Pantry
Planning meals & reducing food waste
Pantry is an ongoing personal project I am designing and building in public. It's an app designed to help users reduce food waste and save money by creating shopping lists linked to inventory, and by tracking the expiry and stock of items stored throughout households. Users can also check the storage and price history of items to help them shop smarter.
Design System
Brand Identity
Using produce and other food items in your household before they expire can feel like a race against the clock.
The idea for Pantry started when I wished I could receive notifications for food that was expiring, and have recipes suggested to me with food I had at home.
After the seed was planted, and the idea grew, I searched the app store and beyond for similar apps – and I found a lot. But, I was not discouraged – though my idea was not novel, my mission became more to create the best-designed app that would make these tasks as easy as possible, and a joy to use.
The fact that Pantry wouldn't be the first of its kind had its benefits – I could analyze existing apps and read reviews to find out where they fell short for some users. And so, I did just that. These learnings were useful to keep in mind when crafting the design principles and throughout the design process.
Key takeaways
Item Categories that can be created and modified
Manageable Common Items and Saved Items
Items that include Tags, Notes, and Expiry Date
Shopping lists that can be manually re-ordered
Functionality to print lists and move items
Robust statistics
Customizable Inventory lists and additional storage spaces
The brand is inspired by the modern kitchens where cooking happens. The logo mark combines the window and handle of the pantry door to form the letter "P". Its shape emulates the curves found in the typeface, as well as the creative, friendly, and fun personality exuded by it.
Pantry logo.
Logo colour applications.
Primary colour palette.
DIsplay font – Instrument Serif.
Body font – TT Commons Pro.
Typographic style.
I crafted a set of design principles at the beginning of the design process to guide my thinking.
Agility before detail
Allow users to perform actions with the minimum amount data possible.
Highly reusable
Users should only have to detail something once.
Highly configurable
From a simple grocery list to full inventory management and beyond.
Use data effectively
Use the data users' input to the maximum effect.
I opted to design the app to be flexible enough to be simplified down to shopping lists optimized for groceries, or up to including full inventory management, meal plans, and recipes that could be changed in a settings area at any time.
Pantry (storage space) Details and Add Items modal screens. Headers become compact when scrolling.
Inventory Details (Pantry) batch commands modal (default and selected states).
Item Details (Inventory) screen, and interior Stats screen.
Full Item Details screen.
Shopping lists, Shopping List Details, and Item Details (shopping list) screens.
Add items to shopping list modal (default and typing states).
Shopping List Details (scrolling) screen, Shopping List Details (completed list) screen, and Store Items modal.
Recipes (Browse tab) and Recipe detail screens.
Recipes (My Recipes tab) and Saved Recipes screens.
Roadmap
Settings/Help screen designs
Recipes features screen designs
Brand identity
Meal Plan feature screen designs
Figma prototype
Dark mode
iOS app assets
Common Items development
Version 1 iOS development (Inventory, Shopping, and Settings)
Family Sharing feature
Barcode scanning feature
Print lists functionality
Meal Plan feature development
Recipes feature development
watchOS app design and development
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