CrunchSaver | Mobile App Design
CrunchSaver | Mobile App Design
Helping people waste less food without guilt or stress
My Role
UX/UI Design, UX Research
Tools
Figma
Service Provided
Service Design, Mobile Design
Duration
4 Months
My Role
User Research
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Service Provided
Service Design
Mobile Design
Tools
Figma
Duration
4 Months
Overview
Overview
Every week, my friends and I would complain about forgotten leftovers, mysterious jars in the fridge, and wilting herbs bought for one recipe. We all wanted to waste less food, but no one really knew how.
So I started asking around. It wasn’t just us. Nearly everyone I talked to felt guilty about throwing food away, but they were tired, busy, or unsure what to do with the random ingredients they had.
This became the foundation for CrunchSaver, a mobile app that encourages small, meaningful actions to reduce food waste through weekly challenges, smart reminders, and feel-good rewards.
The Problem
How might we motivate people to reduce food waste through small, rewarding actions that make using leftover ingredients easier?
The Solution
CrunchSaver helps people take small, rewarding actions with weekly challenges, recipe ideas, and progress tracking.
Pain Point
Pain Point
Users may feel unsure about where to start or how to stay motivated to reduce food waste.
Solution
Solution
The Challenges page helps users get started with food-saving habits by offering simple, engaging challenges they can filter by interests like recipes, leftovers, or meal prep
Pain Point
Pain Point
Users may lack motivation to participate in challenges without tangible rewards, making it harder to stay committed.
Solution
Solution
The Rewards page encourages continued engagement by letting users earn points from challenges and redeem them for discounts or prizes.
Pain Point
Pain Point
It’s easy to lose track of food in the pantry, leading to forgotten ingredients and unnecessary waste.
Solution
Solution
The My Pantry screen reduces forgotten ingredients by tracking expiration dates and recommending recipes for leftover or soon-to-expire items.
Research
To see food waste beyond my own habits, I went into the field.
To understand the issue beyond my own circle, I explored how food waste is managed in my city:
Site visits → I visited food banks, local charities, and waste facilities. I watched people skip over slightly bruised apples, toss out half-used veggies, and struggle with limited storage.
Surveys & interviews → I ran six interviews (ages 20–30) and collected 48 survey responses.
Competitor review → I analyzed similar apps such as Too Good To Go.
Competitive Analysis
As part of CrunchSaver's development, I researched apps like Too Good To Go to see how they tackle food waste and savings. While Too Good To Go focuses on connecting users with surplus food from businesses, I noticed a gap in helping people manage their own groceries at home. This inspired ideas for CrunchSaver to stand out by offering personalized tips, recipes, and tracking tools to reduce waste and save money directly in users' kitchens.
Key Findings
“It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that by the time I think about cooking, my brain is fried and I just order takeout.”
People avoid “imperfect” produce, even when it’s still edible
Food goes bad at home due to overbuying or poor storage
Most people don’t realize how much money they’re wasting
Guilt wasn’t motivating. People needed small wins and easy systems
Meal planning felt like a chore, so waste just felt “normal”
People want to waste less, but they forget, feel overwhelmed, or don’t know what to cook. The solution had to feel easy, supportive, and even fun.
Defining the Problem
1.
Many don’t realize how much money they’re wasting on discarded food.
2.
Meal planning can feel complicated, and users may struggle with finding recipes that fit what they already have.
3.
People often forget about food expiration dates, leading to items being wasted.
Designing Solutions
Waste Reduction Challenges
Encourage users to set goals and participate in challenges focused on reducing food waste, such as using up all ingredients before they expire or cutting down on grocery overbuying.
Points and Discounts
Users earn points through completing challenges, which can be redeemed for discounts on groceries, making food waste reduction even more rewarding.
Savings Tracker
Reward users by tracking the money saved from reducing food waste, turning it into a fun challenge to see how much they can save each month.
Recipe Finder
Help users easily discover recipes they’ll love by suggesting meals based on what they already have at home. Streamline meal planning by allowing users to add ingredients directly to their grocery list.
Ideation
Sketches explored how a daily food waste challenge could feel light and achievable.
Sitemap
After brainstorming ideas, I put together a sitemap that organizes all the features and navigation of Crunchsaver, making it easy for users to access things like the Recipe Finder, Grocery List, Inventory Tracker, and Challenges.
Wireframes
Starting out with these low-fidelity wireframes, I focused on mapping out the app's core structure and user flow. These wireframes provided a basic visual layout to test functionality and navigation early on. By keeping the designs simple, I was able to prioritize usability, gather feedback, and make adjustments before moving to high-fidelity prototypes.
Wireframes
Once I felt ready to create the hi-fi wireframes of my proposed solutions, I took my previous low-fi wireframes to develop hi-fi wireframes for my prototype.
Reflection
Designing for behavior change taught me that support and simplicity drive lasting impact more than information alone.
This project reinforced that while people care about food waste, overwhelming tools don’t stick. Visiting food banks and waste facilities made it clear: waste isn’t just a household issue, it’s systemic. But small, consistent actions at home can still add up to real change.
I also learned the importance of feasibility:
Weekly challenges are lightweight and realistic, making them more likely to be adopted.
A points-and-rewards system could realistically connect to grocery store loyalty programs or local business partnerships. Even if this requires further business development, it’s a scalable model that aligns with real-world incentives.
