Background

Kua (Swahili) - Verb /Ku•a/

TO GROW: To increase in size or amount, or to become more advanced or developed.

Food and nutrition security is a fundamental right for every human being. However, due to rapid population growth and constant pressure on the environment, food security is no longer a given for many people. After living in Kenya for the past year, I have seen the disparities between communities and the inequality that exists amongst Kenyans.

The Kenyan population experiences a deficit of 20-30% of staple foods every year as the overall production of food has not increased in tangent with population growth. Kenya must look at new ways to sustainably provide food security for a population that may reach 64 million by 2030.

The Challenge

The stresses we have continuously put on farmland, energy, and water resources have led to staggering amounts of food waste, poverty, and hunger in developing countries. 30% of all food production for humans is lost before it reaches consumers, which amounts to approximately 1.5 billion tonnes and once food does reach consumers, 40% is thrown away.

The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) has reported that 25% of children in Kenya are malnourished. Poverty, disease, and hunger are the main attributing factors.

In order to reduce the amount of food loss and re-distribute it to those in need, new markets need to be found. A large enough demand would accommodate Kenya’s export food surplus and support and farmers who are subject to unfair trading prices, that affect their livelihoods.

“Africa can feed itself — and Africa must feed itself. And when it does, it will be able to feed the world” (Akinwumi).

1. Empathize

Research Methods

• Market & Secondary Research

• Competitor Analysis

I completed 2 different research methods in order to gain a deeper understanding of the existing market and the companies working in the national and international food donation and re-distribution space.

2. Define

Provisional Personas

Based on secondary research and market research, I established 2 different user roles and identified a persona for each.

1. First up is the small-scale farmer, whose livelihood we are trying to help through a more efficient allocation of produce. We can support farmers like Judy, by capturing food that would otherwise be heading for the trash and offer her compensation and a guarantee that her produce would help others in need.

2. Next is the NGO agent, Naomi. She is dedicated to the #zerohunger movement and providing food security to those living in urban and rural settlements. Passionate about nutrition education, she sees how Kua can be a platform to provide information about the benefits of indigenous plants and vegetables.

3. Ideate

Wireframing Our Ideas

I created some mid-fidelity wireframes on Figma to get a sense of the product flow and how users would visualize the task of donating or buying up surplus food from farmers.

Logo

I wanted to create an organic look and feel to the logo and integrate the text into the iconography. I drew out the vector points on Figma and styled them to match the rest of the UI elements. Pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Product Sans was a great typeface to use for this project. An integrated iOS font means that users will find it easier to navigate the interface without too much friction.

Branding & UI Kit

Once I developed wireframes to help visualize the flow of information, I moved on to creating a visual identity for the Kua brand. I decided to keep it minimal with two accent colors - mint and forest. In addition to two neutral colors - black and white.

The goal was to create a conscious, vibrant, and community-focused brand identity for Kua, so users would resonate with the cause and contribute regularly.

The mint green was a great color to draw focus to specific CTA’s with the addition of fun fruit & vegetable icons related to food, farmers, and nutrition. I found a great icon set on Vecteezy and built the color palette to incorporate it.

Hi-Fi Wireframes

I developed High-Fidelity wireframes and created a clickable prototype to test the two different user roles and portals.

The farmer portal onboarding flow can be seen below. I tried to keep the process as clean and straightforward as possible, to prevent any confusion on what tasks can be achieved by a farmer trying to sell their surplus produce on the app.

Long forms with many questions can be overwhelming and complicated for users. I decided to trial a few different input methods of collecting data, that were interactive and intuitive. I included a section where the seller could “upload a photo” of their product so that all transactions on the app are transparent and reliable, a concern I noticed during secondary research. 

5. Test & Iterate

Usability Testing

I asked 2 participants to test the prototypes to establish existing pain points that may have been overlooked. Both participants found the app to be intuitive, simple, and efficient in achieving their given tasks.

Objectives:

• Identify features that create friction, confusion, or difficulty for the user.

• Identify areas in which clarification is needed.

• determine if users find consistency in the app’s features.

Tasks:

• To purchase a vegetable box and find out more information about the local farm offering produce on the app.

• Input location, time, and date information to schedule a pickup.

• Create an account and make a monetary donation to the charity of your choice.

• Imagine you are a farmer, create an app, and sell your surplus produce on the app. Inputting all information about your product.

Completion rate: 90%

Outcome:

• Users seemed excited at the idea of the app as food waste is a growing concern amongst most.

• 1 user-requested more information about the farm, how many people work there, what they produce, and how long they have been farming. This information would create a deeper connection.

• Another user asked if they could choose their own charity to donate to. This feature would probably be explored in later iterations.

• “This would be a great way to easily donate non-perishable foods to charities as well!” - User #2

• “I can imagine this app being very popular for restaurants or those throwing a large event. There must be so much food going to waste in those scenarios.” - User #1