This week marks phase two of project research. While I have 30 sources already for this project, I will continue to add to my bibliography and start annotating work. There are many aspects and perspectives when it comes to the food industry that can be analyzed and assessed in order to understand the pocket and or niche that “No human left behind” can fill. Having multiple research weeks allows me as a researcher to hone in on valuable data that I need in order to design an app that is not only user friendly, but familiar to the end user and allows them to achieve their use cases effectively and as fast as possible. Being that there is more than one type of user that will use this app, there will be several different use cases and researching as many as possible as well as industry outlook, how much food waste is produced can help validate assumptions made by the design team as well as the thought tank that helped create the idea for this product in the first place.
Next, I created an Asana project management page where I can track my progress with this project, as well as show project superiors (or in this case my professor) how and when my work is getting done. The logic behind my workflow is to break the work down by research design and prototyping phases. The first 3 weeks are for research and every week I will gather new sources and annotate those sources. The design phase will include wire framing work and initial designs while the prototyping phase will be designing and linking 20+ screens together to create a mock up of how the app will actually look and function with the ability to click through. The purpose of this project is to create a high fidelity mock up/prototype of an app that can not only accomplish all of the business goals set by the company, but to also create a great user experience for those who will use it the most.
The first part of this app is just a simple donation app. It will have a section that describes the company, how it was founded, the business owners, and company goals. It will also showcase all of the restaurants we work with. This section will also double as a promotional platform for the companies that choose to do business with us. It allows them to feel a sense of pride for doing the right thing when it comes to food waste, as well as offers individuals who donate that chance to see who participates, and to support their businesses with exclusive coupons/discounts from the app itself.
The second and most important part will be the payment and business management portion of the app. Users that would need this would be our clientele directly: Restaurant and small business owners that sign up to participate in daily, weekly, and bi weekly food pick up. They would create their own profile, set when they would need pick ups done, and make payments through the payment portal. It would also feature an uber like GPS map that would show them when they are arriving, as well as allow for changing routes or place of delivery. Those on the receiving side would be able to view where the delivery is, and have the ability to contact the driver, etc. This app would help coordinate the effort from start to finish.
Working under a scrum team in real life, I am used to an agile like workflow and bi weekly sprints as well as spring planning with retrospectives to help develop my workflow and understand the amount of work that I need to achieve and have done by a certain point. While this isn’t an agile work flow, I believe it is similar in having the due dates for deliverables, for the research portions, for weekly meetings and will satisfy the requirements for the course as well as show my professor my weekly progress as long as I follow and complete my workflow tasks.
Content and work management is important especially when it comes to software design and development. Everything must be organized and deadlines met in order for a project to move forward. In the real world, this will be a collaborative effort among many developers, engineers, and designers each with their own specific set of sub tasks and workflows. For this project, and any entrepreneur working individually, this is just as crucial. Setting yourself up with goals in mind prevents side tracking, and lost time where the project doesn’t move forward.
Design By Angel Vazquez 