2021
STL Metro Market
Collaborators / Sasha Kostenko, Claire Wild, Lu Gillespie, Erica Coven
UX Strategy
A co-created visual guide representing the values and complex systems supporting a St. Louis-based food non-profit.
25%
OF ST. LOUISIANS ARE FOOD INSECURE
Food insecurity poses a major issue for St. Louis residents. 25% of them qualified as food insecure in 2014. The issue is complex - access barriers to food security include:
lack of access to grocery stores within the St. Louis metro (areas referred to as 'food deserts')
expensive fresh produce
absence of nutritional knowledge
the ask
The St. Louis Metro Market is a "grocery store on wheels, dedicated to restoring access to healthy, affordable food in St. Louis area food deserts". While their final product involves physically transporting fresh produce throughout the community, the organizations and systems they work with - and within - make their service possible. Our team's task was understanding and visualizing this complex network, from the urban agriculture the Market partners with to keep produce prices low, to the donors and sponsors who support the initiative, to the food insecure communities the Market serves.
approach
Our team of designers and researchers worked together with the Metro Market to understand and visually define the complex network of organizations, social systems, and individuals who keep the Metro Market running, and the widely branching impact of their work on the St. Louis community. Our work involved research such as one-on-one interviews with Market founders and design iteration as a team, culminating in a visual 'systems map' we shared with the Metro Market for their educational use.
