Smart Fridge
Home Automation System Design
Project Details
Timeline: 3 weeks
Role: UX/UI Designer
Team: Jiayin Zhang, David Pindrys, Mudi Gheng
Tools: Figma
Overview
My team designed a smart fridge aimed at tackling food waste. After assessing the current market, we designed this human-machine system for young adults to grocery shop and cook without worrying about food going bad.
Introduction
Living on your own is a rite of passage in the US that many young adults look forward to. However, along with the newfound freedom, comes the trouble of feeding yourself. The once taken for granted meals prepared by loved ones are now your responsibility. You have to think about what you want to eat over the next week, make a grocery list, go grocery shopping, unload all the food into their respective places around the kitchen, then prepare your meals over the course of the week.
Challenge
A big challenge is eating all the food before it goes bad, especially when you have to shop and cook for one person.
This is the challenge that my team tackled in our new home automation system: a smart fridge and accompanying app aimed at reducing food waste.
There are smart fridges on the market, but we found that many of these were aimed at regulating temperature and acting as a family bulletin board instead of addressing food waste.
Living on your own is a rite of passage in the US that many young adults look forward to. However, along with the newfound freedom, comes the trouble of feeding yourself. The once taken for granted meals prepared by loved ones are now your responsibility. You have to think about what you want to eat over the next week, make a grocery list, go grocery shopping, unload all the food into their respective places around the kitchen, then prepare your meals over the course of the week.
Challenge
A big challenge is eating all the food before it goes bad, especially when you have to shop and cook for one person.
This is the challenge that my team tackled in our new home automation system: a smart fridge and accompanying app aimed at reducing food waste.
There are smart fridges on the market, but we found that many of these were aimed at regulating temperature and acting as a family bulletin board instead of addressing food waste.
Solution
Using this task analysis and our constraints of medium (we wanted to create an app), we came up with a solution: a smart fridge and accompanying app that keep track of the freshness of your food and recommends meal recipes to use the ingredients before they expire.
Using this task analysis and our constraints of medium (we wanted to create an app), we came up with a solution: a smart fridge and accompanying app that keep track of the freshness of your food and recommends meal recipes to use the ingredients before they expire.
Task Analysis
The first step our team took was conduct a task analysis to understand the different steps involved in grocery shopping and prepping a meal.
Scope: We defined our scope as encompassing buying groceries all the way to prepping a meal by gathering ingredients. This includes unloading the groceries, putting them in the fridge or the pantry, and then pulling out the ingredients needed to prepare a meal.
Here is a snapshot of the detailed task analysis. Click the title to see the full document.
Scope: We defined our scope as encompassing buying groceries all the way to prepping a meal by gathering ingredients. This includes unloading the groceries, putting them in the fridge or the pantry, and then pulling out the ingredients needed to prepare a meal.
Here is a snapshot of the detailed task analysis. Click the title to see the full document.
We included a breakdown of steps and sub-steps to better understand how a task is completed.
We also included a task allocation column, which assigns a task to either a human operator or a machine. We wanted this home automation system to be feasible within the next three to five years, which is why many of the tasks are operated by a human. You'll notice that the machine operated tasks are the ones that can be done using an app. This way the fridge can be produced sooner than later to address the growing concern of food waste.
We also included a task allocation column, which assigns a task to either a human operator or a machine. We wanted this home automation system to be feasible within the next three to five years, which is why many of the tasks are operated by a human. You'll notice that the machine operated tasks are the ones that can be done using an app. This way the fridge can be produced sooner than later to address the growing concern of food waste.
We also created a chart representing the level of automation for each overarching task involved: grocery shopping, unloading groceries, and preparing a meal.
This chart shows that majority of the steps are semi automated with lots of room for human interaction in the system. The most automated step is when the ingredients are analyzed before picking a meal recipe. The app will talk to the fridge to see which ingredients are due to expire soon and the app will see which recipes align best with those ingredients.
The least automated step has to do with unloading the groceries. At this stage of product development, the automated system is unable to physically interact with the food, so the human has to do those tasks. This is a good area of improvement for the future if this product where to be expanded further.
This chart shows that majority of the steps are semi automated with lots of room for human interaction in the system. The most automated step is when the ingredients are analyzed before picking a meal recipe. The app will talk to the fridge to see which ingredients are due to expire soon and the app will see which recipes align best with those ingredients.
The least automated step has to do with unloading the groceries. At this stage of product development, the automated system is unable to physically interact with the food, so the human has to do those tasks. This is a good area of improvement for the future if this product where to be expanded further.
Design Flow Chart
We then organized our steps into a flow chart to highlight where important decisions are made.
We then organized our steps into a flow chart to highlight where important decisions are made.
UX/UI
The next step in the design process was to create the app that accompanies this smart fridge.
Here is a sample home screen of the app we created to the right.
Important features:
1. Spotlight on what ingredients are set to expire and the timeline
2. Provides recipes that incorporate that ingredient so it doesn't go to waste
3. Inventory of all the items in your fridge and the ability to toggle between food groups
The next step in the design process was to create the app that accompanies this smart fridge.
Here is a sample home screen of the app we created to the right.
Important features:
1. Spotlight on what ingredients are set to expire and the timeline
2. Provides recipes that incorporate that ingredient so it doesn't go to waste
3. Inventory of all the items in your fridge and the ability to toggle between food groups
User Walkthrough
Ella is a twenty three year old working professional. She works as a software engineer at a company in Silicon Valley. In her free time she loves to bake cookies and banana bread and go to parks with her dog. Ella doesn't love to cook, but she knows it's the smart thing to do to save money. When she goes grocery shopping she stocks up on foods she likes to eat, but the fresh fruit ends up going bad before she can eat them.
Ella knows this is a huge waste of food and money, so she decides to invest in a smart fridge to help her reduce her food waste. When the fridge is hooked up in her kitchen, she begins by unloading her new groceries into the fridge. The smart fridge prompts her to scan her receipt into the app on her phone and she does. This allows the fridge to know what food she now has and when they will expire. If the app has trouble identifying an expiration date, it prompts Ella to enter it manually based on the food packaging. If it's a fresh fruit without a written expiration date, the app gathers that information from a general database on the average time that food goes bad.
When it's time to make dinner, Ella opens the Smart Fridge app on her phone and opens the list of recommended recipes. This app has automatically generated this list based on the food that is going to expire the fastest in her kitchen. Ella picks a recipe that sounds the best to her and she gathers the ingredients to cook it.
Ella is a twenty three year old working professional. She works as a software engineer at a company in Silicon Valley. In her free time she loves to bake cookies and banana bread and go to parks with her dog. Ella doesn't love to cook, but she knows it's the smart thing to do to save money. When she goes grocery shopping she stocks up on foods she likes to eat, but the fresh fruit ends up going bad before she can eat them.
Ella knows this is a huge waste of food and money, so she decides to invest in a smart fridge to help her reduce her food waste. When the fridge is hooked up in her kitchen, she begins by unloading her new groceries into the fridge. The smart fridge prompts her to scan her receipt into the app on her phone and she does. This allows the fridge to know what food she now has and when they will expire. If the app has trouble identifying an expiration date, it prompts Ella to enter it manually based on the food packaging. If it's a fresh fruit without a written expiration date, the app gathers that information from a general database on the average time that food goes bad.
When it's time to make dinner, Ella opens the Smart Fridge app on her phone and opens the list of recommended recipes. This app has automatically generated this list based on the food that is going to expire the fastest in her kitchen. Ella picks a recipe that sounds the best to her and she gathers the ingredients to cook it.