Wanted: designer to help with Gamified Recipe App for the Climate
Time: 5-8 hours a week (or more) | No pay until we get funding
Fork Ranger's mission is to help millions of people switch to a healthy and sustainable diet with a gamified recipe app. We just launched the first version and are now looking for (UX) design help to create more features and infographics.
The Mission
The food system makes up 33% of all greenhouse gases and most of it comes from eating too much meat. Alongside fossil fuels, it’s one of the most destructive forces on the planet.
The simplest solution is to change our diet. We don’t have to become vegan, only to make meat a luxury product for the weekend. A lot of people are interested to eat more sustainably but don’t know where to start. That’s where Fork Ranger is going to help.
It all started when Frank found out about the huge impact of meat but was frustrated with most vegetarian recipes. They had unknown ingredients or weren't filling enough. So he created a book that explains the problem and gives ‘user-friendly’ recipes. It has helped hundreds of people to eat less meat and now we're turning this into a digital experience.
Through recipes and food we want to inspire people to be part of the solution for a better world. We want people to feel like they can make a difference when it comes to climate change. It’s about offering a new version of 'the good life' that is not centred around consumerism but a purposeful life.
The Product
We're working on a gamified journey with recipes for climate change. This tackles two tricky questions that people struggle with:
- What can I do about climate change?
- What’s for dinner?
We launched this version of the Fork Ranger app beginning of March. It's all about a journey: you start in Level 1 - the action that makes the biggest difference - and then continue to Level 2 by cooking recipes.
On the way you unlock fun quizzes where you learn more about the impact of your food.
Here is a video of how it works:
Design is a huge part of Fork Ranger. So far Frank has been doing this himself. Now we're looking for some help on two areas:
1) Designing new features: we have a lot of ideas about how to improve the app. So this is a UX task.
2) Designing new infographics: each quiz in the app has some infographics. This more about graphic design and communicating a message into appealing visuals.
👇Here's one of our favourites. We often hear that those meat substitutes based on soy cause deforestation. But the biggest driver is beef and most soy is used for animal feed.
About Us
I hope that by now you’re excited about the idea. Time to tell you a little about ourselves so you know what you're getting into 
Frank is a storyteller and dreamer who loves to translate complicated topics like climate change into inspiring designs and stories. He created the Fork Ranger book and then Mareike joined him to create the app.
Mareike makes sure everything stays on track. She has a keen eye for details and structuring messy ideas. She's also vegetarian since she's 14 because somebody told her 'you will never keep this up'.
Besides the two of us there's a growing team that helps out on everything from app development to recipe creation and impact research!
About You
Besides the practical points that you either speak Dutch or English there are three main things we're looking for:
1) Passionate about the mission
You don’t need to be a vegetarian but you should join for the right reasons: working on a solution for climate change.
2) Design experience
We have to design areas where we're looking for help.
- UX design: we're constantly adding new features and improving the app. We work in Figma.
- Graphic design: for the quizzes and social media we create a lot of infographics. For this we use Illustrator.
It's not a showstopper if you only have experience (or want to work) in one of these areas.
3) Take initiative
As part of the early team, you will have a lot of freedom to shape the product. That's why it's important that you can take initiative and bring in your own ideas, instead of waiting for an exact blueprint of what to build.
The Job
- Responsibility: Design new features and/or infographics
- Time commitment: at least 5-8 hours a week
- Salary: none (until we get funding)
- Equity: to be discussed
- Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands (remote is possible in the same or adjacent timezones)
What’s in it for you?
We’ve been working on Fork Ranger for two years and made some good progress. If you’re looking for the thrill of startups and want to improve the world, this might be a good opportunity to step into something promising.
In short, this is what we can offer:
- A chance to make more impact than Elon Musk (changing diets can save a lot more CO2 than electric cars)
- The joy and friendship of working in an ambitious team
- Working in a startup that has the market opportunity to get very big
What is a good fit?
- Want to make the world a better place
- Taking initiative and bringing in own ideas
- Love for great design
- Works fast and thinks in solutions
How to get in touch
Send an email to frank@forkranger.com and mareike@forkranger.com and tell us something about these four points. You can write in English or Dutch.
- Some personal things: where do you live? What are you currently working on?
- Mission: why would you like to join? What excites you most about this project?
- Design experience: what is your experience? What have you been working on? (an attachment of something would be great
) - Ambition: are you looking for a side project or are you interested to join the team long-term?
Disclaimer: Don’t expect a reply if you simply send in your CV or ask questions in the comments section 🙂
Looking forward to your email!
May the forks be with you!
Frank & Mareike
