UBRLOCAL – Iteration 2

A Peer to Peer Food Web

Problem:

Urban producers have a hard time finding other producers and resources in their community

Solution:

A peer to peer platform allowing neighbors to find each other and share rood related products like food, tools, supplies, and more.

Skills:

Mobile UX, UI, Web Production, Basic Coding, Entrepreneur, UX Research

Partners:

Ryan Acuzena, James Gilmer, AIGA, Liz Smith, Dylan Davis

Working Prototype

Just under 600 people in Seattle took part in our working prototype of a peer to peer food platform. People traded 1,000’s of messages, and 100’s of food related products, services and supplies. We paused the prototype to try out a different business model since this model ran into business model short falls.

Understanding Customer Needs

Small and medium scale producer personas.

Web Landing Page

Role: HTML, CSS Production

Human Centered Design Process

Participatory Co-Design:

ÜBRLOCAL held a co-design session with food leaders in Seattle. Participants were asked to help us design an urban food network to help re-localize a significant portion of Seattle’s diet to within roughly 10 miles.

Participants consisted of small-scale urban farmers, restaurant and grocery store owners interested in sourcing within Seattle, urban planners working towards a re-localized urban food system, and Seattle policy makers.

Co-design contributors were asked to help design solutions around 5 topics regarding urban food development: Economics, Cultural Impact, Distribution, Neighborhood Strategy, and a Technology table which demonstrated a clickable prototype.

Mapping

Mapping has been a key part of understanding various resources in urban communities.

Take Aways – “Iterations”

Lean Startup concept of “Iterations” was a large part of our process. We kept strong records of our progress and in the end learned that the business model here was in question. We realized this was a great service, but we had to find a way to pay for it. That’s why we iterated to another test and began a group buying prototype of local food.