User Research

Fridge Buddy was an idea based on two pain points, what do I do with my leftover food in my fridge and wishing there was a way to see what was in my fridge while at Costco. Fridge Buddy would be a mobile app that could enhance food utilization and fridge management.  

Define my audience

To ensure I was interviewing users that fit my project goals, I sent out a survey to 30 participants. From these surveys, I was able to narrow down my participant pool to 6.

• Basic information (age, dietary needs/goals, # of people in your house)
• Do you have a fridge?
• How often do you cook from home?
• How often do you go grocery shopping?

1:1 User Interviews

Once I narrowed down my participant pool to 6, I held 1:1 user interviews over Zoom and in-person.

Questions that I asked were:

• What benefits (if any) do you see from this product? Can you identify at least three (3) ways a product like this could benefit you?
• What features would you expect from a product like this? Can you identify at least three (3) features and rank which ones are the most important?
• Have you used any products similar to this? Do you see any features that are different in this product as compared to others you have seen?
• Do you have you any final recommendations for the product?

After interviewing, it became evident that the pain points were:

• Achieve and maintain health goals and needs
• Try new recipes
• Efficient grocery shopping

Based on the pain points, I built three profiles that I felt would use my product.

Competitive Audit

There were three products similar to Fridge Buddy, SmartThings, SmartHQ Home and Smarter.

After reviewing each competitor, I identified gaps and Fridge Buddy opportunities.