Green connect

How might we improve the perceived value, usability, and long-term retention of Green Connect’s veggie box service while supporting the organisation’s social and environmental mission?

Green Connect Farm is a social enterprise based in the Illawarra region that delivers fresh, locally sourced produce while supporting employment pathways for former refugees and young people. Their veggie box subscription service combines ethical food delivery with community and environmental impact.

This project explored how UX research and service design could improve the customer experience of Green Connect’s veggie box service. The research focused on understanding customer behaviours, motivations, and barriers throughout the ordering and subscription journey, with particular attention given to convenience, meal planning habits, and long-term adoption.

Through a combination of customer research, usability testing, competitor analysis, and behavioural insight mapping, the project identified opportunities to reduce friction within the digital experience while also uncovering broader service-level challenges relating to grocery habits, decision fatigue, and food waste concerns. The outcome was a strategic research report providing actionable recommendations to support both immediate UX improvements and future service innovation opportunities.

Client / Green Connect Farms

Date / 2024

My Skillset

Stakeholder Alignment

Research & Discovery

Insights & Synthesis

Strategy & Framing

"Kyle created a deep piece of research, in a short period of time, triangulating 4 different studies. The research methodology was clear, as was why he used those methods and how they built on each other as the project progressed.

I would be impressed to receive a report of this quality, even from my team of established UX researchers, particularly given the tight timeframe and recruitment difficulties."

Kayla Heffernan, Head of UX at WISE Employment

My
Method

This project combined UX research and service design methods to better understand customer behaviours, motivations, and barriers throughout the veggie box experience.

Research Activities

Customer surveys distributed across the Green Connect service area to explore awareness, perceptions, and purchasing behaviours.
Survey responses segmented into three customer groups: Current customers Past customers Non-customers Additional Australia-wide social media survey to understand behaviours and expectations surrounding produce subscription, meal-kit, and ready-made meal services.
14 in-depth interviews with current Green Connect customers.
Stakeholder interviews with the business owner to understand internal perspectives on audiences, operations, and service offerings.
Website usability testing to uncover friction points within the ordering experience, particularly across mobile browsing, produce selection, and checkout.
Competitor analysis across fresh produce subscription services, meal-kit platforms, and ready-made meal providers to understand market expectations and positioning opportunities.
Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) analysis to uncover the underlying outcomes customers were seeking beyond simply purchasing vegetables.
Thematic analysis and affinity mapping to synthesise qualitative findings into actionable insights and strategic opportunities.

Research Focus

Research revealed that customers were often seeking to reduce decision fatigue, simplify meal planning, save time, and align with ethical purchasing values.

This shifted the project focus beyond usability improvements alone and towards designing a more supportive end-to-end food service experience.

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"Using locally grown food from our community not only satisfies my taste buds, but also my desire to support local farmers and businesses. It's a win-win situation that fills my heart with love for my community."

Insights

Research revealed that while customers strongly aligned with Green Connect’s ethical mission and produce quality, long-term adoption was challenged by existing grocery habits and decision fatigue.

Many users reverted to major supermarkets when they forgot to order ahead or still needed supplementary items elsewhere.

Customers also expressed uncertainty around how to use unfamiliar produce and worried about food waste when ingredients did not suit their preferences or work cohesively together.

This revealed a broader opportunity to evolve the service beyond produce delivery alone, with users showing stronger interest in either fully guided meal-kit style experiences or ready-made meal options that reduced planning and cooking complexity.

Outcomes &
Deliverables

The final deliverable for this project was a comprehensive UX research and service design report synthesising customer research, usability findings, behavioural insights, competitor analysis, and strategic recommendations.

The report combined qualitative and quantitative findings to identify key friction points, customer motivations, and opportunities to improve the overall veggie box experience and support long-term customer adoption.

Recommendations

Recommendations focused on strategies to attract new subscribers and retain existing ones.

Emphasise convenience, affordability, and reduced meal-planning effort in marketing messaging to appeal to price-sensitive consumers.

Increase local awareness through targeted promotions such as letterbox flyers and community-based marketing.

Improve personalisation, produce variety, and recipe integration to better align with customer expectations.

Address website usability and navigation issues identified during testing to reduce friction in the ordering experience.

Explore future app development to create a more seamless long-term mobile experience.

Expand search engine and social media marketing to reach untapped audiences.

Introduce referral programs and customer feedback surveys to encourage advocacy and gather ongoing insights.

Following the project, the client engaged me for additional work to design an unsubscribe feedback survey and an annual relationship survey aimed at capturing ongoing customer sentiment, retention drivers, and service improvement opportunities.