If I continued this project, I’d explore:
Partnering with grocery stores to offer real discounts for food-saving actions
Adding community recipe-sharing features
Using AI to give smarter, personalized tips on storage and meal ideas
Helping people waste less food without guilt or stress
CrunchSaver | Mobile App Design
My Role
User Research
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Service Provided
Service Design
Mobile Design
Tools
Figma
Duration
4 Months
Overview
Every week, my friends and I would complain about forgotten leftovers, mysterious jars in the fridge, and wilting herbs bought for one recipe. We all wanted to waste less food, but no one really knew how.
So I started asking around. It wasn’t just us. Nearly everyone I talked to felt guilty about throwing food away, but they were tired, busy, or unsure what to do with the random ingredients they had.
This became the foundation for CrunchSaver, a mobile app that encourages small, meaningful actions to reduce food waste through weekly challenges, smart reminders, and feel-good rewards.
The Problem
How might we motivate people to reduce food waste through small, rewarding actions that make using leftover ingredients easier?
"I want to waste less food... but I’m busy, tired, or don’t know what to do with random ingredients."
Even though many people want to cut down on food waste, they often:
Forget what’s in their fridge
Don’t know how to use up leftover ingredients
Feel overwhelmed by planning meals
Don’t realize what can be frozen or repurposed
Food waste isn’t just a personal problem, it contributes significantly to climate change, costing households money and the environment.
The Solution
CrunchSaver helps people take small, rewarding actions with weekly challenges, recipe ideas, and progress tracking.
Pain Point
Users may feel unsure about where to start or how to stay motivated to reduce food waste.
Solution
The Challenges page helps users get started with food-saving habits by offering simple, engaging challenges they can filter by interests like recipes, leftovers, or meal prep
Pain Point
Users may lack motivation to participate in challenges without tangible rewards, making it harder to stay committed.
Solution
The Rewards page encourages continued engagement by letting users earn points from challenges and redeem them for discounts or prizes.
Pain Point
It’s easy to lose track of food in the pantry, leading to forgotten ingredients and unnecessary waste.
Solution
The My Pantry screen reduces forgotten ingredients by tracking expiration dates and recommending recipes for leftover or soon-to-expire items.
Research
To see food waste beyond my own habits, I went into the field.
To understand the issue beyond my own circle, I explored how food waste is managed in my city:
Site visits → I visited food banks, local charities, and waste facilities. I watched people skip over slightly bruised apples, toss out half-used veggies, and struggle with limited storage.
Surveys & interviews → I ran six interviews (ages 20–30) and collected 48 survey responses.
Competitor review → I analyzed similar apps such as Too Good To Go.
Competitive Analysis
As part of CrunchSaver's development, I researched apps like Too Good To Go to see how they tackle food waste and savings. While Too Good To Go focuses on connecting users with surplus food from businesses, I noticed a gap in helping people manage their own groceries at home. This inspired ideas for CrunchSaver to stand out by offering personalized tips, recipes, and tracking tools to reduce waste and save money directly in users' kitchens.
Key Findings
“It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that by the time I think about cooking, my brain is fried and I just order takeout.”
People avoid “imperfect” produce, even when it’s still edible
Food goes bad at home due to overbuying or poor storage
Most people don’t realize how much money they’re wasting
Guilt wasn’t motivating. People needed small wins and easy systems
Meal planning felt like a chore, so waste just felt “normal”
People want to waste less, but they forget, feel overwhelmed, or don’t know what to cook. The solution had to feel easy, supportive, and even fun.
Defining the Problem
1.
Many don’t realize how much money they’re wasting on discarded food.
2.
Meal planning can feel complicated, and users may struggle with finding recipes that fit what they already have.
3.
People often forget about food expiration dates, leading to items being wasted.
Designing Solutions
Waste Reduction Challenges
Encourage users to set goals and participate in challenges focused on reducing food waste, such as using up all ingredients before they expire or cutting down on grocery overbuying.
Points and Discounts
Users earn points through completing challenges, which can be redeemed for discounts on groceries, making food waste reduction even more rewarding.
Savings Tracker
Reward users by tracking the money saved from reducing food waste, turning it into a fun challenge to see how much they can save each month.
Recipe Finder
Help users easily discover recipes they’ll love by suggesting meals based on what they already have at home. Streamline meal planning by allowing users to add ingredients directly to their grocery list.
Ideation
Sketches explored how a daily food waste challenge could feel light and achievable.
Sitemap
After brainstorming ideas, I put together a sitemap that organizes all the features and navigation of Crunchsaver, making it easy for users to access things like the Recipe Finder, Grocery List, Inventory Tracker, and Challenges.
Wireframes
Starting out with these low-fidelity wireframes, I focused on mapping out the app's core structure and user flow. These wireframes provided a basic visual layout to test functionality and navigation early on. By keeping the designs simple, I was able to prioritize usability, gather feedback, and make adjustments before moving to high-fidelity prototypes.
Wireframes
Once I felt ready to create the hi-fi wireframes of my proposed solutions, I took my previous low-fi wireframes to develop hi-fi wireframes for my prototype.
Reflection
Designing for behavior change taught me that support and simplicity drive lasting impact more than information alone.
This project reinforced that while people care about food waste, overwhelming tools don’t stick. Visiting food banks and waste facilities made it clear: waste isn’t just a household issue, it’s systemic. But small, consistent actions at home can still add up to real change.
I also learned the importance of feasibility:
Weekly challenges are lightweight and realistic, making them more likely to be adopted.
A points-and-rewards system could realistically connect to grocery store loyalty programs or local business partnerships. Even if this requires further business development, it’s a scalable model that aligns with real-world incentives.
If I continued this project, I’d explore:
Partnering with grocery stores to offer real discounts for food-saving actions
Adding community recipe-sharing features
Using AI to give smarter, personalized tips on storage and meal ideas