Overview

The Spartan Food Pantry at San Jose State University supports students experiencing food insecurity by offering a variety of goods.

To enhance the pantry's services, my senior year project focused on developing a real-time website for inventory management. This project aimed to improve the shopping experience by allowing students to check item availability online before visiting.

This initiative aimed to reduce in-store shopping time and create a more efficient overall experience.

Responsibilities

Project Context

Tools

  • Frontend Developer
  • UX Researcher
  • UX Designer
  • January 2023 - August 2023
  • Team project
  • Figma
  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap
  • MySQL
  • Git/GitHub
  • Slack

The Problem & Solution

Problem: Students frequently visit the pantry seeking specific items, such as milk and eggs. However, since the pantry's inventory primarily relies on donations, it was uncertain what items would be available on a daily basis. This led to inefficient wait times, as well as extended shopping experiences.

Solution: Creating a live webpage displaying the current items available would allow students to preview what's available online before they come in, reducing wait times and enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Project Goals

Develop a website

Have real-time data to view pantry's inventory online.

Food Accessibility

Increase accessibility to tackle food insecurity.

Checkout System

Have an efficient experience when checking out.

My Design Process



Gathering Information

The team conducted a field study by observing the complete shopping process and how shoppers engage with the pantry through volunteer work at the pantry. This was done to find out the pain points and obstacles faced while shopping at the pantry.

By volunteering, we were able to:

  • Get an insight for the shopper flow and employee flow


  • Discover pain points


  • Collect data through firsthand experience


    • In parallel to a field study, the team did research on a broader scope. One of our main goals for this project was to have a broader impact outside of tech. Our focus for this was tackling food insecurity.


    Here's what we discovered:

  • Due to Covid-19, the need for food has spiked from 20% to 33% in the Bay Area alone.
  • The Spartan Food Pantry has drastically increased its usage from roughly 3000 students using the pantry in the 2018-2019 school year to over 25,000 students in our current school year.




    • Pain Points




    User Persona & Journey Map




    Low Fidelity Sketches

    After gaining an insight into what is needed on the website and completing the research phase, I began designing the bare-bones of the website with hand drawn sketches. I sketched out various website layouts to establish the overall feel for the website.



    Sitemap



    High Fidelity Prototype

      After undergoing multiple rounds of iterative feedback, I passed the approved designs to the development team to begin working on the website. Included here are the high fidelity wireframes from one of the iterations.



    Final Website

    View Livestatus Inventory



  • Users can access the real-time webpage to see if the item they want is available and how much of the item is left.

    • Login and Checkout



  • Shoppers must complete checkout before leaving the pantry.

  • The shopper must login to their account in order to checkout their items online.

  • After verifying their cart, they can proceed to checkout, and the website will automatically log them out for the next shopper.

  • The website is updated to show the latest amount of items available.

    • Admin Inventory Management



  • Admins can add, edit, and delete items.



    • Key Takeaways

    Being my first website project, I encountered unexpected challenges during the process. However, the team successfully navigated through proactive thinking. I take pride in our team's ability to overcome these obstacles and continue progressing towards our goal.

  • Adaptability: I was able to leverage my adaptability to challenges by being flexible in my work.


  • Collaboration: I was able to collaborate effectively through being vulnerable and having open communication with my team.

  • Communication with nondesigners: I found that the process of translating my thoughts and designs to nondesigners is still a learning process I need to continue practicing, but it is a learning process I found enjoyment and excitment in.



    • If I had more time...

  • Focus on Accessibility: I would consider WCAG standards more for accessibility to those with disabilities.

  • Conduct a user survey: It would have been beneficial to gather input from shoppers to collect quantitative data to understand trends and patterns.


    • Overall, I would focus on always designing with intentionality for the end user.

    If I were to launch this project on campus, I'd be eager to invest more effort in enhancing it. This might involve recruiting a dedicated team and potentially transforming it into a versatile app rather than a website. Additionally, I'd like to introduce some exciting features, such as implementing a reward system aimed at motivating users to revisit the pantry.



    Other Projects

    ARMICA Select

    E-commerce Website

    Ozone Invaders Game

    Scratch Project

    Let's Connect

    armicarichelle@gmail.com

    Download Resume