Elsa Sinuhaji
FALLING FRUIT
Redesigning Urban Foraging for Safety and Confidence
This project redesigns Falling Fruit to help beginner urban foragers navigate safe and legal foraging locations, a concept that was well-received and considered by the organization's co-founder.
THE TEAM
Elsa Sinuhaji
Ana Lizagarra
Kaia Crozier
Alex Illeto
Neal Sison
MY ROLE
User research - Lead
Experience design - Lead
Product manager
TOOLS USED
Figma
Adobe Creative Suite
TIMELINE + CONTEXT
2024 — 6 weeks
Academic
1. PROJECT OVERVIEW
✲ Project Context
The idea of urban foraging was inspired by my childhood in Vancouver, where I built a deep connection with nature in an urban space — plucking plums on my walk to school and biking past salmonberry bushes in Stanley Park. Access to nature in a city is meaningful for many, yet hidden factors like environmental hazards and knowledge gaps can shape how people engage with these spaces, especially novice urban foragers. Many beginners are drawn to foraging for fresh food and a deeper connection to nature, but concerns about food safety and foraging legality often hold them back. Nearly half of beginners cite a lack of knowledge as a barrier, while over a third worry about environmental contamination making way into foraged goods (Synk et al., 2017) (Fischer & Kowarik, 2020). The global foraging map, Falling Fruit, offers a starting point to intervene but I saw an opportunity to improve this client by providing clearer guidance and resources to help newcomers forage with confidence.
“Lack of knowledge (46%), and safety (37%) were the most frequently cited barriers [to urban foraging].”
2. FRAMING THE PROBLEM
✲ Narrowing Down The User: Novice Urban Foragers
We chose novice urban foragers as our target user because they present the greatest opportunity for intervention, and the solutions for them also apply to non-foragers, as both groups benefit from increased guidance and safety when interacting with nature in urban spaces. Our solution would intervene at the planning stage before beginners went out to forage.
✲ User Pain Points + Desires
Novice urban foragers are driven by the desire for access to nutritious, fresh food, a deeper connection to nature, and the empowerment of self-sufficiency. However, they face key pain points, including fear of contamination, legal barriers, and confusion between toxic and edible species. They also struggle with the challenge of knowing where to forage — environmental pollutants can affect the safety of foraged goods, complicating the process for beginners.
✲ Problem Insights
Through extensive primary and secondary research of our target users, we found the following key insights:
1 - POLLUTION RISKS
"The first steps to safe urban foraging are knowing where to harvest — including researching the history of the land, if possible — and learning which plants and plant parts may be more likely to contain contaminants like heavy metals or pollutants."
2 - LEGAL CONFUSION
“The other major hinderances to urban foraging [...] are the strict laws and regulations governing the use of public and private green spaces, making it difficult for people to engage in urban foraging practices.”
3 - SAFETY KNOWLEDGE
"Before you go foraging, equip yourself with knowledge. Learn how to identify plants before you consume them — don’t just eat anything that looks edible. Not all plants are edible, and some edible and poisonous plants look similar."
In our design intervention I decided to avoid Insight 3, safety knowledge, for two key reasons:
(1) The market is already saturated with plant identification tools like iNaturalist and Seek and we wanted to carve out a less competitive niche.
(2) We wanted to sidestep the risks of misidentification which are common in plant identification apps, as noted in a 2024 Guardian article on digital foraging apps.
✲ The Driving Question
How might we support novice urban foragers, by helping them identify pollution and foraging-allowed areas, in order to enable confident and responsible foraging?
3. HOW WE BUILT THIS
✲ Choosing The Client: Falling Fruit
As the baseline client to address our problems, I chose Falling Fruit; an open-source, non-profit platform that maps edible plants in urban spaces, using both municipal and user-generated data from over 50 cities. With over 1.5 million plant pins, it’s one of the most comprehensive foraging tools available and already holds a strong niche in the urban foraging space, with few competitors of its kind. The platform serves 258,000 users, the 70% of which is on mobile, though its dedicated app has a smaller but engaged audience. Given this mobile preference, I saw an opportunity to leverage its map features by integrating localized data on pollution and foraging-allowed areas, helping novice foragers make safer, more confident choices.
