A Case Study

GLOBAL PANTRY

The need for a one-stop solution for international students' ethnic groceries and food needs: The influx of international students to the United States has steadily increased over the past decade. These students face a myriad of issues when settling into the country. This project focuses on the major qualms of international students and a way to address some of them. Y

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Objective

Identify primary issues faced by international students and prototype a solution.

Outcome

Designed a one-stop solution for international students' ethnic groceries and food needs.

TIME PERIOD

Aug-Dec 2023

Scope of work

User Research

Affinity Mapping

Storyboarding

Prototyping

PROJECT GOALS

Identify problems faced by international students in the US
Propose a comprehensive solution to tackle these issues
Design a prototype for the solution

User Study: Asking International Students

We sent out a survey for international students to collect demographic information and had Likert scales for issues related to accommodation, transport, food, time management, social life etc. We then followed this up with 8 interviews on participants recruited by the team members. They were all international students (both master’s and PhD) who have been in the US for less than a year.

We asked them about their background, experiences, and challenges faced after moving to a new country.


Responder demographics

Interview Insights

"Grocery stores are too far away to walk. Can't buy a lot since it's hard to carry back if there's no car."

"Grocery stores are too far away to walk. Can't buy a lot since it's hard to carry back if there's no car."

"Grocery stores are too far away to walk. Can't buy a lot since it's hard to carry back if there's no car."

"[Delivery services like] Instacart has many issues while delivering - missed groceries, high prices, rotten produce.”

"[Delivery services like] Instacart has many issues while delivering - missed groceries, high prices, rotten produce.”

"[Delivery services like] Instacart has many issues while delivering - missed groceries, high prices, rotten produce.”

"I love Indian food and it’s known for its spices. They’re so hard to find here, it’s upsetting. I know like one Indian store and it’s so far."

"I love Indian food and it’s known for its spices. They’re so hard to find here, it’s upsetting. I know like one Indian store and it’s so far."

"I love Indian food and it’s known for its spices. They’re so hard to find here, it’s upsetting. I know like one Indian store and it’s so far."

affinity map analysis

affinity map
analysis

After collecting and analysing the survey and interview data, we had enough data to draw out an affinity map. We categorized the main pain points described by participants and found that a majority of the issues were food related.


Problems identified

After analyzing the survey results and interview transcripts, we decided to address two main issues:

  1. Inability or difficulty getting ethnic foods
  2. Difficulty traveling to distant ethnic stores owing to lack of personal vehicle.



Problems identified

After analyzing the survey results and interview transcripts, we decided to address two main issues:

  1. Inability or difficulty getting ethnic foods
  2. Difficulty traveling to distant ethnic stores owing to lack of personal vehicle.



Problems identified

After analyzing the survey results and interview transcripts, we decided to address two main issues:

  1. Inability or difficulty getting ethnic foods
  2. Difficulty traveling to distant ethnic stores owing to lack of personal vehicle.



Design process


Design process


Design process


personas
Challenge:

We need to identify who we are designing for and try and get into their headspace to design effective solutions.


Solution:

Based on our user study, we came up with the following primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders.



personas
Challenge:

We need to identify who we are designing for and try and get into their headspace to design effective solutions.


Solution:

Based on our user study, we came up with the following primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders.



personas
Challenge:

We need to identify who we are designing for and try and get into their headspace to design effective solutions.


Solution:

Based on our user study, we came up with the following primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders.



crazy eights


During the brainstorming stage. We did the "Crazy eights" activity where we rapidly come up with 8 potential solutions, irrespective of how silly or outlandish they may sound. The aim of this exercise is to get ideas on our "how might we" questions. For example, "how might we make ethnic food and groceries more easily accessible to international students?"



crazy eights


During the brainstorming stage. We did the "Crazy eights" activity where we rapidly come up with 8 potential solutions, irrespective of how silly or outlandish they may sound. The aim of this exercise is to get ideas on our "how might we" questions. For example, "how might we make ethnic food and groceries more easily accessible to international students?"



crazy eights


During the brainstorming stage. We did the "Crazy eights" activity where we rapidly come up with 8 potential solutions, irrespective of how silly or outlandish they may sound. The aim of this exercise is to get ideas on our "how might we" questions. For example, "how might we make ethnic food and groceries more easily accessible to international students?"



Storyboards: Situating our Ideas


After our brainstorming sessions, we finally narrowed it down to a few selected ideas. To illustrate how these would work, we made storyboards. The storyboards I designed are shown below.


