AFood
Mobile User Interface
Overview
AFood is a mobile application designed to help users log and track food donations within a community.
The app allows users to record donation details, such as food type, quantity, and expiry date, to promote safe and efficient food sharing.
The design focuses on simplicity and accessibility, making it easy for anyone to submit or browse available food items.
The project aimed to support community-driven food exchange and help reduce food waste.
Role
User Experience Designer
Conducted user research to understand donation and food-sharing needs
Created wireframes and interactive prototypes
Designed visual interface with focus on clarity and ease of use
Led usability testing and iterative improvements
Duration
4 Months
UX process
1. Research & Discovery
We began by conducting user interviews with potential donors, volunteers, and shelter staff to understand their needs and pain points. We also researched existing food-sharing platforms to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. Key insights highlighted the importance of a simple, clear process and reliable communication between all user groups.
2. Define & Plan
Based on our research, we created personas and journey maps to visualize user experiences. We then defined MVP (Minimum Viable Product) features, focusing on key actions like donation submission, pickup coordination, and shelter notifications. This phase helped us prioritize what would deliver the most value to users.
3. Design & Prototype
We sketched early concepts and developed low-fidelity wireframes to map out user flows. After testing these wireframes and gathering feedback, we refined the layout and built a high-fidelity prototype in Figma. The design included key flows for login, role selection, donation entry, and impact tracking.
4. Test & Iterate
We conducted usability testing on the high-fidelity prototype to validate the design. User feedback led to several refinements, including separating key actions into individual screens for better focus and adding features like the “Your Impact” page to encourage ongoing engagement. Through this iterative process, we shaped AFood into an intuitive and user-friendly platform.
Understanding the Problem
Many grocery stores and restaurants throw away large amounts of perfectly good food every day, simply because it is overstocked or no longer fit for sale. At the same time, many individuals and families in nearby communities struggle with hunger and food insecurity. There is a clear disconnect between the surplus of food and those who need it most. AFood was created to help bridge this gap by offering a simple platform where donors can quickly list excess food, volunteers can organize pickups, and shelters can receive real-time updates on available donations. By transforming food waste into a community-driven resource, AFood helps build stronger, more supportive local networks and reduces unnecessary waste.
Target Audience
Donors — Grocery stores, restaurants, and businesses with surplus food who want an easy way to give back to the community.
Volunteers — Individuals who coordinate pickups and deliver donations from businesses to shelters.
Shelters — Organizations that provide meals to those in need and rely on timely notifications of available food donations.
Goal:
The goal of AFood is to create a fast, simple, and reliable way to connect businesses with surplus food to the volunteers and shelters that need it most. By making the donation and distribution process easier to manage, the app helps reduce food waste, improves access to food for people in need, and supports stronger community connections.
Gathering Insights
To better understand the needs of users, we conducted interviews with potential donors, volunteers, and shelter staff. Through these conversations, we learned that donors wanted a quick and low-effort way to list available food. Volunteers valued clear pickup instructions and flexible scheduling. Shelters emphasized the need for accurate, up-to-date information about incoming donations. We also found that all users wanted the app to be easy to navigate, with simple language and a clear process. These insights helped guide our design decisions and ensured that AFood would meet the real needs of the community.
Persona
User Flow
To guide our design decisions, we created a persona representing a typical donor — a busy restaurant manager who wants to donate surplus food but needs a fast, hassle-free process. This persona helped us focus on streamlining the experience and reducing barriers to participation. We also mapped out user flows for each key role (donor, volunteer, shelter) to ensure that the app would be intuitive for all users. The user flows helped us structure the app with clear steps for actions like listing donations, coordinating pickups, and receiving notifications, making the entire process easy to follow.
Wireframes
Iphone Version
Different Screens Version
We started by creating low-fidelity wireframes to map out the core flow of the AFood app. The original idea was to keep the process simple, but through testing and feedback, we realized that combining all functions on one screen created too much cognitive load for users. To improve usability, we separated the key steps into individual screens — such as donation listing, pickup coordination, and shelter notifications — allowing users to focus on one action at a time. This change made the flow clearer and more intuitive, especially for first-time users. The wireframes provided a strong foundation for developing the high-fidelity prototype.
Final Prototype
After gathering user feedback on our wireframes, we made several improvements in the final high-fidelity prototype. One key change was organizing the app into a clearer flow with dedicated screens for each action, rather than trying to keep everything on one page. We designed an onboarding process where users can select their role (donor, volunteer, or shelter partner) right from the start, making the app more personalized.
The donation flow was also refined — now donors can easily enter food type, quantity, pickup time, and pickup date through a guided form. This reduces confusion and ensures that the information shelters receive is accurate. We added a “Your Impact” page where users can see their contribution score and impact level, helping motivate repeat donations and participation.
Finally, the overall visual design was kept clean and simple to prioritize ease of use. Through this iterative process, we created a prototype that reflects real user needs and supports the goal of reducing food waste through community action.