About
FoodHub is an interactive card vending machine designed for the Namma Metro Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. Stations. When commuters are hungry or craving a specific food item, they can locate FoodHub and help find the best and most authentic-tasting FoodSpots (street food hubs, hotels, cafes, restaurants) around town.
Once they reach they can scan their card at the FoodSpot to gain points, which act as experience gained from visiting a number of food locations in town.
These points can be redeemed at the FoodHub vending machine by printing out stickers for different levels of achievement.
These stickers can be used by the person who redeemed the points and the sticker acts as a "medal" proving their knowledge of FoodHubs and thus, encouraging surrounding people to interact with the sticker bearer, to get suggestions on good food places in town.
Concept Video
Summary
The project was carried out by using the design-thinking process. I performed my secondary research and primary research through means like site visits, and investigative prototyping. Following this, I created User Journey Maps to understand the average Metro user. This was followed by ideating and sketching out my ideas. The final prototype was made by laser-cutting the outer box, and within it, installing the RFID sensor which I coded using an Arduino Uno. The interface and prototype for the screens were made using Adobe Xd and the stickers were designed in Adobe Photoshop.
Click-through Prototype
Process
To start this project, I was given the following as my brief -
After reading and re-reading the brief, I broke it down into the main areas of focus and the important aspects to take into consideration when going about the project.
Unpacking the brief
As Namma Metro, the Metro Rail of Bangalore was the context, it was looked at as a whole through various lenses such as - Self, Societal and Ecological. This was done to help look at the metro in various perspectives, by zooming in and out of the context.
Personality Mapping
Ecological connection to metro
Societal connection to metro
Relation of self with the metro
Community and interaction mapping
I then decided to structure my secondary research and go about it in the following way. To read the secondary research in detail, please visit - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EtGM1obq7OyBkZKwPRd0ecg3l-5_uBn3
After beginning the secondary research, Primary research was carried out on the site of inquiry, the Cubbon Park Metro Station.
Touchpoints and areas of interventions are located by creating User Journey Maps of the Commuters in the Metro Space.
Following are two User Journey maps of a metro commuter, Map 1 showing commuter entering the Cubbon Park Metro Station, to boarding a train and exiting, and Map 2 showing a commuter entering the Cubbon Park Metro Station in a train, till they exit the station -
Map 1
Map 2
In both the maps, the options in Green represent the more likely action taken by the commuters. Orange boxes highlight a rare or odd scenario.
From insights drawn during observation in the space of inquiry as well as from primary research techniques like Fly on the Wall and Think Aloud, goals of the commuters have been mapped out.
My goals for the project were also mapped out to help set a premise for ideation on the context. Following this, I mapped out some aspects I definitely want to include in my ideas,
Design Goals are also known as targets for the design work. Following are the design goals that have been chosen and set for this project.
1. Usability
Due to various kinds of people from different backgrounds, the design should be easy to use and grasp by all.
2. Cohesion
Cohesion in a way that the design should allow interaction with people from various backgrounds to come together to achieve a common goal (either knowingly / unknowingly).
3. Engagement
Should be a fun and positive experience generating engagement for the Metro users. Main goal is to engage users and make them interact with others either in the Metro Station space or outside.
Should be a fun and positive experience generating engagement for the Metro users. Main goal is to engage users and make them interact with others either in the Metro Station space or outside.
4. Technological
In the space of inquiry, through the design, the users should be able to question their dependency on their mobile phones and purpose of isolating themselves from their surroundings. The design should also have the capability to allow multi user play.
In the space of inquiry, through the design, the users should be able to question their dependency on their mobile phones and purpose of isolating themselves from their surroundings. The design should also have the capability to allow multi user play.
5. Learnability
The design should be most self explanatory and intuitive. If on-boarding is required, it should be done with ease to the user.
The design should be most self explanatory and intuitive. If on-boarding is required, it should be done with ease to the user.
6. Transparency
The design should fit seamlessly in the metro environment and not cause hassle for the system and routines.
I had many phases of ideation. I first came up with as many initial ideas as possible, over 20 of them, and wrote very briefly what they are, along with a visual representation, as seen below.
In the second phase of ideation, the rough ideas were looked at through a critical lens and 3 ideas were narrowed down on the basis of functionality, relevance to context, availability of materials and feasibility.
Each narrowed down idea has been further iterated upon to consider different variations.
Each narrowed down idea has been further iterated upon to consider different variations.
After this, I realised that I was looking more into the functionality and how I must execute the ideas rather than looking into the narratives of ideas. Thus, I have further detailed out my chosen ideas.
After this, I made my final journey maps on how the commuter can make use of the entire system. I made two maps, one that describes the "Read" function and one that describes the "Write" function.
Read function journey map
Write function journey map
Why is FoodHub needed?
- Food eases stress
- Helps share culture
- Helps tackle nostalgia to the motherland
- Create memories
- Helps share culture
- Helps tackle nostalgia to the motherland
- Create memories
Future Plans -
- To find a better way to incorporate the Metro as a connector to different FoodSpots.
- To use badges instead of stickers.
- Look into other forms and structures for the final outcome.
- Use NFC instead of RFID and find a way to replace cards with another artifact or incorporate into the metro card.
- To use badges instead of stickers.
- Look into other forms and structures for the final outcome.
- Use NFC instead of RFID and find a way to replace cards with another artifact or incorporate into the metro card.
To access the Adobe Xd Prototype screens, click the button -
