What is the SNAP Benefits program?
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) previously known as "Food Stamps" is a federal funded program that offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families. USDA's SNAP program focuses on providing participants with nutritious food. It has made SNAP the largest program in the domestic hunger safety net.
Who uses the program?
42,000,000 participants in the United States, or 13% of the total population (1 in 8) use the SNAP Benefits program.
What is the current program structure?
The average monthly payment per person is $125.
The average monthly payment per a household is $256.
Payments are given each month on a EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) debt card.
The Design Team
Natalie Buda Smith
Project Manager, UX Advisor
Jasmine Lewis
Lead UX Designer
The Process
How I found my target audience..
This project was created using secondary research. Upon execution we will conduct interviews and make edits to the current interface.
Through research we discovered that the majority of SNAP participants are families with children, specifically single mothers with 1-2 children (See figure 1). Our target audience was selected based on 59% of the participants being single mothers.
Further research..
We found it interesting that the top 5 states with the most SNAP participants varied in cost of living index. Washington DC has the most SNAP participants and one of the highest cost of living indexes in the US. But Mississippi has the lowest cost of living index but is ranked #2 in SNAP participants (See figure 2 & 3).
The research showed that participants in different states suffered from diverging sets of challenges. This prompted a decision to create two personas/journey maps to find pain points of two different types of SNAP participants.
Participants on the SNAP program
Top 5 states with SNAP Participants
Top 5 states, US Cost of living index
Problem
I suspect the problem is the current SNAP program does not suit the majority of their users which are children. Also certain parts of the United States suffer from "Food Desserts" - disadvantaged neighborhoods that are underserved by quality grocery stores, where people resort to cheaper less nutritional food.
Value Proposition
The current program is proven to help participants reduce poverty and food insecurity, long term use has led to improved health and economic outcomes especially in children. MOMBOX's goal is to lessen the stress affiliated with food insecurity. Prolonged use of the program should improve the users economic status while promoting positive health standards for children.
Future Value: Ultimately participants food insecurity reduces to the point where there is no reliance on the MOMBOX or SNAP Benefits program.
Target Audience
Single mothers and their children. Most single mothers are spending more then half of their income on rent and childcare leaving little money left for healthy meals.
Personas & Journey Mapping
Persona: Jennifer
- Background: 32 year old, Black Single mom of a child age 12, living in Ward 8,Washington DC.
Environment: Ward 8 is a economically challenged area, housing in this area battles with gentrification and problematic wealth distribution.
Transportation: Does not own a car, relies on metro train and bus.
Education: High school diploma with some college.
Work: Works full time as a receptionist through the week and works as a server at night and on the weekends.
Money: Makes $28,000 a year as a receptionist and $7,000 a year serving = $35,000 a year. Receives no child support payments.
How she handles food: Food insecure. They live 0-5 miles from nearest grocery store (2 bus stops or a 20min walk). It is hard to carry groceries from this distance.
Access to tech: Owns a computer and cell phone.. Is familiar with tech from being in college. Borrows computers from friends, but their devices run on outdated browsers.
How she handles childcare: Her son is a "latchkey kid". Sometimes the neighbor watches her son.
Feelings of Jennifer: Stressed out and tired. She is trying to save money to go back to school.
Journey Map: Jennifer
Persona: Molly
- Background: 27 year old, White Single mom of 2 children age 11 & 5, living in Yazoo, Mississippi.
Environment: A frequently toured location with 45.5% of the city in poverty. Molly lives on a street surrounded by abandoned homes from the 2010 tornado.
Transportation: Owns a car but lacks money to pay for gas.
Education: High school diploma.
Work: Works full time at the local department store.
Money: $10 hour pay from her job. Receives child monthly support payments. Occasional financial help from brother.
How she handles food: Food insecure. They live 5-10 miles from nearest grocery store and not all locations offer SNAP benefits. Limited options for her 5 year old gluten intolerant son.
Access to tech: Does not own a computer but uses computer in lounge at work. Owns a cell phone.
How she handles childcare: Spends a lot of money on childcare. Utilizes access to aftercare.
Feelings of Molly: Frustration with the distance of stores in her town. Worries about her sons gluten allergy. Would like to be promoted at her job.
Journey Map: Molly
Solution: MOMBOX Web Mockups
Low - Fidelity
Lo-Fi sketches MOMBOX screens
High - Fidelity
MOMBOX Landing Screen
Welcome to the MOMBOX, a special SNAP benefits pilot program for single mothers and their children. MOMBOX is a weekly meal box subscription service that provides eligible families with USDA standard healthy meals.
Additional Features:
- On Sundays users login and build a box from differing options that suit their needs. Once a box is ordered it is delivered the following Saturday.
- "My Profile" features options to build your never list, view scheduled deliveries, access recent purchases, set up optional email reminders and more.
A La Carte
The a la carte UI is modeled after the requirements SNAP carrying grocery retailers must adhere to. The retailer must sell at least seven varieties of food in the meat, poultry or fish, bread or cereal, vegetables or fruits and dairy products. And must offer perishable food items in 3 to 4 categories.
Additional Features:
- The user can select all the categories that they favor and view them all at once.
MOMBOXES
MOMBOXES are pre-made meal combinations that streamline the users shopping time. Select from any day boxes, special boxes, top rated boxes or you personal favorite box combinations.
Mini Meal Boxes
Single mothers are very busy, sometimes children are left to fend for themselves in the kitchen. Mini meal boxes are geared toward children 12 years old and older who are able to make meals for themselves and for their younger siblings.
Additional Features:
- Click on "View Box" to see the ingredients and customize each box to your desire.
Checkout
The checkout UI allows users to remove or view the boxes they have selected. Delivery information is saved upon users request making the checkout quick and seamless.
Additional Features:
- Half of all families receiving SNAP exhaust their benefits in first two weeks of the month. MOMBOX offers more stabilization over distribution of money by providing weekly payments. Upon users request payment credits can roll over to the following week.
- SNAP has a partnership with United States Postal Service (USPS) to deliver all cold food products. SNAP's own delivery service will deliver the dry ingredients.
- Add special requests for your deliveries ex. "Leave it behind the flower pot".
MOMBOX Cookbook Forum
It's human nature to feel good when there is a sense of community. So we created a MOMBOX cookbook forum for mothers to share and exchange ideas and recipes. Find out what boxes other mom's selected to make their favorite meals.
Project Challenges
My project challenges were:
- Finding existing SNAP Benefit participants to interview
- How a pilot program would be suited for a participant in a metropolitan area like Washington DC versus a rural area like Mississippi
- Deciding whether or not to add an incentive structure like the federal unemployment program
- Creating a simple but effective UI
AIGA Shine Program
In January my mentor Natalie and I were selected to be apart of the AIGA DC Shine Program. A four-month mentoring program designed to fertilize the career growth and professional success of emerging designers.
We were challenged to #DesignForGood which led to MOMBOX, and we won!
