Design for America

Front end development / User research and Information Architecture

Project Overview

Food insecurity is the lack of reliable access to a sufficient amount of affordable, nutritious food. According to a 2017 study conducted by Feeding America, an estimated 1 in 8 Americans were found to be food insecure. College students also face unique barriers when it comes to food insecurity--they often have less stable housing than other demographics. Additionally, the combination of time they spend on studies and work makes acquiring enough nutrients to sustain them throughout the day more difficult than most would assume.

Problem Area: We believe that food insecurity for college students across the country is an underrecognized issue that reduces social and economic opportunity, making it harder to pay for credits and thereby extending the time needed to graduate. A study conducted by Dennis Martel of MSU students found that 2,200, or 4.4 percent of the student body, faces severe food insecurity and that those who are food insecure are more likely to have a lower grade point average.

Challenge statement: How can we help college students access food when transitioning and living off-campus?

Team: A team of four. 2 UX designers, UX researcher, & Communications designer

My Role: User research, interviewing, information design, contextual inquiry, content strategy, front end development, visual design, interaction design, branding, marketing material design, data organization.

The MSU Student Food Bank assists, but many students do not realize how much food insecurity they face or that they can use the Food Bank. Other impediments can also prevent people from accessing the food they need. Transportation around East Lansing is expensive for students, and grocery stores are difficult to access for anyone without a car. Those who are aware of the Food Bank often rely significantly on it because distances and costs are so high for other locations.

These obstacles are compounded with the stigma associated with utilizing a food bank.

This process is broken down in detail below, or you could scroll down to the deliverables to view the final products.

My Process

Throughout the entirety of the project, I used the 6 elements of human-centered design: Identify, Immerse, Reframe, Ideate, Build, & Test. This will be seen as more in-depth throughout the documentation provided. My first approach was to use immersive secondary research in identifying several sources of information to understanding the challenge space. As a team, we began by conducting secondary research on existing research, and statistics regarding food insecurity.

Slap Stat: 35-50% of students surveyed in one pilot study were found to have some level of food insecurity (Smith, Hamady, and Roser)

Our secondary research mainly focused on root causes and statistics on who is food insecure, because interviewing individuals on campus yields a lot of detail but makes it more difficult to take in the big picture.

The next step was to conduct qualitative research by interviewing college students. This step is important to find out what forces are affecting people and the viability of the ideas we currently had, to get a better grip on the situation and what could be done to target the problem better.

I created an interview protocol for potential interviewees that listed the purpose of the interview, the research methods that would be used, how long it would last, and compensation for participating. I also listed interview questions that we came up with as a team of the categories centered around food insecurity, money, cooking/knowledge, demographics, and convenience/access. To interview participants, we created a consent form for how the use of information giving to us by participants would be used.

Interview Process

We used 2 methods of interviewing: Interview protocol and an online survey.

We interviewed 34 participants in total and 18 of the participants came from the Michigan State Food Bank on campus.

Graphic of survey percentage

Interview Research Questions, Takeaways, and Sources

People sometimes feel shamed “for not being able to afford food” or may be reluctant to seek services out of pride
A lower level of food insecurity is sometimes not considered to be food insecurity by the food-insecure individual--participant
Food banks rely heavily on food that is cheaper than regular food, especially food donated from restaurants and supermarkets that would not otherwise be sold--participant
Community gardens integrated into several food bank networks in the Lansing area
Due to lack of access to food banks and supermarkets, GLFB has used food drops in the past with patrons acting as volunteers--participant
Tuition, rent, car expenses, and medical bills key expenses that cut into the food budget--participant
Present food insecurity can be influenced by past parental levels of food security--participant

Reframe

For our reframe approach we wanted to develop several potential HCWs (How can we) based on insight from what we have uncovered throughout immersive research and interviews. The HCW framework is a part of design thinking and is meant to ask questions through team members that are specific enough that the ideas brainstormed can start to have specific details. This is to make the process of building and testing easier as your narrowing down the problem area.

On Secondary Research…

How can we keep our focus on the biggest problems faced by food-insecure individuals, more than the potential solutions that we can come up with in later phases?
How can we integrate a wide range of complex information into manageable chunks?

On Outreach…

How can we empathize with stakeholders as well as users and help them overcome the potential roadblocks to a partnership for the sake of the users?

On User Interviews…

How can we respect our human research participants without having to register through our university’s IRB and getting slowed down in the design process?

Through our interviews, we found there is plenty of evidence showing that there is a stigma surrounding food insecurity. Food stigma discourages people from coming to the food bank when they need to and can make them feel bad for taking advantage of the resource. The existence of the stigma shows that it should be discussed more and we as a team could help the users to use the food bank better if we find a way to reduce it.

Cultural differences observed; in Egypt, there is a more generous Islamic attitude toward almsgiving which means coming to a food bank is not stigmatized, as everyone is acknowledged as a potential recipient of help from their neighbors.

One woman did not say she was food insecure but attended the food bank because of access issues. Man in Germany said it was easier to find food in Germany and the food was cheaper.

Design thinking graphic

Almost everyone interviewed had learned about the food bank by word of mouth instead of other sources of information, and sometimes expressed anxiety that they did not deserve to use a food bank.

Ideate

The next step was to think about design and start to ideate. We needed to come up with a lot of ideas as a group and review our M.O.S (measure of success) and HCWs to select a promising concept. This led us to create design criteria centered around our M.O.S and HCWs.

We came up with the idea to create a food guide. A food guide would educate students about food insecurity and provide them with resources on and off-campus.

Guide to shopping at grocery stores on a budget.
How to survive without the cafes’ guide (transitioning off campus).
Highlight bus routes to grocery stores and food banks.
Guide for finding good coupons and how to use them.
A map showing grocery stores and cost level of stores.
Stats about food security.
Information on food stamps and how to receive them.
How to buy food on a budget based on the season.
Where/when can people get food being wasted out by restaurants?

Lo-fi student guide wireframe

Build

The next step was to begin building. We transitioned from a downloadable food guide to an informative content website. The thought behind this was because a website is more accessible and usable than a pdf for college students who use both computers and via phone.

My role was to organize content using the information architecture method and content strategy. I also worked on the branding of the website and the tone in which the guide would take.

The guide book is meant to be a “how-to” that uses a humorous and relatable voice throughout the book, with the author speaking about food insecurity as a familiar and personal issue

Humorous tone to keep the user’s attention
Speaking about food insecurity as an experienced issue
The audience should not feel separate from the general student body
I wanted to enable users to go through the guide book without thinking of the stigma around food insecurity