Storyboards: Situating our Ideas


After our brainstorming sessions, we finally narrowed it down to a few selected ideas. To illustrate how these would work, we made storyboards. The storyboards I designed are shown below.


Storyboards: Situating our Ideas


After our brainstorming sessions, we finally narrowed it down to a few selected ideas. To illustrate how these would work, we made storyboards. The storyboards I designed are shown below.

Storyboard #1 AR Currency Converter

affinity map
analysis

After collecting and analysing the survey and interview data, we had enough data to draw out an affinity map. We categorized the main pain points described by participants and found that a majority of the issues were food related.

Storyboard #2 Cooking Partner

affinity map
analysis

(This is more of a lo-fi prototype)

What if students had cooking partners? Using CookBuddy, an international student could find another student in their area with similar dietary preferences. This app would allow cook buddies to take turns cooking for each other so that the work would be shared.


Storyboard #3 Recipe Builder

affinity map
analysis

The idea behind this solution was to develop a virtual platform that allows people to share recipes with one another. At the end of this video call session, the application uses AI to generate a comprehensive recipe along with ingredients and step-by-step procedures for future use.


Narrowing it Down: Solving the Ethnic Foods Problem

At this stage, we had a poster presentation with our main ideas in front of the entire CS6750 Human-Computer Interaction class. Based on our feedback from this session, we narrowed it down to two solutions that we wanted to prototype: finding ethnic groceries, and ride-sharing to grocery stores.

Design guide

PROTOTYPE

We built a Figma prototype of our solutions. Below are some of the significant flows that I was in charge of developing. If you want to see the entire prototype in action, Click here 🔗.

We built a Figma prototype of our solutions. Below are some of the significant flows that I was in charge of developing. If you want to see the entire prototype in action, Click here 🔗.

We built a Figma prototype of our solutions. Below are some of the significant flows that I was in charge of developing. If you want to see the entire prototype in action, Click here 🔗.


sign up


The app allows only students with a verified institution/university email id to sign up, restricting the user base for safety.


sign up

The app allows only students with a verified institution/university email id to sign up, restricting the user base for safety.


Custom profile


The profile page allows users to add friends, see their friends list, and view saved recipes. It also shows account information such as rides taken in the past and whether the user is a ride provider.


FAQs and Virtual Assistant

The Help option guides the user through a compilations of commonly asked questions. There's also an integrated feature enabling the user to engage in a virtual conversation with a representative should they have any concerns.


FAQs and Virtual Assistant

The Help option guides the user through a compilations of commonly asked questions. There's also an integrated feature enabling the user to engage in a virtual conversation with a representative should they have any concerns.


FAQs and Virtual Assistant

The Help option guides the user through a compilations of commonly asked questions. There's also an integrated feature enabling the user to engage in a virtual conversation with a representative should they have any concerns.


Activity and notifications


The Activity tab keeps track of recent and upcoming trips. The Notifications tab presents any recent updates to the account and the features of the app.


grocery ridersharing

Users can find a car to an ethnic grocery shop and connect with that student. They can add it to their trips if there is space to carpool. The app also allows users to message others and discuss the plan.


grocery ridersharing

Users can find a car to an ethnic grocery shop and connect with that student. They can add it to their trips if there is space to carpool. The app also allows users to message others and discuss the plan.


grocery ridersharing

Users can find a car to an ethnic grocery shop and connect with that student. They can add it to their trips if there is space to carpool. The app also allows users to message others and discuss the plan.


finding ethnic groceries


The Groceries tab allows users to go through a list of ingredients or food items they want and find stores nearby that sell them. It then leads you to car rides going that way.

Impact

  1. The class understood the qualms faced by international students and the need to design specifically for the group.

  2. 97% of the students shown this app said they would download and use such an app immediately.

  3. The ideas were proposed to labs in Georgia Tech that could potentially develop such an app.

Reflection

This was the first major UX project that I worked on from start to finish. From the user study and brainstorming sessions to the prototyping stages, this work has been very close to me- especially since I am an international student and identify with the cause on a personal level.


I became familiar with the design thinking process as taught by Dr. Jennifer Gahee Kim in HCI Principles.

If I were told to spend more time on this, I would try to consolidate the functionalities and distill the flow so as to not make an overwhelming app. The current layout does not do full justice to the vast offerings of this prototype.

OTHER PROJECTS.

OTHER PROJECTS.

  • Modernizing Baggage Reroute
  • Modernizing Baggage Reroute
  • Modernizing Baggage Reroute
  • Modernizing Baggage Reroute

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