Background:
Low income households tend to have unhealthy diet. High cost of organic ingredients and no access to simple healthy recipes are contributing factors
Duration:
6 Months
Solution:
Our product provides users ways to search for economic & healthy nutrition options conveniently.
My Role:
I was a UX researcher in a team of twenty, conducted field interviews data analysis and information architecture, wireframes creation.
Key Takeaways:
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User Empathy
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Working in a cross domain UX team
Local Sales
Sources
News
Coupons
Pamphlets
Grocery Store
Apps
Walmart
Kroger
Meijer
Healthy Recipe
Apps
Epicurious
SparkRecipes
Simply Organic
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A team of research assistants and faculty members at Michigan State University created a smartphone application for Flint residents, who happen to be Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program(SNAP) users.
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The product idea space was cross pollination of grocery store apps, healthy recipes apps and local 'grocery deal' sources.
We conducted multiple brainstorming sessions to decide which areas of Flint with target demographic, should be visited for Guerrilla research. The team also created structure for questionnaires, budget and researchers' schedules.
The team travelled to Flint together. Based on questionnaire made in brainstorming sessions, we conducted mockup interviews in a farmers' market. The purpose this activity was to:
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Gauge effectiveness of the questionnaire
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Familiarise ourselves with the Flint area and target users.
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Based on insights from mockup interviews, we improved our questionnaire. For the next round of actual data collection, each researcher conducted their field research individually. Personally, I performed around 20 user interviews in various locations in Flint.
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Interview notes, transcripts, user observations were collected and coded for data analysis.
CHALLENGE:
Money is a personal topic. Participants were guarded when it came to answering questions about maintaining nutrition on a low budget. This was an issue especially as Flint is an economically depressed area.
SOLUTION:
We designed said questions carefully, showing respect to users' life experiences. During interviews, I personally made sure not to make users feel uncomfortable about budgeting related questions. If a respondent was seen dodging such question, I would redirect the conversation to simpler topics and asked the same question with different wording at almost end of the interview when rest of the data collection was done.
Smartphone User
Age 18 to 55 Years
Makes Cooking Related Decisions
Flint Resident
Focus Group Criteria
During card sorting session, we figured out trends, similarities, anomalies in the collected data.
Furthermore my reasearch advisor conducted five focus group sessions of two to six participants, using detailed, flexible questionnaires. I was personally part of one of them where I was responsible for conducting user observations, noting user quotes, etc.
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What Insights Did We Gain From Data?
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What is healthy eating for users
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Why do they want to eat healthy
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Where do they get information about healthy food
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What are the barriers to healthy food for them
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What are their major grocery shopping constraints and experiences
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Why they use (or don't use) already existing resources
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Users' experience with SNAP
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Various discussions and meeting were held to condense collected data into major categories. Based on data insights along with literature review about food habits and ethnographic research -team created a fundamental information architecture.
Wireframes
Success
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We were able to provide major Flint based grocery options- both retail and local business together for users' convenience.
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Due to similar geographical area and financial background of potential users, community model of the app was proved to be a success in initial testing.
Future
​To my best knowledge, a beta version of this app was tested in Flint area in early 2017. A detailed database of Flint based grocery options is being developed at MSU. And now a new team is working on the next iteration.