Serving Fresh

Bridging local farms and families

In 2020, as the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, a unique opportunity emerged to support local farmers and provide fresh produce to consumers in San Jose. This challenge led to the creation of Serving Fresh, a food delivery platform I had the privilege to design from the ground up.

As the lead product designer for this initiative, my responsibilities encompassed:

• Crafted the brand identity
• Designed the mobile and web user experiences
• Led the marketing team in creating newsletters and social media assets

My involvement in multiple aspects of the project allowed me to ensure a cohesive user experience across all touchpoints, from the first marketing interaction to the final delivery.

An underdeveloped app

Serving Fresh started with a bare-bones mobile app that lacked both branding and usability. This presented us with a core challenge: How do we transform this app into a cohesive, user-friendly platform that connects local farmers with consumers?

Design goals

Understanding the value proposition

Before diving into design, I collaborated closely with the founder to establish Serving Fresh's core value proposition: Serving Fresh connects local farmers who have seen a decrease in sales in 2020 to consumers who are motivated to eat healthy and order online to limit exposure to COVID-19.

This value proposition became the cornerstone of our design strategy, informing our goals and guiding our decisions throughout the design process. It helped us focus on creating a platform that would effectively bridge the gap between struggling local farmers and health-conscious, safety-minded consumers.

Establishing brand values

With the value proposition in place, our next step was to define the core brand values that would guide our visual and messaging strategies:

• Vitality: Symbolizing the brand's energy and dedication to empowering local communities.
• Freshness: Representing the vibrancy and quality of freshly harvested produce the brand guarantees.

To translate these values into visual elements, I created a moodboard that captured the essence of vitality and freshness.

Mobile app development

As part of our mobile-first strategy, I led the design of the Serving Fresh app. Key features included:

• Intuitive produce browsing and ordering
• Farmer profiles to showcase local producers
• Streamlined checkout
• Order tracking

The app was successfully submitted and approved for both the App Store and Google Play, marking a significant milestone in our project.

Website integration

Concurrent with the mobile app development, I designed a complementary website to ensure a consistent user experience across platforms. The website mirrored the app's core functionality while taking advantage of the larger screen real estate to showcase:

• More detailed farmer stories and produce information
• Expanded search and filter options
• Responsive design for various desktop and tablet screen sizes

By aligning the design language and user flow between the app and website, we created a cohesive digital ecosystem for Serving Fresh.

Admin site: streamlining operations

As Serving Fresh grew, we needed a way to manage our expanding operations efficiently. I designed an admin dashboard to streamline our internal processes and give us better control over our day-to-day operations.

• Manage customer data and farm details
• Update inventory and mark delivery zones
• Issue customer satisfaction coupons
• Provide overview of key business metrics

Marketing and community engagement

To grow Serving Fresh's customer base, I took charge of our marketing efforts across multiple channels. This involved:

• Leading a team of 5 marketing interns to create and schedule content
• Designing and managing Mailchimp newsletters
• Creating content for Instagram posts, Facebook and Nextdoor ads

These initiatives helped increase brand awareness and customer engagement during Serving Fresh's first year of operation.

Impact

Takeaways

• Holistic Design Approach — I learned the importance of considering all aspects of a product ecosystem. Designing not just the consumer-facing app and website, but also the admin dashboard, showed how these interconnected components add to the platform's success.

• Cross-Functional Skills — Leading design, branding, and marketing broadened my perspective beyond usability to include brand consistency and acquisition strategies.