Community Food Waste Reduction App

Project Type

Coursework: Tufts University

Feb 2024 - April 2024 (10 weeks)

TimeLine
Role

UI/UX Designer

Figma, Excel, Adobe Illustrator, User Research Wireframes, Prototyping, Usability Testing

Tools and Methods

Overview

Every year, over 30% of food produced globally goes to waste, even as millions face food insecurity. On college campuses and within local communities, perfectly edible food from dining halls, events, and restaurants is often discarded at the end of the day.

Existing food-sharing apps such as Too Good To Go and Olio reduce waste but rarely target institutional or student-verified communities. This is the gap FeastForward aims to fill.

Problem

Existing food-sharing platforms like Too Good To Go and Olio help reduce waste but don’t address institution-specific ecosystems like universities. Departments, dining halls, and student groups often discard leftover food due to limited communication channels or restricted access.

Solution

Build a location-based, affiliation-verified system where users could both post and claim surplus food in order to reduce waste and food insecurity by supporting affordability and sustainability.

At A Glance

Filter Options

Users can explore nearby food resources or listings specific to their community, such as campus dining offers, local food banks, or meal programs, making it easy to find available food options in their area.

Post A listing

Sellers can quickly share surplus food by entering basic details: type, quantity, pickup time, and any eligibility limits. Listings automatically appear in eligible users’ feeds and stay visible until the pickup window ends or the seller marks them as unavailable.

Reserve

Sellers can quickly share surplus food by entering basic details: type, quantity, pickup time, and any eligibility limits. Listings automatically appear in eligible users’ feeds and stay visible until the pickup window ends or the seller marks them as unavailable.

Food Waste Tracking & Reservation Reminders

Sellers can quickly share surplus food by entering basic details: type, quantity, pickup time, and any eligibility limits. Listings automatically appear in eligible users’ feeds and stay visible until the pickup window ends or the seller marks them as unavailable.

Discover

To get a better sense of the food waste reduction app space, we started with some background research.

Literature Review

We did a light literature review with the goal of gaining a better understanding food insecurity amongst college students and the current food waste reduction apps on the market.

Between 19 and 56% of college students experience food insecurity, which is up to four times the national average.
Source: Loofbourrow & Scherr (2023)
Too Good To Go may unintentionally encourage overproduction and greenwashing if not paired with systemic reforms.
Source: Sgroi et al. (2024)

Competitor Research

“Too Good To Go” and “Olio” are other similar apps on the market. We did a took a comparative look to better understand their limitations and where FeastForward would differentiate itself.

Competitive Scan – FeastForward
Platform Key Features Identified Limitations
Too Good To Go
  • Connects restaurants and grocery stores with consumers to sell unsold food at reduced prices (“surprise bags”).
  • Fixed pickup windows for collection.
  • No free option (sales only).
  • Businesses only. No peer or campus posts.
  • No institutional verification.
Olio
  • Peer-to-peer sharing for individuals and businesses offering free food.
  • Direct communication between donors and recipients.
  • No verification which means potential trust issues.
  • No impact metrics or waste tracking.
  • Weaker pickup-coordination tools.

Impact on Design

  1. Led to inclusion of impact dashboards for tracking food saved.

  2. Informed a dual-role system (buyer / seller toggle) allowing both personal and organizational participation.

  3. Reinforced the project’s social-impact focus: addressing food insecurity while promoting sustainability.

Defining The Problem

How might we make it easier for verified students and local organizations to redistribute surplus food in a way that feels safe, accessible, and rewarding?

We need to define:

  • Users: who will be using our platform?

  • User Needs: What are their goals? Pain points?

  • System Requirements: What will the system be required to do in order to meet user’s needs?

User Persona

Having completed our background research, we developed a user persona in order to better understand our user’s needs.

Jordan Addams

Jordan is a budget-conscious, environmentally aware undergrad living on campus without easy access to a grocery store. FeastForward helps her find surplus meals from events, cafés, and dining hallsreducing waste while stretching her budget.

Goals

  • Find affordable or no-cost food without sacrificing nutrition.
  • Reduce personal and community food waste.
  • Access food conveniently on campus or nearby.

