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New Yorkers’ Takeout Food Habits | Researcher

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Client:
Master’s Degree Project
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Role:
Research & Designer 

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Date & Timeline:
2020, 2 months 

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Skills: 
Research
User Interviews 
Empathy Map
Ideation
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Tools:
Miro
Procreate 

Project overview

I conducted research on New Yorkers’ takeout food habits and designed a couple of possible solutions

Problem statement

After living and working in New York City for a number of years I became concerned about the amount of waste New Yorkers make by eating takeout food.

Research questions

In my research I wanted to answer a couple of central questions:

- How do New Yorkers’ takeout statistics compare to other urban places?
- Why do New Yorkers get takeout so much?
- How concerned are New Yorkers about the environmental impact of eating takeout food?
- How much do New Yorkers spend on food outside of their homes?

Project goals

- Understand the statistics
- Define an audience and learn from them through user interviews
- Ideate solutions

Design process

1. Conduct preliminary online research
2. Defining an audience
3. Conducting user interviews
4. Understanding findings
5. Ideating possible solutions

Conducting preliminary online research

I conducted preliminary research by reading articles online. The most notable takeaways were:

- New Yorkers spend $8,082 per year on food outside of their homes, this includes dining out and getting takeout. The average for the United States is $3,512.
- New Yorkers eat food outside of their homes 130% more than the average from the rest of the United States.
- New Yorkers eat out or buy 58% of their lunches or dinners

*New York Daily and ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers)

Defining an audience

I decided to focus on New Yorkers ages 20-34 because they make up 25% of New York City’s population. I also had easy access to this audience because I was a graduate student.

Conducting user interviews

I interviewed 4 people for this project. I would have liked to interview more, but due to the short timeline for this project I did not have enough time. In the future, I would like to interview a much larger pool of users.

With my interview questions I was trying to understand my users relation to takeout through quantitative and qualitative data. I wanted to know why they do it, how they feel about it and if they are concerned about producing single-use waste.

Understanding findings

While doing user research I learned that users eat out multiple times per week.  They are fairly concerned about the environmental impact and cost of eating out.

I createded a chart of important research findings and created an empathy map.

Ideating possible solutions

I came up with 3 possible solutions informed by the research I did.

Concept 1

Responding to user pain point:

“Using all that plastic really concerns me”

Solution:

Takeout container deposit:
The first idea is a design system where takeout food comes in a reusable container. The user orders take out, eats it at home and then sometime in the next couple of weeks they return the container to the store where they bought the food or to a central drop-off location. This idea is inspired by tiffin tins which are used by some people in Asia and the Caribbean. It is also inspired by bottle deposit systems.

Concept 2

Responding to user pain point:

“I try to prioritize cooking at home because I feel like it is healthier and saves me money. But usually I don’t have time to meal prep that week, and when I do, I only make enough food for a couple of meals and I fill in the rest with takeout.”

Solution:

Meal prep scheduling app:
My second idea is for an app that prompts users to be more mindful about how often they eat takeout. The app asks users questions about their plan for the week and then helps them schedule and visualize their meal plan for the entire week.

Concept 3:

Responding to user pain point:

“It is a lot easier to order something and have someone else take care of the hard work of making an edible meal than it is to find something to cook and buy the groceries myself.”

Solution:

Recipe inspiration and grocery list app:
My third concept makes it easier for users to browse recipes from food writers that they like and generate shopping lists. First the user chooses where they would like to see recipes from, then they can browse recipes from different food writers inside of one interface. When they select a recipe that they want to cook they are able to easily generate a shopping list.

Results

I researched my central questions and came up with design solutions for the most important pain points that I uncovered while conducting research.

Next Steps

The next steps for this project would be to go back to the users I interviewed and show them the 3 ideas. I would want to know which of the concepts they would most likely use and if they feel that the solution solves for their pain points. After receiving feedback from my users, I would create user flow diagrams and wireframes for the ideas that my users responded the most strongly towards. I would then conduct additional user testing and continue with the design process.

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