2nd place winner
Hult Prize @ Tufts
Helping students share and discover free food opportunities on campus in an effort to combat food waste and insecurity.
1300+ downloads and growing!
Role
Lead Product Designer
UX Researcher
Marketer
Founding Member
Timeline
June 2023 ~ present
Tools
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Design Team
Sydnie Chen (Lead)
An Tran
Rachel Liang
Ashley Wu
Sarah Jun (founder)
The Freebites Story
"Hey, wanna make an app together?" -- Sarah Jun, 5/10/2023
On the very last day of my sophomore year, I was having dinner at the dining hall when my friend came up with the crazy idea to build an app that could redistribute the food we see being wasted all around us. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, I agreed to help. But here's the thing: at the time, I had literally no idea how to design an app.
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Determined to do my part, I dedicated my sophomore summer to self-learn everything I could about UI/UX design. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. By the time junior year began, I had changed my major, enrolled in multiple design classes, and joined every design-related club I could in order to fully immerse myself in this world.
After months of hard work from our growing team of designers, developers, and marketers, Freebites was launched on App Stores and now has over 1.3K downloads. Seeing firsthand the impact Freebites has had in reducing food waste at Tufts made me certain that this—creating digital solutions to real-world problems—is what I want to do for a living! ​​​
The team that made it all possible :)
Learn more from our interview with Tufts Daily!
The Problem
Colleges waste 22 million lbs of quality surplus food per year.
At the same time, 38.14% of students at Tufts alone go hungry because of lack of access or financial constraints. This begs the question: how can we better utilize surplus food to assist students who struggle to afford and access food?​
22M lbs
of wasted food
38%
of students go hungry
Solution:
Freebites!
The Solution
A way to easily share and discover free food opportunities on campus.
Explore free food options
Browse all free food opportunities on campus, including their location, time posted, and any dietary restrictions.
Post your leftover food
Make a post about leftover foods (ie. after an event) so others can pick it up.​
Receive live updates
Track the current availability status of your next free meal, and let others know too!​
Post-Launch Impact
Since its launch in October 2024, Freebites has achieved a lot on the Tufts campus. We are currently working to expand to Harvard, Brown, and other notable universities in the near future!
1300+
downloads
free food posts
500+
3
entrepreneurial awards
The Design Process
The Freebites story closely follows the double diamond approach because of our emphasis on reiterating the design based on usability feedback.
Getting to know our users
From statistics alone, we can see that food waste is an issue at colleges around the country. But since our platform is meant to help students, we conducted quantitative and qualitative user research to gauge interest and demand for our app. We conducted 10+ interviews and collected 30+ survey responses.
Would you be interested in using FreeBites?
How often would you post on this app?
"I would definitely post on this app because I hate wasting food. Sharing food can help others save time and money."
- User Interviewee
Notable Quotes
These quotes really helped put into perspective the specific frustrations people had when trying to find free food on campus.
What has your experience been like finding free food options on campus?
I'm on the free food e-list but I rarely receive anything from it.
I didn't know there was any free food?
Whenever I find it, it's already gone.
I've had to actively go out of my way to look for free food
It's a really rare sighting.
Competitive Analysis
We conducted a competitive analysis on 3 existing food resources available to Tufts students to identify market gaps and brainstorm unique features that will help Freebites succeed as a food waste solution.
The free food e-list
Jumbo Community Fridge
Too Good To Go
PURPOSE
An email list that allows members to send and receive emails about free food available on campus.
A take what you need, give what you can food pantry run by Tufts.
An app where users can purchase surplus unsold food from restaurants at a cheap price.
PROS
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Free
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Easy to share food (by email)
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Free
-
Well-stocked
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Quality food
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Able to browse restaurants
CONS
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Unable to monitor current food status
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Cannot search or filter for specific foods (ie. by diet)
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Emails clutter the inbox
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No longer being managed
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Inventory is infrequently posted; no way to know what is available
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Not always possible to transport large amounts of food to the fridge (too far, might not fit inside)
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Must pay for food
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Options nearby Tufts are usually unavailable (only 4 walkable from campus)
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Restaurants may cancel order at any time
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Can’t choose what food you get
Define
How might we create an efficient and effective way for students to find and share free food options on campus?
After synthesizing our research, we realized that students need a more reliable way to know what kinds of free food options are currently available. Yet, there is so much food being wasted. We need a way to connect students to this food!
Develop
Brainstorming design ideas
In the ideating phase, we tested out several color palettes and layouts before deciding a format to showcase in the mid-fi mockups.
