PantryPal

Inspiration

The inspiration for PantryPal originates from the need to address food waste coupled by the unique challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals in managing tasks such as grocery shopping and food inventory management. PantryPal was conceived to provide an accessible, engaging, and practical mobile solution to encourage better food habits and reduce waste.

What it does

PantryPal is a mobile application that assists users in effectively managing their food waste. It ultimately transforms any smartphone into a virtual pantry and refrigerator, providing users with a comprehensive view of their stored food items. The app also utilizes an advanced AI scanner that allows users to upload their grocery items by scanning receipts and shopping carts. The virtual pantry/fridge also reflects the state of food items, specifically indicating how close they are to their expiration dates. For instance, the closer it is to the expiration date, the item’s opacity increases and the expiration date in the listview turns red. Our integrated AI dynamically generates recipes to utilize ingredients before they spoil. Furthermore, the app includes robust features for browsing, filtering, and sorting recipes based on dietary preferences and allergies, ensuring all users can easily find meals that suit their dietary needs.

Research and Development Process

User Research: Our project began with conducting in-depth interviews with neurodivergent individuals. This initial step helped us gain valuable insights into the specific challenges and needs of our target audience.

Insight Synthesis: Insights from the research were collaboratively reviewed in team discussions, where we began brainstorming potential features and functionalities that would address the identified needs.

Design and Prototyping: We refined our ideas to focus on feasible and impactful features before designing. Starting with low-fidelity (lo-fi) screen designs allowed us to outline basic functionalities and user flow. Subsequent collaboration on a design system ensured consistency across the app, setting the stage for high-fidelity (hi-fi) screens and interactive prototypes.

What we learned

We learned the importance of agile methodology, time management, effective communication, and operating under a time restriction.

What’s next for PantryPal

The next step for PantryPal would be adding sustainability tracking metrics so that users can track how much waste they have prevented and the positive environmental impact they’ve made just by using the app. We would also like to implement educational campaigns where we focus on educating users on how to store different types of foods properly, and understand food labels and food waste disposal better.