Mercado

The Problem

  1. Every year 16 billion pounds of food is wasted
  2. 1/3 of food in the US goes uneaten
  3. Over 20 tons of food each year ends up in landfills
  4. In France, irregular produce is sold at half price

Values

Sustainable:

This system needs to be environmentally friendly.

Lean:

This process should be efficient both for the user and for minimizing waste.

Inviting:

The brand and processes must invoke delight.

Target Market

Mercado is built to benefit three types of people.

Shannon Stevens

Environmentalist

"As a student I have a lot on my plate so its challenging to find the extra time I need to make environmentally friendly decisions."

Arthur Dunning

Online Orderer

"My daughter picks up my groceries for me, and I feel bad asking her to go often enough to keep fresh produce around."

Jill Jameson

Budget Shopper

"I want my kids to be healthy, but fresh produce is expensive and I'm a single mother trying to make ends meet."

The Process

Collaborative Wireframes

This project began as a group project, where we created wireframes to test key interactions.

Collaborative Branding

We also defined our initial color palette and visual strategy together.

Personal Rebrand

With the words "fresh", "friendy", and "original" in mind, I crafted a new visual identity for Mercado on my own.

Parts of the old interface could remain the same—namely the typeface, but the colors and illustration style would need a creative overhaul.

Based on a series of tests, I decided to overhaul the appearance of the app. This created a set of protoypes with a unique feeling.

View Static Prototypes

The Experience

Entice

Users may learn about the delivery box via the website or the apparel.

Social Media

With the words "fresh", "friendy", and "original" in mind, I crafted a new visual identity for Mercado on my own.

Parts of the old interface could remain the same—namely the typeface, but the colors and illustration style would need a creative overhaul.

Enter

The onboarding process brings a new person into the process.

Engage

Using the app, you can sort through box options and purchase a single box or subscription.

Exit

The users recieve a box with their food through the mail.

All the food Mercado provides is humanized with names and stories.

Extend

Recipe cards come with each box, and the first order contains a free Mercado recipe box to store them in.

Users can help the environment by putting their compost in a plastic bag to ship back to Mercado. Once the compost is bagged and sent, it is turned into nutrient rich soil and shipped to local farmers so the process can start all over again.