UX Research · Service design

Creating a simpler way to shop for fresh food with government benefits

Designing a payment system that digitizes the wooden tokens and paper vouchers used at NYC farmers markets — making it easier for shoppers to access their benefits, for vendors to accept them, and for markets to manage admin.

My role

I co-founded Snappable and led UX research and design end to end — conducting 30+ interviews with shoppers, farmers, and market managers, leading 6 co-design sessions, and running 8 usability tests at farmers markets. I worked with a product designer and engineer to build and launch an MVP web app.

Collaborators

Product designer | Engineer | Product manager

Deliverables

  • 30+ discovery interviews
  • 6 co-design sessions
  • 8 usability tests
  • MVP web app

Outcomes

Design changes for outdoor use, and a new feature

Based on our user research, we prioritized UI elements that increase readability and overall accessibility in low-visibility situations like a sunny outdoor market: larger text, higher contrast, and large touch targets.

We had started our work focused on the moment of payment at the market, but user research revealed that bookkeeping was the bigger burden for market managers and vendors: the existing system was laborious and required manual record-keeping. We expanded scope to include a bookkeeping feature within the payment system we created, solving problems on both the administrative and vendor side of the transaction.

Funding

Snappable won $70,000 in funding from the Catalyst Program and Restive, and was selected to join Techstars' Economic Mobility accelerator, and the EDC's 2023 City Fellowship at Company Ventures.

Due to confidentiality agreements, this is all I'm allowed to share publicly. Please reach out if you'd like to learn more about my work.