✲ Key Challenges
A key challenge was designing within the constraints of Falling Fruit, a volunteer-run, non-profit platform with limited funding and team. All enhancements had to be cost-effective, rely on open-source data, and still effectively address the needs of novice urban foragers.
✲ Expanding from Baltimore
To create a realistic proof of concept, we decided to expand from a singular city as a test point, which was especially beneficial given the limited resources of Falling Fruit. I chose Baltimore due to its active foraging community, with nearly 70% of its zip codes reporting foraging activity, as noted in a 2017 study. Additionally, the city’s government supports wild foraging through open-source resources like a foraging cookbook by Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, aligning with Falling Fruit’s non-profit model.
✲ Guiding Brand Value Principles
As a non-profit, Falling Fruit’s impact is measured by how well it connects urban communities to nature through sustainable foraging, with core values of transparency, community, and sustainability guiding its mission and our product enhancements.
BRAND VALUE PILLAR:
TRANSPARENCY
Transparent information for all foragers through open documentation and operational details, democratizing access and fostering trust in the organization.
BRAND VALUE PILLAR:
COMMUNITY
A user-driven platform that fosters community through knowledge sharing and credibility via cross-referencing.
BRAND VALUE PILLAR:
SUSTAINABILITY
Promoting reducing natural food waste though foraging and increasing access to food sources, while fostering connection with nature
While community and sustainability are natural byproducts of Falling Fruit’s operations, transparency is a more deliberate design choice. For this reason, we leaned into transparency for our intervention because it directly empowers novice foragers, providing them with clear, accessible information that builds trust and helps them make informed decisions.
4. INTRODUCING FALLING FRUIT - EXPANDED
✲ Pollution & Restricted Zones Map Layers
The redesigned Falling Fruit map adds pollution and restricted foraging layers to help novice urban foragers avoid contamination and legal risks. Pollution layers highlight environmental pollutants using government-backed data, while restriction layers map municipal foraging boundaries, ensuring safer and legally compliant foraging.
✲ Updated Information In Plant Pins
Previously, Falling Fruit only linked to Wikipedia for plant details, offering limited real-world insights. The redesign provides richer, location-specific information — including images, peak seasons, forager activity, linked recipes, and user contributions — to improve accuracy and engagement. Pollution indicators further help users make informed decisions by highlighting environmental risks like air, water, and traffic pollution, ensuring safer foraging.
✲ City-Verified Audio Walks
City-verified audio walks provide legally designated foraging routes, removing the fear of illegal foraging while ensuring safety and compliance with local regulations. Many municipalities already share plant data with Falling Fruit, making these trusted paths a natural extension of the platform. Hands-free audio guides enhance on-site learning, while recipe content encourages users to explore new foraged goods and supports their desire for self-sufficiency.
5. IMPACT AND REFLECTION
✲ Yay! Falling Fruit's Co-Founder Liked Our Solution!
When designing for a client, it's important to balance stakeholder satisfaction with feasibility. An unexpected meeting with Ethan Welty, co-founder of Falling Fruit, led to a discussion about our solution, potential platform changes, and a concern he hadn’t previously considered. He praised our solution as elegant, appreciated our use of free, open-source resources, and agreed to share additional information with us.
HAPPINESS
User satisfaction via app ratings, sentiment analysis, and surveys assessing confidence in safe, legal foraging.
ENGAGEMENT
Interaction with city walks (completion rates, time spent, repeat usage) and restricted zones.
ADOPTION
Sign-up rates, first-time engagement with key features, and new user contributions to foraging spots and community insights.
RETENTION
Return rates, repeat engagement with city walks and foraging locations, and recipe usage trends.
TASK SUCCESS
Completion rates for key actions (e.g., planning a foraging trip, using city walks) and identifying drop-off points to improve usability.