Pal Fridge
A helpful fridge integrated into a student’s kitchen, which helps the student create a meal plan with an efficient shopping list and view a detailed inventory.
PROJECT CONTEXT
Digital Design (Nantes) feb. – june 2024
TOOLS
Figma, After Effects, Notion
SUPERVISION
Clément Breuille, Michel Le Page
MY ROLE
Research, Concept , UI Design, Illustrationen & Icons, Prototyping
TEAM MEMBERS
Lena van Maris
DESIGN
PROCESS
OUR
GOAL
Every year, 6.6 million tonnes of food are wasted in households, which account for 43% of all food waste. Much of this comes from food that could have been consumed but wasn’t due to poor planning or missing solutions.
This project addresses the urgent need to reduce waste and promote a sustainable food culture. My goal is to make it easy for students to turn leftovers into resources through simple, flexible, and motivating meal planning. The key
question is: How can we make it as easy as possible for a student to use leftovers and create a meal plan?
OUR
PAINPOINTS
Students face several challenges in their everyday cooking routines that directly contribute to food waste. These issues range from forgetting ingredients in the fridge to struggling with oversized packaging or lacking a clear meal plan. By identifying and understanding these pain points, it becomes possible to design solutions that are simple, practical, and tailored to student life. The following pain points highlight the main obstacles that need to be addressed in order to reduce waste and promote a more sustainable food culture.
Forgotten Food
Students often forget what they have already bought. This leads to food going bad and being thrown away unnecessarily.
Too Much Cooking
Cooking without portion awareness often leads to oversized meals. The leftovers are rarely reused and usually end up being wasted.
Oversized Packaging
Supermarkets often sell products in large quantities that do not fit single households. Students struggle to finish them on time.
Lack of Meal Planning
Without proper planning, students lose track of what to buy and cook. This leads to both unnecessary purchases and wasted ingredients at home.
Overwhelming App Market
The huge number of food and recipe apps feels confusing and unhelpful. Students often give up instead of finding a solution that truly supports them.
Avoidable Waste
Each student wastes around 250 g of food per day, most of it avoidable. This shows the urgent need for simple tools that reduce everyday food waste.
OUR
CONCEPT
The Smart Fridge, integrated into a student’s kitchen, with shopping list and meal plan functions is an innovative kitchen appliance that helps users manage their food inventory, plan efficient meals and promote sustainable shopping habits.
THE FRIDGE
The Smart Fridge gives students a clear overview of their food, reminds them of items about to expire, and suggests recipes to make the most of ingredients and leftovers. With a smart shopping list and meal planning feature, it prevents impulse purchases and overcooking, while simple analyses of eating and shopping habits reveal ways to save money and live more sustainably.
OUR
FEATURES
01
/05
ONBOARDING
The first screen is the onboarding screen, where users can define their dietary preferences, allergies, or foods they wish to avoid. Selections are highlighted in green for preferred items and in red for ingredients that should not appear in recipes.
02
/05
Reminds you of your food
You will receive three notifications: a food item should be consumed soon, a product has expired and should be discarded, or you haven’t eaten any fruit or vegetables in a long time.
03
/05
Detailed inventory overview
The app displays all ingredients in the refrigerator, sorted by category. Expired or soon-to-expire food items are marked with instructions on consumption or disposal. The list can be sorted by expiration date, purchase date, origin, and quality.
04
/05
Create a meal plan and shopping list
The refrigerator assists with weekly planning and creates a precise shopping list so that only the necessary items are purchased. For each dish, you can immediately see which ingredients are available and what is still needed.
05
/05
ANALYSIS OF YOUR FOOD
The app shows your eating habits and helps you reduce your consumption. It analyzes your diet, fruit and vegetable intake, plastic consumption, Nutri-Score, and nutritional goals.
In the end, a concept and a fridge were created, which is visualized in this video.
With the help of this video we were able to make our concept easily accessible and understandable.
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