Service Design for a Sustainable Food Consumption : Bridging Gaps between the Food Source and the Kitchen

Abstract: The client of this thesis is Electrolux and the department Electrolux Innovation. The supervisors from the company are Camila Serpa Soares and Tove Chevalley. The purpose of the thesis was to develop a service within the field of sustainable food consumption, which was later narrowed down to increase the accessibility of local produce for the user group young professionals livingin urban environments. A service design-approach with qualitative research-tools has been adopted and used throughout the project to investigate the user and map out their needs, behaviors and routines. The project has gone through four phases: a set-focus phase where desktop research, expert- and user interviews were carried out to specify the focus of the project, an in-depth research phase with user studies as well as other stakeholders that later led to a vision and problem definition, an iterative problem solving-phase (also called ”sprint”) with four consecutive weeks, each with a specific challenge to be investigated and tested with prototypes in user-tests. Lastly, a concluded result phase was carried out where all the gathered insights from previous phases were summarized to guide to the final concepts. Urban logistics has also been researched through expert interviews and user-tests to ensure the final concepts are feasible in terms of their logistics while not contributing to urban congestion.  As a result of the gathered insights, the target user was divided into two need groups with specific need, demands and desires. Based on these need groups, design principles have been created to guide in the design of the concepts. Three service concepts were developed. Concept 1 addresses need group A while concept 2 and 3 are designed for need group B. All concepts have a digital platform where concept 2 and 3 share the same platform. Three different pick-up points have been developed as well as business model canvases to show how the concept can fit Electrolux. The three concepts have been presented to the client with discussions regarding which need group they want to focus on, the opportunities and barriers for each concept and which concept they consider most feasible. Electrolux should conduct a user-test with a physical prototype, negotiate with partners and examine the revenue models before implementing any of the concepts.