Wiggle
Healthy food maker for pets
Duration: 4 months
Year: 2022
Teammates: Öykü Şahintaş, Batuhan Sütbeyaz, Utku Baylan, Ecenur Işık, Oğulcan Öztürkmen, Hakan Durmaz
Mentors: Doç. Dr. Adil Oran, Prof. Dr. Hami Alpas, Dr. Serkan Alkan
My role: Research, Idea generation, Sketching, UX&UI design
In cooperation with: Arçelik
This project, developed in the METU Design Factory with sponsorship from Arçelik, focused on "New methods for minimizing food waste in urban households." Our diverse team—comprising designers, engineers, and business experts—approached the challenginte from multiple perspectives, guided by mentors both from the Design Factory and Arçelik.
Tools Used
The Problem
88 million tons of food is wasted per year only in Europe and 1/3 of household waste is leftovers.
According to the FDA, most leftover foods are completely safe for 3-4 days in the fridge. In Turkey and the UK, 40% of leftovers are thrown to waste in between the second and third days.
That means we throw away completely safe food because we don’t want to eat.
Field & User Research
We observed that most leftovers stored in the fridge for more than 1-2 days are likely to go to waste.
This waste includes 20% dairy, 21% meat, and 31% seafood.
The main reasons for food waste are overbuying, poor planning, and forgetting about existing inventory.
The Observed Oppurtunity
In Europe, 43% of the population owns pets . This means 88 million households. Over the past decade, pet-related spending in Europe has more than doubled.
Pet food companies are already utilizing food waste to produce pet food, and pets particularly enjoy wet food.
Standard wet foods on the market are often expensive and may not align with pet’s specific dietary needs.
User Persona
Typical European Nuclear Family
Have children
Environmentally aware
Believes pet is a part of their family
Wants to keep their pet healthy and happy
The Design Board
Throughout the 4-month project, we employed a variety of ideation methods, including mind mapping, empathy mapping, scenario building, HMW questions, and group brainstorming.
Ideation
Prototyping
The Solution
Wiggle utilizes an IoT ecosystem to monitor the food in your fridge and provides recipe suggestions through a mobile application for the entire family—including your pet friends—ensuring everything is used before it spoils. This approach makes refrigerator management smarter and more efficient.
With AI it provides interactive recipes according to your inventory.
Dietician approved balanced recipes are provided via wiggle app.
Easy and safe way to integrate leftovers in your pet’s meal.
Features
Scenario
The user puts leftover zucchini into ‘wiggle’.
When it's time to feed his cat, he opens the 'Wiggle App' to browse recipes.
After receiving the ingredient list for his cat, he begins adding them to ensure a balanced diet for his pet.
He sets up a scheduled feed since he won’t be home in the evening.
It stores the food in a vacuum-sealed container at 4°C to prevent spoilage.
His cat, Fufu, enjoys the wet food in the evening and is a happy cat, as she doesn’t have to eat the same food every day!
User Interface
I updated the user interface of the group project after its completion. Here, you can see the revised interface.
Information Architecture
The information architecture was designed based on the importance of the features we aimed to integrate into the app and the needs of the users. This ensures intuitive navigation and quick access to the feeding feature.
Solution Details
The Project Gallery
