Applying Design Thinking in Food-Waste Mobile Application

Anwar Sodik

, Isa Albanna

, Muchtarruddin and Joshua Nathaniel Manuputty

Institut Teknologi Adhi Tama Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: Design Thinking, Food Waste, User Interface, Mobile Application.

Abstract: Disposal of food that still suitable for consumption or commonly referred to as a surplus, still occurs

frequently in Indonesia. Thus, according to The Economics Intelligence, Indonesia become the country with

the world's second-largest rate of food waste disposal in 2021. Meanwhile, many people in Indonesia are still

hungry and waiting for help from the government to find a solution. However, there needs to be an initiative

from the Indonesian people themselves, especially teenagers with higher education they have. Moreover, in

the digital era like today, it would be very helpful if food waste in Indonesia could be solved through an

application that could be used easily and quickly by the whole community. Implementing the Design Thinking

method helps the end-to-end process so that the finished application can later be validated that the application

can truly be a solution for the Indonesian people and reduce food surplus in the community.

1 INTRODUCTION

The United Nations Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) considers food waste to be the

discarding of food items that are still suitable for

human consumption at any point in the food supply

process (FAO, 2011). Recently, food waste has

become a significant issue worldwide, with important

ramifications for the environment, economy, and

society. (Coşkun & Yetkin Özbük, 2020). Every year,

a total of 1.3 billion tons of food that is still fit for

consumption is discarded worldwide, resulting in an

estimated financial loss of $900 billion. (FΑΟ, 2013)

According to a study, it is estimated that the drinks

industry generates around 26% of food waste, with

the dairy industry following at 21%. Fruit and

vegetable production and processing contribute

14.8%, cereal processing and manufacturing

contribute 12.9%, meat processing and preservation

contribute 8%, vegetable and animal oil

manufacturing and processing contribute 3.9%, fish

processing and preservation contribute 0.4%, and all

other industries contribute 12.7%.(Nayak & Bhushan,

2019).

Indonesia has the third highest household food

waste level in Southeast Asia, with consumption

levels reaching 77 kg/capita/year. Brunei Darussalam

holds the first rank, Cambodia holds the second, and

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9443-1519

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2091-1568

Vietnam has the lowest. (UN Environment Program,

2021)

The "Food Loss and Waste in Indonesia" report by

the Ministry of National Development Planning in

2021 states that the economic loss from food waste in

Indonesia between 2000-2019 was approximately

213-551 trillion rupiah annually, or 4-5% of

Indonesia's GDP. Furthermore, the number of people

who could have been fed from the loss of nutrition

(energy) during the same period is estimated to be 61-

125 million, 29-47% of Indonesia's

population..(Bappenas, 2021)

Given this situation in Indonesia, we have created

a platform to reduce food waste in Indonesia. Users

can share information about food waste and food that

is still safe to consume. This app is expected to be able

to reduce food waste on a small scale. The platform is

an Android-based application with research

development using a design thinking approach. A

digital platform is a systematic foundation for

integrating productive, informative, and human

resources in a region and industry to offer public

services and business ventures. (Zatsarinnyy &

Shabanov, 2019). Digital platforms are a prevalent

reality that disrupts established companies by altering

how digital products and services are consumed and

supplied. While conventional firms generate value

within the limitations of a corporation or supply

chain, digital platforms leverage a network of self-

Sodik, A., Albanna, I., Muchtarruddin, . and Nathaniel Manuputty, J.

Applying Design Thinking in Food-Waste Mobile Application.

DOI: 10.5220/0012107800003680

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advanced Engineering and Technology (ICATECH 2023), pages 255-259

ISBN: 978-989-758-663-7; ISSN: 2975-948X

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

255

governing entities to create value jointly.(Hein et al.,

2020). This app is tailored for Android users in

Indonesia. The market share of Android users in

Indonesia is 89%, followed by iOS with 10%.

(Statcounter, 2022).

Design Thinking is used as the basis for innovation

in this research. Design Thinking has a market value

share of USD 6900.0 million in 2021 and is expected

to grow at a CAGR of 7.25% during the forecast

period, reaching USD 10500.0 million by 2027.

