as well as new ones. Our goal was to obtain feedback regarding the usability and integration of the trash can as well as personal environmental concern. The overall feedback was positive, with the primary areas of improvement in cost, size, and incentive to use. Based on a competitor research the product will not be much more expensive nor take up more space than other competing trash cans. We hope to motivate people to change from their current disposal system by adding additional features to future iterations (i.e. odor neutralizers).
Moving Forward
We received awesome feedback from our test users and have discussed suggestions to implement into the next iteration. On the hardware side, we would expand the trash LED display to include analysis metrics on the physical product. As for the app, implementing features like expiration date database, composting and recycling site locators, and social interaction would be the next steps.Overall, we are proud of Lighten the Load and would love to see further designing and testing. We started with a surprising statistic about household food waste and researched to narrow our opportunity. Our focus pivoted at different points in the process, but everything pointed to creating the weighted trash can. From user testing, we can conclude that the final product meets the core requirements we set to accomplish initially.
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