Transforming a physical process into digital with additional functionalities.
An inventory tracking application to help the users that visited and depended on pantries for their weekly groceries.
Project Goal:
To contribute to one of seventeen UN's sustainable development goals.
We chose world hunger!
Problem Statement:
How might we improve communication and organization between food pantry visitors and organizers to ensure everyone has access to food they need?
The Design Process
Interviews:
We interviewed 4 pantry operators across Indianapolis to gain insights about how pantries are generally run and what are the issues they are facing. We asked them open ended questions about the operations, number of people that come in, their sources, how they volunteer, days of operation and their ways to operation. We found very important insights which helped us in future in designing the application relevantly.
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We used a set of questionnaire to ask at each pantry and we also reached the pantry during their operational hours to observe how the users performed their actions (we informed the pantry operators) and made modifications to the questions accordingly. We recorded the interviews with the users permission and transcribed it later.
Data Analysis:
We began gathering all the data at one place and making sense of it, we created affinity maps and grouped the data together into 4 categories mainly:
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Volunteers
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Pantry
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Donor
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Clients
We looked at each issue and the most recurring issues across all the categories and settled on the problem statement where we could solve both pantry and clients issues together.​​
The top 3 issues we found:
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Pantries have to verify where the users stay and number of times they have visited the pantry. This process is performed manually with pen and paper now at the pantry. The pantries are only open for specific number of hours on specific number of days. Due to this tedious process there are huge lines which trouble both the users and pantry operators.
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The pantry operators do not know on a certain day how many people will be attending the pantry, hereby creating supply problems when large number of people attend and surplus when people do not attend that certain week. The surplus of dairy products and fresh items is generally spoiled in this case.
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Pantries currently take stock of items during the off hours on a pen and paper which is a tedious process.
How might we improve communication and organization between food pantry visitors and organizers to ensure everyone has access to food they need?
Brainstorming:
For brainstorming we had 3 total brainstorming sessions, 2 as a group and 1 individual session. During the 1st individual and group sessions we used divergent thinking to think of something new and explore multiple possibilities. By the end of these divergent thinking sessions we had 100+ different ideas altogether.
Figures. All the ideas written on a whiteboard for the group session.
After collecting various ideas in our divergent thinking session, we narrowed down using convergent thinking and combined some intriguing concepts. Using user data and insights, we selected the three most solid and sensible ideas.
The 3 ideas that we selected:​
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An application which contains a database of all the pantries inventories in a certain area where pantry staff and clients can view item availability.
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Outdoor kiosks in public places that allow the public to access the pantry data for entry and registration.
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An Uber-like app where clients can order items for delivery from a pantry and organize carpools to the pantry.
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After focusing on these 3 ideas, we went back to the drawing board and saw how our 3 solutions were relating with the insights we gained. We decided that the Database idea was the best idea we want to go forward with as it solved two stakeholders problems, it gave the visitors an assurance to actually be sure that they will be receiving all they want when they visit the pantry and the pantries had an idea of the people coming in and it makes it easier for them to register and verify people's identities by just scanning the QR on the app.
But then, the other insight we also received was that there was a group of people who did not have access to internet or a smartphone always and the application in a kiosk idea would work for them as they had a car and they were willing to register early if it means they get everything they want.
We went ahead and made storyboards for the scenarios and developed a prototype.
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Solution:
An application to track inventory in the pantries and also helps visitors register when they will be visiting the pantry. There are two parts to the solution. We concentrated on visitor part of the solution.
We then created a flow for the user based on the features required and made a low fidelity prototype.
Prototype
But why this solution?
By using the member id the verification of eligibility time and effort is reduced significantly for pantry operators.
By registering prior to arriving the pantry operators get an estimate on how much stock they need and people can make sure they receive basic necessities for sure.​
The surplus/demand can be shared with the surrounding pantries by checking online.
Testing and Evaluation:
We primarily performed Nielsen's heuristics on the prototype to improve the obvious issues. We also tested our product with 3 users with diverse backgrounds to capture our user demographic. The users were given a task to register on the platform and book an appointment and access the QR code or member ID that can be scanned at the Pantry for the entry.
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The main issues we found out were:​
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The member ID/QR code was not clearly visible to the users.
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The hierarchy of the items presented was a little confusing to find.
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We also received a couple of suggestions on the flow from UX usability experts such as providing users the option to update their food preferences after they have logged on to the application as well.
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The suggestions received will be implemented while building a high fidelity prototype.
Reflection:
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Brainstorming when done while sitting together at the same place and using tools like whiteboards, markers yield better and faster results and resolutions.
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Finding the right problem statement is as important as finding the right solution.
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The third point is not related to the solution or problem, it is related to humans. When working with NGO's or non profits more often than not the people that are receiving the help are in dire need of human connection. When interviewing a volunteer at the pantry, when suggested automating the food delivery process at the pantry, he said "These people come here not just because they need food, they come here because they know they are loved here, treated well here and they yearn for that human connection in their hard lives, Technology must help humans, not replace them"
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Those words and the solutions made me realize that whatever problem we work on it is important to solve the problem, not to propose a digital application for any problem!
