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RICE
DESIGN-A-THON AWARD WINNER
Awarded "Most Inclusive Design" in Rice's 2024 Design-A-Thon:
A 3-day national event that brings student designers together to build innovative, user-centered solutions.
Overview
Rice Design-A-Thon: Pan.try
Background: Competed in Rice University's "Design-a-thon", a 3-day nationwide event with 300+ participants from 56 universities
My Role: UI/UX Designer
Team: 3 UI/UX Designers
Project Duration: Jan 26-28, 2024
Overview: Finalist + Awarded "Most Inclusive Design" for Pan.try, an AI-powered application that addresses food insecurity among college students by optimizing meal planning through an intuitive virtual pantry system and scanning mechanism
Project Process
Phases
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Research
Design
Final Deliverable
Reflection
1.0 Research
Our design challenge was to design a digital application addressing an undergraduate challenge.
With such a broad challenge, first, we brainstormed challenges on FigJam to narrow our focus. We determined that we wanted to explore food insecurity more.
We conducted a survey of Rice undergraduate college students with 87 participants:
ON CAMPUS
79%
Depend on meal plans
61%
Never cook on campus
OFF CAMPUS
75%
Depend on campus
dining or cook meals
38%
Food and
Nutrition Concerns
1.1 Questionnaire Data
We found on-campus students rarely cooked or bought groceries.
Off-campus students prioritized price, timing, accessibility, and nutrition but relied on off-campus dining (readymade food) and cheap sources due to busy schedules and lack of motivation to cook or seek fresh produce.
4 Major Themes:
1. Price
2. Time
3. Accessibility
4. Knowledge
1.2 Interview Consolidation
When asked about cooking at home:
"It's expensive and hard to find time to cook. Although I enjoy it, my work comes first." - Student A
"I always have leftover ingredients that go to waste because I don't have time or know what to cook with it." - Student B
When asked about cooking experiences:
Users continuously identified limits with time and leftover ingredients, so we sought to cater to this market need.
1.3 Competitive Analysis
I conducted a competitive analysis of similar food resources in the market to compare what features are already available to users. This helped us consolidate what features are important and how Pan.try compares.
1.4 User Personas
In order to conceptualize the problem space, we came up with two user personas: Busy Betty and Healthy Henry!
Since were creating a concept from scratch, these user personas were helpful in order to make sure each design decision was intentional to specific needs and tying back to our identified problem statement.
2.0 Design
We were working on the clock and quickly sketched together key features and mapped out a user flow and some wireframes on some napkin sketches.
2.1 Low Fidelity Design
After mapping our user flow out, the team created a low fidelity prototype.
Efficiency was kept in mind as a driving factor as we wanted to keep in my mind the time and budget constraints of users like Healthy Henry and Busy Betty.
The Lo-fi design prioritized placing the main feature, the scan mechanism at the forefront of the navigation menu for efficient and easy access.
I worked on the scanning mechanism and created a mobile wireframe that would allow quick identification of ingredients.
Main Goals:
1) Prioritizing efficient access to scanning mechanism, the priority feature
2) Implementing a storage "pantry" of current ingredients
3) Personalizing the experience to users' individual buying habits
Healthy Henry now can easily scan his curated list of healthy ingredients for quick recipes.
Busy Betty can maximize her schedule by having on demand recipes and quick access to the camera feature upon opening the app.
2.2 Style Guide and Design System
To aid with user efficiency, we wanted to prioritize high contrast for quick readability.
We employed a color contrast tool to ensure the design met high accessibility standards.
The design achieved a contrast ratio that not only complies with WCAG 2.1 guidelines but also enhances readability and usability for users with visual impairments.
I designed this branding with soft warm colors as these are associated with freshness, health, and vitality. The black serves as a good contrast for readability.
Now, Busy Betty can take a quick glance and locate recipes with ease!
3.0: Intentional Design
We wanted to tie each each design decision to our problem statement of optimizing users' accessibility, time, budget, and knowledge.
Real Time
Feedback
Quick Access to Primary Scanning Mechanism
Real Time Feedback Identification Cues
Clarity in Information Display:
Shows the system has registered the input
Proximity
Group related ingredients spatially so users intuitively associate them
Group popular filters together spatially
Fitts' Law
+ Minimal Clicks
Recipe Suggestions with AI Goals:
- Reduce the steps required to choose meals based on what students already have
Fitts' Law:
-
Most frequently accessed scanning element in easy-to-reach area of the screen on lower navbar
Button
Hierarchy
Saved Button: Gray outline indicates disabled state, solid state indicates enabled.
Contrast + Affordance
High contrast ratio ensures readability
Buttons look Clickable
3.1 Video Demo
4.0 Reflection
This 3-day experience from ideation to development was truly an exhilarating journey and grew both my passion for design and the user journey. Starting from scratch also fueled entrepreneurial spirit as I learned to design a product that meets specific user needs.
I learned about the impact of having an aligned team and prioritizing accessibility from the start.
I also learned about the importance of structure in a fast-paced environment with initiating a design system and style guide from the start.
Our team was awarded "Most Inclusive Design" and placed 4th out of 50+ teams across different universities nationally with over 250+ participants.
However, our journey did not end at the Design-a-thon. We pitched Pan.try at the Napier Rice Launch Challenge: Check out our pitch deck below! We are still passionate about pursuing further development. Currently, we have attained startup funding and are working on developing our design!
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