LastCall is a product designed to reduce food waste and support local communities. Jump right into the interactive demo in the link below, or read more about my design process in this case study.
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There are many food-saving apps emerging for businesses to sell food nearing expiration, and for their customers to save money on buying food.
Too Good To Go, a Danish startup, is the biggest player in this niche. But it’s currently only available in large cities across North America and Europe.
Competitors have tried to tackle the same problem, but there are so few partners available in smaller communities, that users have no incentive to join.
<aside> 💡 Since TGTG is already an established startup catering to larger cities, drastically changing their UX would be incompatible with their current customer base and marketing strategy.
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LastCall is a food waste prevention app designed for smaller communities.
I also include some potential strategies on incrementally rolling out the platform, and UX changes to make as the platform scales up.
I am the sole contributor.
Restaurants, cafes, delis, and their customers in small urban communities.
The apps listed below are top competitors within the food-saving niche. Some were geared towards buying affordable groceries, and others focused on peer-to-peer sharing of resources.
I reviewed the highlights of each app and potential obstacles to adoption. Obstacles include technical functionality, inaccurate information, and unmet user needs.
| UI/UX | Too Good to Go | Olio | Flashfood | Karma |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | Partners with cafes, restaurants, delis, and grocery stores. Surprise bags of surplus food. Fastest growing app in niche. | Making communal food-sharing more accessible. Partners with corporations, individuals, small businesses. Accepts food donations. | Grocery store outlet. Partners with large grocer chains to sell groceries nearing expiration at a discount. | Partners with local restaurants and cafes. Focuses on surplus food. Sells individual menu items. |
| Pros | Largest network, lots of partners across many cities, consistently available options and low prices. Many options available. | Community-centric. Allows individual listings, not just stores/restaurants. More varied options. Wider price range. | Partners with established big grocers. Many individualized options with steep discounts. No time limit. | Detailed nutrition/allergen info. Individual choices. |
| Cons | No choice in what you get. Confusing review system. Little support for those with dietary restrictions. Unpredictable contents, narrow time limit. | Poor execution. Many broken features, requires subscription but many areas have no availability. Very inconsistent listings. No coordination features for individuals. | Limited guidance on pickup procedure for users/partners. Inconsistent pickup time window. | High fees, limited availability, misleading advertising. Glitches, broken features, cluttered UI. |
| Location | Global | Global | Canada, USA | Sweden, London, Paris |
| Users | 62,000,000 | 2,300,000 | 2,500,000 | 1,000,000 |
| App Reviews | 4.5/5 | 4.0/5 | 4.3/5 | 3.5/5 |
Mind mapping various pain points and possible solutions
I consolidated pain points from app reviews and user interviews to brainstorm different user journeys and resolutions for common problems.
Tree testing is convenient, and provides quick insight into behavior patterns. It’s great for lo-fi prototypes, since it helps establish the flow of information before investing time into nitty gritty UI.
User flow diagram for the new concept
I began by evaluating the existing UI - what works well, and what could be improved? My goal here is to understand the user journey, and to map definitive obstacles to completing certain tasks.
For the initial prototypes, I used the readily available information from social media and app reviews. User testing would be important in next steps for comprehensive evaluation.
You can interact with the prototype on Figma for a more detailed view.
User testing was the most time intensive part of this case study, but also the most important step. To create a comprehensive user test, I needed a clear goal: what am I evaluating, and what are the metrics?
The System Usability Scale is a tool that is quick, easy to administer, and works with small sample sizes. The questionnaire provides a composite score to measure ease of use, though the scores need to be normalized for percentile ranking.
Results
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