Assessment of the CozZo app by users’ experience in different countries
On 16 May 2023, the LOWINFOOD partners that have been working on and testing the CozZo app, its developer (CozZo), Tampere University, BOKU and Harokopio University, organised a workshop to discuss and share experiences the users in each country (Finland, Austria, Greece) had when testing the app aimed at managing household food provisions.
The topics discussed during the meeting were the easiness of starting using the app, its usability and usefulness, and the overall strengths and weaknesses users find when making real-life use of it. Besides, Ivo Dimitrov, the developer and owner of the CozZo app presented the key developments that have been and will be made to the app during the LOWINFOOD project.
Among the most outstanding features of the app, users cited the expiry date reminder, the stock oversight, recipe suggestions and the wide range of features it offers. All these have led users to increase their awareness about food loss and waste avoidance, together with the items they have in stock at home; to have in mind the food items they have at home about to expire and to improve their purchase planning.
Some users’ statements about the usefulness of the CozZo app are as follows:
“The app can help you keep track of things if you have a messy fridge”
“Having all functions in one place is handy”
“I started to enter the items we bought at the store into the app, and it started to send reminders about those items that were about to expire. It was always easy to focus on those items – like ‘today when I’ll go home, I will use that or cook something with that’”.
“When visiting a store, I could check what I have at home in the fridge, what I should use, and do I
need to buy something with those. For that, it was useful. Because I can check what I have at home, I
also haven’t made those more impulsive purchases, just to make sure I have them”.
“It is nice that I can save my own recipes there. I have certain recipes which I use often that I used to
have as photos on my phone. Now I can save the ingredients there [in the app]. It is much easier to
find them in the app”.