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IoT : Smart Refrigerator

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A mobile app solution that connects with your smart refrigerator to provide better monitoring on food, and effective grocery management anytime

Platform:

Mobile Application

Role:

UX Designer

Organization:

Tata Elxsi Design 

The Problem

When the same fridge is being shared by multiple people living in the house, then is difficult to monitor the belongings and manage grocery. Also, keeping a check on the perishability of the food is an issue.

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Target Users:

  • Individuals living in nuclear families

  • People living with roommates

Solution- gallery

The Process

Process Overview
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Research 

Interview Participants

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A total of 8 participants was interviewed which included working professionals,  and students. We focused on identifying their pain areas,  needs, user patterns, and motivations.

 Interview Script

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  • How do you manage your food in the refrigerator?

  • How do you keep a check on the expiration date?

  • How often do you get groceries?

  • How do you track the health of your refrigerator?

Market Research

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We studied research papers to understand the users' perception of expired product s and also grasp the various kind of food management ways adopted by users and are trending in the market. 

Research Insights

To understand the user better, semi-structured interviews and contextual inquiry were conducted. The qualitative data was analyzed to find the major pain areas and needs of the user.  

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79% of the users threw expired food from their fridge almost every other week.

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86% of the users said due to lack of time, managing the food in the fridge is difficult.

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90% said that they

make grocery lists at random places and end up buying a lot more than needed food.

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77% of users said that a significant amount of money is being wasted due to expired food in the fridge.

Persona
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Ideation Features

Through this app, one can keep track of the excess food they have, plan grocery purchases by checking the contents in the fridge while at the grocery store, or even detect the spoilt food and manage the basic fridge functioning. To motivate the users to prepare food which is near expiration, the feature of recipe suggestions based on the available ingredients stored in the fridge has been included.

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Friza is a mobile app that syncs with the smart fridge/hub to help the user remotely track contents of the fridge, monitor usage and seamlessly manage grocery lists.

Several people in the house can create profiles and get access to all information. However, the admin has control over the settings. This is to ensure that children in the family has limited access to the settings. The 5 main features of the app are divided into 5 verticals. On start up, the user can access the 5 verticals from the main navbar at the bottom.

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Mobile App

  • Grocery List

  • Recipe Suggestion

  • Add item 

  • Excess Food Management ideas

  • Notification​

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Smart Fridge

  • Weight Sensors

  • Internet 

  • Interior Cameras

  • Energy consumption detection

  • Temperature control

Storyboard

To explore various scenarios where users will be interacting with the proposed solution, the storyboarding tool was used. The product features like a grocery list and recipe suggestion is being shown here.

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Information Architecture
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Wireframe
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Low Fidelity Prototype
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App Solution

This mobile app syncs with the smart refrigerator to help the user monitor the contents of the fridge remotely, track usage, effortlessly manage grocery lists and prioritize the food consumption based on the expiry date.

The main features of the app are on the homepage of the app to provide more visibility. Other important features are provided on the left navigation bar to give a quick access to the user.

High Fidelity Screens
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Usability Testing

To get feedback on the designed solution, we tested this app with 3 users who live with flatmates and share their fridge and 3 adults who live with their families. Participants were asked to Think Aloud while they interact with the app.

👍

  • Reminders for food nearing expiry was the most appreciated with the users.

  • The camera feature to view different sections of the fridge was perceived as an important one.

  • Recipe suggestion based on the available food was liked by all the users.

  • To able to check the health status and maintenance of the fridge, users were delighted about it.

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👎

  • Users want the feature to track the expenses on groceries in the app.

  • Users also desired for the healthy and clean eating suggestion in the app.

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