Problem

A quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions is from food production. As climate change continues to ravage our planet, climate conscious consumerism becomes an increasingly vital part of the conversation. The only way to track carbon foodprints currently is through arduous google searches or apps that require manual entries for every food item used. This hassle deters many consumers from tracking and becoming aware of their footprints.

Solution

Klean Kart leverages Android's Google Vision API to scan barcodes of food items, so users can easily check the environmental impacts of grocery items as they shop and easily track the footprints of their purchases. Users also have the option to search up food items and be given a list of sustainble alternatives.

From Paper Prototypes to Low-Fidelity Designs

Task Analysis - Key Workflows

• Review progress reports to track progress towards a lower footprint

• Scan barcodes, identify food products, and receive corresponding carbon emissions information

• Add items to shopping cart and "check out" to update personal carbon foodprint history

• Save previous searches to purchase at a later time (allow users to use the app as a shopping list, planning purchases ahead of time)

• Quick search to scan a barcode just to check carbon emissions, with no intention of consuming the product (doesn't add item to cart or check out item)

Iterations to Final Product

For the next few weeks, our team was busy conducting user interviews, usability tests, and heuristic evaluations to improve the user experience of the app. We sought both our primary and secondary target users to get a better idea of how we can serve their needs more effectively.

While we made numerous changes over the weeks, a few key highlights were:

• Dietary Preferences: app will automatically prioritize food items that align with set preferences and warn users if searched items violate them. All food items will display relevant dietary tags (e.g. vegan, dairy-free)

• Store-Based Carts: users can organize their shopping carts based on store

• Improved Quick Search: if users decide to purchase a product after a quick search for its carbon data, they have option to add item to a new or existing cart

Final Prototype