Pain Points

  • Unclear pickup times or eligibility rules.
  • Expired or misleading listings.
  • Lack of trust in donation sources.

Behaviors

  • Uses mobile to search and filter by distance.
  • Comfortable enabling notifications and posting.
  • Environmentally conscious.

Task Analysis

We conducted a task analysis to better understand system and user requirements.

Result:

The system performs key functions such as:

  • geolocation tracking
  • filtering food listings based on user preferences and affiliations
  • managing authentication
  • sending real-time notifications
  • tracking food waste reduction data

Users will be able to:

  • creating and maintaining profiles
  • setting food preferences
  • browsing listings
  • posting surplus food with relevant details
  • arranging pickups
  • communicating with others
  • reviewing their impact on food waste reduction

Design

After defining system and user requirements, we were ready to begin the design process.

Storyboarding

After defining user needs and requirements, we began by sketching a storyboard that mapped the end-to-end experience of both the “buyers” and “seller”.

Specification

To translate our storyboard into an interactive system, we developed semantic, syntactic, and lexical specifications that mapped how users would engage with FeastForward.

This process gave us a deeper understanding of all the system components, user actions, and feedback loops, allowing us to design interactions that felt more intuitive, efficient, and aligned with real user behavior.

Design Rationale

The design rationale was shaped by the insights gathered throughout earlier stages of the project. Findings from user research and task analysis revealed the need for efficiency and clarity, while the storyboard and specifications clarified how users would interact with the system in context.

1. User-Centered

  • Short, focused flows with clear feedback at every step.
  • Custom alerts for food types, sellers, and groups.

2. Search & Discovery

  • Simple search with filters for diet, location, and affiliation.
  • Results emphasize nearby, relevant listings.

3. Mobile-First

  • Touch-friendly layout and large tap targets.
  • Fast to scan; comfortable one-handed use.

Design System & Rationale

Design System

The color palette combines earthy greens and creams to represent freshness and sustainability, balanced with soft orange and blue accents for contrast and energy.

Typography pairs Unbounded with Quattrocento Sans, conveying friendliness and clarity.

The illustration style uses simple, organic shapes and hand-drawn lines to reinforce the idea of human connection.

Prototype

Paper Prototype

To quickly validate core user flows before digital prototyping, we created a paper prototype.

During testing, we discovered key usability issues:

  • A universal dashboard proved confusing for mixed-role users, leading us to develop separate buyer and seller dashboards.

  • We also identified challenges around student verification, deciding to integrate third-party platforms such as UNiDAYS for smoother authentication.

  • Need for a map-based browsing feature

Prototype

Next, we built a mobile prototype in Figma to simulate key interactions in order to test the app’s usability.

Evaluate

Testing, refining, and validating the design to ensure that the final prototype effectively improved usability and meets all requirements.

Usability Testing

We began with a pilot test to refine our script and confirm task clarity. After that, we conducted six moderated usability tests. Participants represented a mix of students and community members familiar with food-sharing or marketplace apps.

Summary of Results (1–5 scale, n=6)

Ease of navigation
4.10
Filter effectiveness
4.55
Clarity of ordering with pickup time
4.15
Seller flow ease of use
4.70

Key Findings

Iterate

Key frames of redesign:

Validate

In order to evaluate the result of our redesign, we retested the new prototype with new users.

What Changed

  • Filters → Dedicated page with clear groups for distance, time, cuisine, price, and affiliation.
  • Onboarding → Simplified sign-up/login with consistent labeling.
  • Posting → Reordered fields, reduced friction, and improved confirmation feedback.

Impact

  • Faster task completion and smoother navigation.
  • Improved confidence after submissions.
  • Overall usability rating increased to 4.58.
Before (4.38) After (4.58)
4.38
4.58

What Users Said

  • “I really appreciate the clean UI design and color scheme.”
  • “The system provides a solid user experience with essential features well in place.”
  • “Overall the app has a nice design. It is consistent and fairly easy to understand.”

Next Steps

With more time, I’d like to have expanded user testing study long-term engagement and refine the app’s structure with features like map-based discovery and user preferences.

Looking ahead, I hope to pilot FeastForward with local cafés or campus dining halls to turn the prototype into a real-world tool for reducing food waste.