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FUTURE OF

DELIVERY FOOD PACKAGING

DURATION - 15 WEEKS (June 2019)

PROJECT BRIEF - Conduct appropriate research and write a research paper on how the packaging of food that is delivered will change in Mumbai in the coming 10 post pandemic.

***For viewing the entire process please visit https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_kjU3ib0=/

Timeline

Methodology

Process Discovery

Secondary Research

Primary Research

Questionnaire Preparation

Surveys  -  18 to 25 age group
                    25 to 45 age group

Inferences -Observation bucketing

Insight Generation

Affinity
mapping

Problem
statements
Generation

Interviews

Focus Groups

Card Sorting

Secondary Research

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Industrial revolution

has caused sugar and fat to increase by 3%

1.Evolution of food habits

Multiple revolutions since 1981 have caused food habits to change. As food habits change the packaging of food changes to support it.

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2.Currently used packaging

Packaging has to change to support a fast-paced lifestyle, there is a need to develop packaging that is travel friendly and easy to discard.

Plastic being the cheapest and easiest solution made its way to most food packages. Aluminium, paper and mixed packaging are among the other common types of packaging, below is a comparison of the different types of

Metal packaging

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  • Highly Impermeable

  • Food safe in most cases

  • Reusable

  • Heavy in certain forms

  • Malleable, Ductile

  • Aluminium is corrosive to certain items

  • Rs 4-15

Paper packaging

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  • Economical

  • Lightweight

  • Eco-Friendly

  • Cheap

  • Flexible

  • Not resistant to water

  • Fragile

  • Rs 6-15

Plastic packaging

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  • Economical

  • Lightweight

  • Harmful to the environment

  • Cheap

  • Versatile

  • Resistant to water

  • Most toxic to food

  • Rs. 1-10

3.Change the pandemic bought

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All food brands, outlets and delivery apps included no contact delivery as an option to choose from, in their apps and added rider temperature too.

Primary Research

1. Interviews

After understanding the current scenario of delivery food packaging, a stakeholder mapping was done to understand who all can be interviewed and surveyed. 

3 set of questionnaires were prepared for the different types of interviews that needed to be taken. 18 interviews of different kinds of users were taken and all the observations were put down. People from different age groups and sectors were interviewed to get a better understanding of their needs.

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Since she lives alone she throws the packaging as it is no use for her. She gets rid of the packaging as she transfer the food in a separate dish 

- Swapna Patil, 27y/o, Living alone

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When he orders french fries from the J's he eats from the container as it is not convenient to transfer to a plate since the cheese and sauce spreads everywhere in the box.

Savio, Student, Lives with parents

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Prefer ordering only one meal and sharing it as the quantity is generally a lot

-Michelle, Couple

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Found it very hard to find the appropriate cupcake packaging, spent almost 6-7 months

Shweta, Owns a cupcake boutique

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Heats everything that comes from outside, and pizza is the easiet to heat, so orders that most, during covid

-Abhishek Lamba, 24y/o

2.Focus Groups

WHY

A focus group of 5 people falling in the age group of 18-25 were questioned about their thoughts on packaging and it’s future, in a panel discussion. The focus group questions presented options of different types of packaging, ranging from plastic, paper and mixed in different forms. The members were asked questions about which kind of packaging they preferred the most and why.

This was done to get a better idea about the different kinds of views people have about packaging. A discussion helped understand why certain people preferred certain materials over others as the members countered each other with their opinions. A lot of diverse opinions were generated and as the number of members in the group were not enough, a solid conclusion could not be reached about packaging preferences.

OBSERVATIONS

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Sameeksha jain

Nakul Patwardhan

Delaina Fernandes

Prachi Desai

Joy d'souza

Nikit Narayan

Vaibahav Parajit

The need for a sturdy form for take-away beverage packaging, and also packaging that supported cold beverages.

Common misconception - mixed packaging is sustainable

Lunchbox feels more personal than a tray

Common assumption - eco friendly packaging doesn't have graphics

No definite understanding of no-contact delivery, each one had a different idea and was not sure about how exactly no-contact delivery prevented the spread of the virus.

3.Surveys

2 surveys were conducted, one for the age group 18-25 and one for 25-45. In total 130 responses were collected and used for generation of insights. The survey involved questions about what kind of food the user ordered most frequently, their preferences for packaging, sanitization methods and views on no-contact delivery.

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This is a comparison between 2 surveys for different age groups, and it shows how and what the preferences are of both the age groups when it comes to ordering/ preferring food online. Another surprising finding was the preference given to chinese food. 

4.Card sorting

Card sorting through Instagram was a new tool that was tried for the first time to get a better understanding of what is more important to the people for whom it’s being designed.

Solid conclusions could be drawn from the research as the reach was extremely high and the choices made by people were very clear.

The user was given different options of packaging for a particular food item and was asked to choose what they prefer the most.

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Process Discovery

1.Affinity mapping

Observations from all the primary and secondary research were placed together and then similar observations were grouped into various buckets to draw inferences. 20 buckets were created, here are some of them.

Criteria over which packaging choices change

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Trust with restaurants

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PROCESS DISCOVERY

Form and material of affecting disposal of packaging

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2.Insight generartion

Why do people prefer food packaging for eating at home to be different from that needs to be carried around?

Because while travelling with the food it might not be possible to hold the package still

WHY
 

WHY
 

WHY
 

WHY
 

Because not holding the package still could make the food spill around

Because containers used currently are made of plastic are not sturdy

Because they are made for one-time use

Because generally people throw away the container after one use, so there isn't any point in making it  sturdy

We then tried asking 5 "why's" for each group of observations to understand the root cause of the problem

3.Creating problem statements

Root Cause
 

Current food packaging is made for one time use and are not sturdy enough to carry around without spillage

Problem statement
 

How might we come up with delivery food packaging that can be used at home as well as while travelling to avoid any kind of spillage.

In this manner there were 10 problem statements found for the product team to work on. Each bucket of similar observations gave us a root cause after asking 5 why's and finally a problem statement. Some of them are mentioned here. Some of them are mentioned here. 

They were further sorted out by the DVF - Desirability, Feasibility and Viability index.

1.

How might we make delivery food packaging such, that it can be used as a serving medium as well as a carrier.

2.

How might we make cold beverage packaging such that it doesn't cause spillage and affect it's surroundings and hence suitable for delivery.

3.

How might we come up with delivery food packaging that looks resembles McDonalds but is eco-friendly.

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