Convini: A vending machine to share warmth
Presentation Video
About Project
Objective
Design a vending machine business and use systems thinking to understand and design the system.
Timeline
4 weeks (Nov 5 — Nov 30)
Skills
Systems thinking, secondary research, personas, journey maps, systems diagrams, visual design, presentation.
Tools
Figma, Mural, Keynote, Quick Time Player, Premiere Pro
What I have Encountered
Identify Problem & Research
As a current resident in an apartment in Texas, I have encountered lacking interaction between apartment residents.
Secondary research showing tips to become friends apartment neighbours implied strong desire of individuals who wants to have a friend in their apartment complex.
Another problem was that people with bad cooking skills don’t cook in the kitchen; rather, they order food via delivery food apps. In some cases, people have a small or limited kitchen which discourages them from cooking. Or they did not have an interest in cooking.
Business Proposal
Business Solution
The Convini vending machine tries to solve the lack of relationships between residents and lack of cooking ability by providing a venue in an apartment complex that shares homemade food.
Business Goals
Provide a venue to share homemade food.
Contribute to establishing relationships between residents.
Target Audience
There are two distinct audiences:
1. Buyers: Apartment Residents who lack cooking skill or availability
2. Sellers: Apartment Residents who like to cook and interact with other residents
Profitability
In terms of profitability, I explored which aspect of the service might be possible to turn it to profit.
Stocking Fee
Vending machine owners earn profit from stocking fees as sellers use pods to sell their food. Since the vending machine with a temperature control feature costs high, there will be a small fee to return on the investment.
Food and Drink containers
Sellers have two options: a) Cater the containers by themselves, b) Get custom containers from the vending machine business. Custom containers may reduce the hassle of the sellers, make them solely focus on producing food.
Paper bag/carrier
Paper bags are another profitable source. Buyers safely carry their food to home and avoid burn or holding hot food for too long.
As the system relies on sellers to provide stock(food), there is no cost on stock preparation. To draw active participation of the sellers, they might earn a high percentage of earnings from the price.(earn $8.5(77%) out of MSRP $11)
For buyers, the price will be competitive while ensuring profitability. There is a reference price based on the food delivery app Uber Eats in the information model.
I examined the cost to run the business: upfront and fixed cost.
High Upfront Cost
Temperature controllable vending machine costs more than an existing vending machine. However, it ensures improved quality of food storage and hygiene.
Human Resources: Salary
Technicians, Management Staff, are essential to maintain the functionality of the vending machine. In terms of user interface and user experience, the business needs designers, programmers, and customer support.
Journey: Build a System
Stakeholders
To understand the system, I identified stakeholders who are consisted in the system of the vending machine. Here are the stakeholders within the system.
Systems Model: Stock and Flow Diagram and Feedback Loop
To examine stock and inventory management, I drew a Stock and Flow Diagram and a Feedback Loop. Both diagrams show the factors that affect the target audience: buyers and sellers. The stock and flow diagram suggested the possible perspective from the buyers on making purchases, such as buying multiple items at once or price or freshness.
Feedback Loop focused on the producers, suggesting making me think of the selling point of the business to them. For instance, more products sold increases the revenue of Vending machines and producers. The increased revenue becomes an incentive to potential producers, which increases the food suppliers and stabilizes the supply of inventory. The increased number of suppliers may avoid the unappealing situation to buyers as there is little inventory available in the vending machine.
Information Model
At this point, I had a brainstorming session in my mind on the system. To get a visible overview of vending machine business and exploration of diverse elements in the system, I created an Information model. This graphic model gave me the insight to consider the functions of the vending machine, such as hygiene, payment, and touchpoint. The model also suggests thoughts on how to provide a good user experience for sellers and buyers, which is shown on the Customer Support and Supply block in the model. It also helps develop the features that allow interaction between sellers and buyers, such as review and Seller rating.
Persona
Previous diagrams allowed me to know how my machine works and the system it exists in. Then I worked on personas, and customer journey maps to understand the emotional state of the target audience: buyer and seller, and vending machine owner. Personas were based on secondary research, showing each individual's attributes, goals, and frustration. The quote on each persona represents his/her context and need.
Customer Journey Map
With personas showing more personality, I drafted customer journey maps, which show the emotional reaction and interaction between humans and vending machines, organised in multiple stages. The Journey map for Sellers has six stages: encounter, Explore, Preparation, Produce&Sell, Earn, Feedback/Interact. The Journey map for Buyers has five stages: Encounter, Explore&Browse, Purchase, Feedback/Interact. The journey map gave me possible pain points while using the vending machine. For instance, buyers might concern about the hygiene and freshness of the food. The pod may show freshness. However, it might be better to have written information about freshness.
Then I revised the customer journey map for buyers to make it visually better and simple to understand the content.
Ecosystem Model
Based on the stages on customer journey maps, I created an ecosystem to create a visual understanding of how every stakeholder interacts and participates in the stages in the journey map via arrows. The internal loop shows the relationship between sellers and buyers. In contrast, the exterior side of the loop shows the relationship between other stakeholders and the audience: sellers and buyers, including the stages of their own. The ecosystem model allowed me to effectively understand the system and stakeholders’ relationship and apply this understanding to the prototype phase.
Visual Mockup: Vending Machine
Then I worked on a visual mockup of vending machine to envision the physical model in a real environment to demonstrate the user experience. At the same time, the audience uses the vending machine.
It has three stages: Order, Prep, and Enjoy.
Customers order via touch screen and pick up a paper bag(buyers) or container(sellers), then they can pick up the food from individual pods.
I got feedback from my instructor that the order process needs to be clear on picking up the food as the order section and the pickup section with pods are not right next to each other.
Wayfinding
Moreover, I considered wayfinding how people find the vending machine, whether it is signage or affordance.
Task Flows
People perform various tasks: browse, add to cart, checkout, pick up while using the vending machine. Task flows show the whole process of the on-site experience of both sellers and buyers.
Wireframe
Then I created wireframes to visualise the task flows. It gave me an initial design concept: using green and yellow for main colours, as the colours are known to be used in food-related service.
Prototype: On-screen Experience
Then I focused on prototyping screen mockups for the buyers, as I had a clear idea of demonstrating the on-screen experience.
Customer Journey Map for Buyer
Final Prototype
I addressed the concerns found in the journey map and other diagrams.
Hygiene elements
Icons for Displaying Allergy Info
Due Date
Interaction between sellers and buyers element
Leave a Feedback Button
User Experience element
Open pod button
Sound notification when not picking up food
Vending machine experience Survey
Process Book
What I Learned
This was my second project from my Systems class at CCA, so I still adapted to systems thinking. I had used some of these diagrams before, such as systems models, but only to understand an existing system — not to map the system of one of my own designs. The objective of this project was more than running a business and using systems diagrams to dissect the system(of vending machine, in this case) and explain the way it works to others.
This project challenged me to view the design from a diverse perspective to deal with stakeholders' stakeholders while being profitable. For instance, the customer journey map made me learn more emotional aspects, which affect the product's user experience. The ecosystem model was another diagram that helped me understand the complex relationship of every stakeholder that simultaneously exists throughout the steps, much easier with the visual expression. I learned that UI design is just the tip of the iceberg.
It seems like the prototype lacks features that contribute to establishing the relationships between the buyers and sellers. I might revise this project to achieve one of the business goals: Provide opportunities to establish the relationship between apartment residents as a seller and a buyer.
This project made me a better presenter, and it gave me the tools to communicate my project in more depth.
If you would want to look at the short How I did it post, click here