“Too Good to GO” Save the planet from Food waste — UX/UI Case study Part 1

7 min readApr 27, 2022

Project : “Too Good to Lose” — Redesign of the existing application

Introduction

More than 1/3 of the food produced in the world is thrown away. We can feed everyone on the planet if we reduce food waste. We will use less energy, use less natural resources and reduce greenhouse emissions.

TGTG is a free app on which people can get food for a lower price than the original and also stop wasting food. It is good for restaurant owners as well, as they get some money in return instead of completely throwing the food

To meet this major challenge of stopping food waste, they have decided to inspire 500 million people, collaborate with 75000 businesses, inspire 500 schools, and onboard 5 more countries.

In this case study, I will check if TGTG has any usability issues and study its market position and propose solutions using the design thinking methodology.

Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding

Stage 1 | Research:

As I have already used the TGTG app in the past. From time to time I check if there are some baskets near my area, and I know the basic flow of the app.I also read many reviews for the app from the Google app store

Based on that I created a user journey as follows

Based on this detailed journey, I designed questions for end-users which were classified into 3 main categories:

Background/ introduction questions
Food waste-related questions
TGTG app-related user-specific open-ended questions

As I was looking for app improvements my target user was people who have already used the TGTG app at least once in the past 2-to to 3 months.

Details about the actual interview questions are here.

In total, I interviewed 5 people based in Paris. All of them have already used the TGTG application in the Past. 2 of them were men and 3 women.

Following the interviews, I had a clear picture in mind. What more information do I want to find out and people’s behavior towards food waste and grocery shopping. Moving ahead in my work I created a survey on google and distributed it on different social media networks.

The following findings are discovered

The main motivation behind using the app

Low prices of products from restaurants and supermarkets
Save the planet by reducing the food waste
Try new restaurants in the nearby area

App feature and usage :

All the users have used the map functionality
None of the users choose the store directly from the categories given by TGTG
Many users usually use TGTG during lunchtime or the evening while going from office to home and there are very few baskets during this time. Also, the baskets which are available during this time sold out quickly
Many users said the TGTG pick window is sometimes 15 mins which is very short
Some of the users would prefer someone else like a partner or friend to pick up their basket
While some users are excited to try out new vendors or some were reluctant to do this, as they were not sure what will they get in their basket

Significant challenges faced by consumers are categorized as per the app functionality :

Home screen :

On the TGTG home screen, stores or restaurants are divided into categories such as Save it before it’s too late, Vegetarian surprise bags, baked goods Supermarkets, meals, Groceries, and others, and all the users have confirmed that they never choose the store from these categories

Map

All the users have used the map functionality
Filter options provided by TGTG are very limited
The colored dots on the maps are confusing

Store page :

Many users were worried about what will they get in their magic basket
No product photos available
When you click on store location: the app directly goes in direction mode, some users do not want the directions, they just want to see where the store is located, maybe near an office or friend’s place

Pick-up or Delivery

Someone else can pick the product for them
Third-party delivery
No order was received as the store do not have anything left and did not cancel the order before
Very small like 15 mins pick up window

STAGE 2 | Define:

Persona & Goals

After ample brainstorming and analysis, user attitudes and behavior were assessed using below user personas

After this, I analyze the business domain and came up with questions that will help the business to engage with more customers and onboard more vendors

How can we make more baskets available for the user to purchase and increase the use of the application

Stage 3 Ideate:

Competitive Analysis:

Detailed competitive analysis among the top two competitors, Phenix and Karma was done. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the product and make more informed decisions about product strategy.

From here I could decide what actions and features were crucial and beneficial and design a sitemap around these conclusions. I wanted to create a seamless experience for my target users by emphasizing simplicity but keeping a balance between working against food waste and not making the app too commercial.

Information Architecture:

Information architecture was created to organize and label the content to be easily understood by users, and to ensure its usability and findability.

Now I know the main issues faced by the users and possible solutions or improvements that they are looking for so I have decided to do some brainstorming and think about what possible solutions can be offered

I came up with the below ideas :

1 Idea: Addition of hub community tab

2 Idea: addition of detailed basket options like Lunch, Dinner breakfast

3 Idea: Addition of Loyalty Program to onboard new stores on the system

#Idea 1: Community hub model

Here a community hub program is proposed to the users, which allows them to connect with other like-minded users, share recipes, educate others and reward each user for the impact that they generate. This will result in reducing food waste more effectively.

#Idea 2: Provide details on what people will get in their baskets

Here the idea is very simple if people know what is in the basket maybe they will buy more

But there is an immediate problem with this idea as it takes out the surprise element completely and also as the app is working against the food waste no vendor will be sure what leftovers they will have for that day. Hence this won’t work

#Idea 3: Creation of a Loyalty Program for users which will reward users for the addition of new stores.

Here, a loyalty program is created for users. He will get a notification when the program will start. He can access loyalty program details directly from his profile section. In this program, he can directly add stores on the TGTG platform. Each time user adds a new store he will rewards which can later be converted into money

Users will also get rewarded with points each time they refer a friend or purchase a new basket. All these accumulated points can be then converted into the currency

Finally, more vendors on the platform mean more baskets, more food is saved and more users will use the platform

User flow diagram :

However, when discussing the community tab and loyalty program idea with some of the users, it was apparent that the purpose of the app was getting lost in the community tab. So I decided to focus more on getting more vendors on board the system through the loyalty program.

Here is the user flow diagram for loyalty program