Companies such as IBM, Adobe, and Enigma have

made Design Thinking the basis of their innovation.

(Global Design Thinking Industry Research Report,

Competitive Landscape, Market Size, Regional Status

And Prospect, 2022)

2 TEORITICAL BACKGROUND

Design thinking, also called designerly thinking,

involves a non-linear and repetitive method that aims

to comprehend users, question assumptions, re-

evaluate issues, and generate new solutions that can

be tested and prototyped. (Siang & Interaction Design

Foundation, 2018). In more abstract terms, Design

thinking can be described as a recursive and

cooperative approach to resolving issues creatively.

(Pope-Ruark, 2019).

This process of Design Thinking is consists of five

phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and

Test (Doorley et al., 2018). During the Empathy

phase, designers investigate the needs and objectives

of the target users for a product. In the Empathy

phase, designers research the needs and goals of a

product's target users. This phase is a valuable

opportunity to uncover crucial user traits, address

gaps in understanding users, and question pre-

existing assumptions. In the Definition phase,

designers synthesize core user characteristics and

establish the design requirements, which are the

must-haves for the product.

The ideation phase is a crucial step in the design

thinking process, where designers generate ideas that

can be materialized. These ideas can pertain to

various aspects of the product, such as navigation

menus, content style, visual presentation, etc.

Ideation enables designers to think innovatively and

often collaboratively. This phase is characterized by

generating many ideas, some of which may be

unrealistic or unfeasible, but the designers need to

consider all options.

The prototype phase follows the ideation phase in

the design thinking process. In this phase, designers

create one or more product mockups and visual

representations of the ideas generated during the

ideation phase. These prototypes provide designers

with a tangible expression of the product and can be

used to test its functionality, usability, and user

engagement. This allows designers to obtain valuable

feedback on the product's design. It's worth noting

that prototypes are not the final products and may be

altered based on feedback and testing.(Doorley et al.,

2018).

The prototype phase follows the ideation phase in

the design thinking process. In this phase, designers

create one or more product mockups and visual

representations of the ideas generated during the

ideation phase. These prototypes provide designers

with a tangible expression of the product and can be

used to test its functionality, usability, and user

engagement. This allows designers to obtain valuable

feedback on the product's design. It's worth noting

that prototypes are not the final products and may be

altered based on feedback and testing. (Sodik & Putri,

2021)

The design thinking methodology is not a linear

progression but rather a cyclical and iterative process.

Designers frequently revisit the Empathize stage to

conduct further user research as they engage in the

ideation phase. Additionally, testing is not undertaken

exclusively after the process, but rather, it is

incorporated throughout various stages of iterative

prototyping on both a large and small scale (Siang &

Interaction Design Foundation, 2018).

3 METHODOLOGY

In this research, the methodology employed is the

design thinking method, which entails the following

stages: Empathize, Define, Solution, Prototype, and

Testing. The sample population consisted of 30

individuals of diverse backgrounds, all of whom are

members of the target customer segment for this

platform.

3.1 Empathize

During the Empathize stage, the focus is on gaining a

deeper understanding of the user regarding their

thoughts and feelings. This enables the identification

of pain points, which serve as a foundation for the

development of features that address the user's

problems.(Liu & Cai, 2022). The output generated is

in the form of an Empathy Map. (Bittner & Shoury,

2019).

An Empathy Map is created to enable researchers

to gain a deeper understanding of the user through

interviews. (Bittner & Shoury, 2019). The Empathy

Map comprises four groups that are differentiated

based on the results of the interviews. The first group

contains information about what the user Says, the

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second group includes information on what the user

thinks about their experiences, the third group

contains information about what the user Feels or

their emotions, and the fourth group contains

information about what the user Does. (Siricharoen,

2021).

3.2 Define

The collected interview results provide insights

through a user journey and pain points, summarized

on an insight board. Once collected, these insights are

categorized based on the grouping of insights

obtained from the interviews, the definition of

problems derived from understanding the wisdom

and planning for solutions that can be used to resolve

the issues and the journey undertaken by the

respondents from start to finish.(Parizi et al., 2020)

3.3 Ideate

The next step is determining which features are

suitable solutions to the problems identified. After

identifying the elements to be implemented, the next

step is to filter these features to prioritize which ones

will be designed first in the MVP stage using an

Action Priority Matrix. (Panyukov et al., 2022).

