1. Online grocery shopping can be frustrating and fruitless due to unavailable shoppers, inaccurate information on apps and websites, and weeks of backorders
2. Many people mentioned that they sometimes needed one or two specific items urgently, but were unwilling/unable to make a trip to the store for just those items.
Solution:
From our initial needfinding, we developed the idea of Groceria, an app that brings communities together by pooling grocery runs. Groceria allows for a more coordinated and efficient shopping experience by encouraging users to shop for their neighbors while also shopping for themselves. Our main goal behind this app was to provide a platform in which people could give and receive help during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Brainstorming
Made with: Miro (board)
Understanding our Users
Made with Miro (User Study Map Framework)
We began by identifying our target audience and creating user stories. Our target audience was three-pronged: at-risk individuals, college students, and more generally, families/neighbors. By using our app, at-risk and immuno-compromised individuals would be able to receive their groceries without risking their health by physically visiting the store. Groceria would also help many college students who remained on campus but did not have cars or other means of transportation to visit grocery stores easily. Finally, families and other community members who live in close proximity would be able to help each other out, allowing for neighborhood bonding during a difficult time.
User Story Mapping
Made with Miro (User Study Map Framework)
After creating our user stories, I thought it would be useful to create a user story map in order to ensure we had what a user would most need in mind as we created our product. While this was my first time creating a user story map (I had only learned about it a week prior), I felt that actually mapping out the series of tasks a user may complete allowed us to distinguish between needed vs. extra features easily, ultimately helping us significantly in creating our MVP in a timely fashion.
Creating our Initial Prototype
Created using iPad and Zoom
With the user story map in mind, we created an initial prototype for our app. While we originally had a 3-tab layout for the navigation bar, we were concerned that shoppers would have issues finding the requests they were shopping for, and that users would have a difficult time finding their current requests. To combat these concerns, we decided on a 4-tab layout. We iterated on the design of the nav bar with feedback from our mentors and classmates to ensure that users would be able to easily switch between shopper and requester with little to no confusion.
Designing Screens for our Med-Fi Prototype
Made with: Figma (prototype), Photoshop (logo design)
After receiving feedback from our mentors and classmates, we began designing screens for our Med-Fi Prototype. I also began designing our app logo using Photoshop, iterating with feedback from my teammate. I ultimately decided that a heart inside a grocery basket would convey our main goal for Groceria well -- an app that brings communities together through pooling grocery runs.
Demoing Groceria
Made with: Swift, Firebase
Our final step before our demo was creating the app itself! We built our app with Swift UIKit, using Firebase as our backend. At present, we have implemented our MVP, which contains all the basic features necessary to allow users to post their personal shopping lists, fulfill their neighbors' shopping requests, and connect with friends and family who are also on the app. However, we still have many features on our backlog that we would like to incorporate to allow for a better user experience. These include adding the ability for users to chat, embedding a map into the app itself so that the delivery process is easier for shoppers, and implementing an in-app payment system. We hope to implement these features and capabilities among others as future work for this project.
While we had a relatively short timeframe (of around 4 weeks) to complete the project, Angela and I were extremely proud to demo a fully completed MVP at the end of the quarter. While our senior spring was unorthodox, we wanted to make the most out of it and create something that could have a positive impact on many people. We are thankful to Stanford and the teaching team for helping us along the way, and due to the positive feedback, we're excited to say that we're working on bring this app to life!