Low-Fidelity Mockups
Welcome Screen
Main Feed
Welcome Screen
Main Feed
Logo Design
I was responsible for creating the logo, which would be used on the mid-fidelity mockups to solidify our brand image. The logo would solidify our brand image and its associated colors. I used Procreate and Adobe Illustrator to create these designs.
What is our brand image?
Friendly, welcoming, sustainability​-focused​
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Orange -- enthusiastic, warm, sociable
Green -- environmentally friendly, health-conscious
What was I inspired by?
Rabbits on Tufts campus -- carrots!
Existing food apps (ie. GrubHub, Uber Eats)​
Different variations of the logo design
Mid-Fidelity Mockups (V1)
After deciding on a design direction, we created mid-fidelity mockups to showcase to the developers.
Welcome Screen
User Profile
Login
Comments
Main Feed
Post
Making a Post
Categorize Food
Testing our first designs
We conducted 2 rounds of usability testing with target users for the first 2 iterations of our prototype. All participants were college students, and 4 were club leaders that often dealt with leftover food from big events.
Round 1
Goal: To test the post viewing and sharing features and to identify any usability issues.
# of participants: 6
Error rate: ~40%
Round 2
Goal: To test the improvements made after round 1 and to identify any new issues.
# of participants: 2
Error rate: 0%
Design Improvements
#1: Format of posts on the feed
Version 1
This post represents an event containing multiple pizzas, but user testers inferred from the design that posts were group by food type, not by event.
Version 2
The title (and focus) of the post is now on the location, and the foods available are listed in the caption instead.
What was the problem in Round 1?
x 4/6 users expressed confusion or were not aware of the fact that each post represents one event/location
How did we fix it in Round 2?
✓ 2/2 users successfully understood what a post represents in the 2nd round of user testing.
#2: The posting flow
Version 1
Version 2
Indicating the step number gives users context as to where they are in the posting process.
Summarizing the post will allow users to go back and fix mistakes if they see any.
What was the problem in Round 1?
x 3/6 users did not notice the "add location" function or commented that it was not obvious enough.
How did we fix it in round 2?
✓ 2/2 users noted all parts of the posting process.
✓ 2/2 users believed this posting flow was easy to understand, although it was long
x Again, 4/6 users demonstrated confusion about the posting process
Something was off with our design.
In this test, we reduced the user error rate to 0%. However, we still felt like our design could use a lot of improvement. We also only got to test 2 participants in round 2 due to time constraints, which was definitely not enough. At this point, we were off for winter break, but we continued to have team meetings on zoom where we discussed our concerns.​
Develop (part II)
We made the bold decision to redesign FreeBites in Febuary 2024.
After getting advice from professional designers and discussing current concerns with the developers, we decided to redesign Freebites from scratch. There were 2 main problems we wanted to address.
Problem #1
The posting process is long and tedious.
On top of adding a photo, description, location, and food type categories, our old posting flow potentially had many more extra steps. Although optional, we encouraged users to add food items one by one in order to categorize their food type and diet.
Add photo
Description
Location
Location pt. 2
Add food item
Categorize
Overview
We removed these extra steps in the new posting flow after revisiting research data; only 27% of users thought filtering by dietary restrictions was an important feature. Besides, there is unlikely to be that many big events at once, so users can easily look through all the options for something that matches their diet.
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We also added an "uploads gallery", which allows users to see which photos they have added already. Previously, there was no way to edit or view photos that were already added. Like on Instagram, the camera brings users directly to the uploads gallery.
Add photo
Uploads Gallery
Description
Categorize
Enter location
Confirm location
Overview
Problem #2
The UI needed a serious makeover.
Our old UI design looked a little rough around the edges; components were misaligned and inconsistent, and the colors were dull and uninspiring. To fix these issues, we implemented auto-layout and utilized styles and components. We also altered the accent and background colors to brighter shades that actually popped! Some more detailed changes are described below:
Main Feed
A Typical Post
Reflections & Next Steps
Without this project, I wouldn't be where I am today. I will forever be thankful for Freebites for helping me discover my passion for design, and I truly appreciate all of our team members who helped make this project a reality.​​
So, what are we working on now?​
As a team, we are working to a) become a nonprofit and b) expand to other universities. And as the head of design, I have a couple goals of my own:​
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Collaborate with developers to implement our new design system!
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Design features for expansion, including a new onboarding flow, email verification structures, and personalized UI for each school
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Stay tuned for a case study update ;)