3.4 Prototype

The researcher first creates a sketch to focus primarily

on the translation of features. After making the

sketch, the next step is to convert the digital drawing

into a digital form and create a clickable application

structure (prototype) so that users can directly

experience the solution offered.(Vogel et al., 2021)

3.5 Testing

To test the application, the System Usability Scale

(SUS) method is used to determine the usability of the

system that has been created (Hyzy et al., 2022). The

first step taken is to document all of the answers that

users have submitted through the form after

requesting feedback from users regarding the

application under development. The criteria for

participants recruited for testing align with the User

Persona created previously..

4 IMPLEMENTATION - HERE

After conducting interviews with users in the initial

phase, an empathy map is produced as follows. The

empathy map provides an initial overview of the

user's perspective on the problems encountered. The

researcher has concluded the results of the interviews

with users and generated 4 groups within the empathy

map. Where in the "Does" and "Feels" group, the

most conclusion points were obtained, 8 points as we

show in figure 1.

Figure 1: Result of Empathy Map.

Based on the results of the empathy map, the

researcher has drawn the conclusion that the problem

encountered requires the define phase to be carried

out. In the define phase, the researcher creates a list

of pain points. The results obtained are as follows :

• The excessive amount of food being

discarded

• The excess food available cannot be reused

• Difficulty in finding individuals willing to

accept surplus food

• Unforeseen issues that cannot be resolved

independently

• Food is often thrown away due to lack of

alternative options

• Strict company policies resulting in wasting

food that is still edible

• Food vendors are difficult to contact

• Raw materials cannot be sold if they have

poor form

• Difficulty in finding individuals willing to

share their food for free

• Prepared food does not have a long shelf life

• Many foods are not accessible due to their

high cost

• There is a minimum amount required for

stock ordering

In this phase, the creation of user personas and

user journeys is also conducted to observe the daily

patterns of the user and identify the target audience of

this application

The next step is Ideate. In this stage, solutions are

generated for the problems mentioned in the previous

stage. As the goals of this research are to produce an

Applying Design Thinking in Food-Waste Mobile Application

257

MVP, the actions to be taken must be low effort with

maximum impact. Thus, the solutions to be developed

will be organized using an Action Priority Matrix in

figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Action Priority Matrix Result.

The Action Priority Matrix will result in features

with low effort but high impact, where the features

are Food Search, Chat, Affiliate, and Community.

The features that have been compiled will be

implemented in sketches in low-fidelity design up to

high-fidelity design. The prototype produced is as in

figure 3 below.

Figure 3: High Fidelity Design.

Next, it will be developed into a high-fidelity

design to view at the surface level. The high-fidelity

design is created to approximate the original product

like in figure 4.

Figure 4: Low Fidelity Design.

In this phase, the creation of user personas and

user journeys is also conducted to observe the daily

patterns of the user and identify the target audience of

this application

In this step, the creation of user personas and user

journeys is also conducted to observe the daily

patterns of the user and identify the target audience of

this application

In testing stage, the System Usability Scale (SUS)

is used with the final value obtained being 81,375 and

is classified as Excellent quality. (Wahyuni

(Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa) et al., 2021).

𝑥 

∑

𝑥

𝑛

𝑥



1672,5

𝑥

. = 81,375

Note :

𝑥

= average score

∑

𝑥 = total SUS score

N = number of participant

5 CONCLUSION

Design Thinking provides a concrete and structured

method for transforming abstract ideas into

actionable plans. When applied to app development

ideas, this approach is quite effective. Initially, ideas

that are only pieces of solutions will become more

concrete and focused solutions. Design thinking

greatly helps the product development process to be

faster. The current participants are fond of the concept

of sharing food waste based on this Android

application. Currently, we are reaching out to other

platforms (iOS, PWA) to expand the market.

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