In Season
ABOUT
SI 311 - Laws of UX
March 5, 2024 - April 16, 2024
Laws of UX is a class that teaches all about the process of designing a digital project, with keen focus on psychology in design as well as storytelling. In Season was my final creation.
STEPS
1 Brainstorming
2 Competitive Analysis
3 Idea Creation
4 The Execution
5 Final Designs
6 Further Steps
BRAInstorming
At heart a farm girl
I grew up on a 5th generation family farm, where I learned all about the heart that goes into local produce production.
At UofM, I am a active member of the Campus Farm Club, volunteering once a week to harvest fruits and vegetables for student consumption.
Local food is so important to communities, and many do not know how to source what is fresh. I wanted to make an app that could fix this issue.
Competitive Analysis
Who Does Food?
This project did not require a competitive analysis in the project package, but I always try to understand how competitors use UX to further their product. I looked at food related apps that were doing well, and what was not working for their goal. I looked specifically into apps like Too Good to Go, NYTCooking, and Instacart to get a better grasp on how food apps structure their UX.
The Idea
Seasonality, Buying, and cooking
I took 3 different aspects of local farming and seasonal food and connected them into one app.
Seasonality Guide
Michigan State Seasonality Guide
Used to determine the seasons of Michigan grown produce.
Farmers Markets
Michigan Farmers Market Association
Used to find the locations of farmers markets around the state.
New York Times Cooking App
Cooking Apps
Inspired the cooking aspect of the app with its recipe UX.
The Execution
lots of sketching
Once I had my inspiration, I began the wireframe process. My process was a mixed approach instead of a step my step flow, simply due to my time constraints. I worked on my icon sketching while doing the app designing so I had a consistency between the two. I regularly attended office hours to tweak and update my designs to be the most usable.
All of my assets were hand drawn because I wanted to give the app a rich, heartfelt, and slightly scrappy feeling. Something so small brought the whole app together.
Designs
10 Frame design & Pitch deck
Here are the highlights. I encourage you to look at the final file on Figma to see the entire prototype/user flow and the pitch deck.
Future Steps
The Campus Farm Stand?
Now, In season may be getting a new life for the Campus Farm Stand at the University of Michigan. A developer friend of mine and I have ideas to continue this project for real users. More on that to come...
