The Company
Leftovers is a conceptual food inventory tracking brand created for this design project. It envisions a digital tool that helps households stay organized by keeping track of what’s in their fridge, freezer, and pantry. Beyond tracking, Freshly offers a recipe page that generates meal ideas based on ingredients and leftovers users already have, helping them get creative in the kitchen while reducing waste. The brand’s mission centers on making food management easier, more efficient, and more sustainable for everyday users.
The Problem
In this project scenario, many households struggled to keep track of their groceries, often forgetting what they had, when it would expire, or how to use it before it spoiled. This led to wasted food, lost money, and missed opportunities for creative cooking. Leftovers needed a solution that would give users an easy way to manage their inventory, receive timely reminders, and discover recipes tailored to what’s on hand ultimately helping them save money, reduce waste, and enjoy their meals more.
research
To understand how individuals currently track their household food inventory, manage expiration dates, and decide what to cook based on available ingredients. This research also aimed to uncover the challenges and behaviors around preventing food waste, as well as expectations for a digital tool that combines inventory tracking with personalized recipe suggestions. Insights from this research would inform the design of an intuitive, engaging, and efficient solution that helps users save money, reduce waste, and get inspired in the kitchen.
METHOD #1: USER INTERVIEWS
To gather qualitative insights into current food management habits, I conducted 1:1 interviews with five participants who regularly cook at home. The conversations explored how they track groceries, remember expiration dates, and decide what meals to prepare. We also discussed their frustrations with existing solutions whether mental tracking, notes apps, or physical lists and their interest in a tool that integrates recipes with their actual inventory. These interviews revealed patterns in organizational habits, common points of frustration, and opportunities for a seamless, waste-reducing experience.
I analyzed key competitors in the food inventory and meal planning space, including SuperCook, NoWaste, FridgePal.AI and Cookpad, to understand how these platforms approach ingredient tracking, expiration date management, and recipe personalization. This review highlighted common usability patterns, missing features, and opportunities for Freshly to stand out by offering a more integrated, visually engaging, and waste-conscious experience.
Research Findings
Competitor analysis chart
User Persona
This project focused on users who frequently hear music in the real world and want to identify and save songs effrotlessly. Based on user interviews, I created a primary persona to represent these spontaneous discovery eneds.
Common Pain Points
too many steps to identify a song
Users often have to leave Spotify, open a third-party app (like Shazam), wait for detection, then return to Spotify to search and save hte song, creating unnecessary friction and a disjointed experience.
Missed moments of discovery
Participants frequently missed songs in real-life settings (e.g., cafes, shops, social media) because they didn’t open Shazam fast enough or were distracted. The window to capture a song is brief, and delayed action often means losing the opportunity entirely.
Limited search flexibility within spotify
Spotify’s current search functionality requires users to know the exact song title, artist, or album. Users expressed frustration that they couldn’t search using lyrics, vague phrases, or moods limiting their ability to find or rediscover music.
“Half the time I don’t even know what’s in my fridge until it’s gone bad.
-Victoria, Working Professional
how might we
Help users easily keep track of the food they already have so they can reduce waste and save money?
Support users in making quick meal decisions based on what’s in their kitchem?
brand logo design
As part of shaping the brand identity for Leftovers, I explored multiple logo concepts through rough sketches, focusing on visuals that would reflect freshness, sustainability, and simplicity. The design process moved from quick ideation on paper to refining digital versions, experimenting with typography, iconography, and color applications that align with the app’s mission. The final logo balances approachability and modernity, conveying trust while encouraging users to feel inspired about reducing food waste and making the most of their ingredients.
Final logo designs and brand concept
low-fidelity WIREFRAMES
To start turning research insights into actionable design, I created low-fidelity wireframes outlining the primary user flows: adding items to inventory, updating or removing items, exploring recipes based on current ingredients, and tracking waste reduction progress.
These early screens prioritized structure, functionality, and hierarchy, allowing me to focus on the clarity of interactions without being influenced by visual styling. The goal was to validate layout, navigation, and the logic behind each step to ensure a smooth, intuitive experience for managing food and reducing waste.
hi-fidelity WIREFRAMES
Building on the validated layouts from the low-fidelity stage, I developed high-fidelity wireframes to bring the Leftovers experience closer to its final form. These screens incorporate the full visual language, brand colors, typography, iconography, and imagery, while preserving the clarity and usability established in earlier iterations. The goal was to evaluate how the interface communicates the brand’s values, supports efficient task completion, and creates an engaging, trustworthy experience for users.
VIEW FINAL PROTOTYPE
What I tested
With these high-fidelity wireframes, I conducted usability testing focused on three main areas: managing inventory (adding, updating, and removing items), reducing food waste by tracking expiration dates, and exploring the recipe discovery experience.
The goal was to validate whether users could quickly understand how to log ingredients, receive timely waste reduction prompts, and find relevant recipes using what they already had on hand. This phase ensured that both the functional flows and visual hierarchy supported efficiency and ease of use before moving into a refined final prototype.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Usability testing showed that inventory updates felt intuitive, with all participants successfully adding and removing items without guidance even when tracking expiration dates. Waste reduction reminders were noticed, but some users suggested making them more visually prominent to better catch attention. The recipe discovery feature was well-received, with participants enjoying suggestions based on their current inventory, though a few requested dietary filters for more personalization. Overall navigation was smooth, with the bottom navigation layout supporting quick access to core features and helping users stay oriented throughout the experience.
Results & impact
Testing confirmed that the core flows, inventory management, waste reduction reminders, and recipe discovery were easy to use and aligned with user expectations.
Usability feedback led to improvements in: Enhancing expiration date alerts with more prominent color coding.
Adding clearer confirmation messages after updating or removing items.
Introducing simple filters in the recipe section to personalize results.
These refinements increase the likelihood that users will regularly engage with the app, reduce food waste, and maximize the value of their groceries.
Success metrics
100% task completion rate: All participants successfully added, updated, and removed inventory items, and located recipe suggestions.
Strong waste reduction feature engagement: 4 out of 5 participants interacted with the expiration alert feature during testing.
Recipe discovery interest: 100% of participants explored at least one suggested recipe during the session.
High satisfaction scores: Participants described the experience as “organized,” “easy to understand,” and “something I would actually use.”