An interactive kiosk to reduce food-insecurity.

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What if you had to choose between your next meal and your family's healthcare?

What if you had to choose between ensuring a roof above your head and filling your child's lunch box?

What would you feel like if you were unsure where your next meal would come from?

This state is called being Food Insecure and 1 out of 7 Americans have to face this everyday.

We found our problem space, now?

BRAINSTOORRRMMM!

Three brainstorm sessions were conducted.

First one to list out as many ideas possible, practical or impractical.

Second one was after discussing the ideas from the first session with a few peers and getting their feedback.

Third one was to narrow down to three concrete solutions after the contextual inquiry and interviews were conducted.

Three main ideas:

-->Kiosk linked to a web-based program

-->Mobile-application to facilitate food donation

-->Smart badge linked to a web-based program

CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY AND INTERVIEWS

“I have a son, I’m a mother and a grandmother, but I don’t want to ask my son for help, ‘cause he’s struggling and mama can manage on her own.”

-A woman who lost her job and is in need of food and shelter

Staff of non-profit organizations (Second Helpings, The Julian Center)

Staff of Kroger

Staff of Hotels/Restaurants

Homeless People

Insights from the Interview:

1.There is no lack of food, just an unfair distribution and improper management of it.

2.Non-profits do not have an efficient way of reaching out to people who are not part of any other non-profit organisation.

3.Non-profits, despite having many volunteers, are still understaffed.

4.There’s not much help homeless people can get if they’re not part of a nonprofit organisation.

5.Homeless people have limited awareness of the help they can get.

6.Popular non-profit organisations are almost always full.

After Data Collection? We Change Our Data to Meaningful Information!

Affinity Diagramming

Four broad categories were identified

Monetary:

"Homeless" "Poor Neighbourhood" "Nonprofit Cannot Afford Enough Storage Space" "Jobless" "Low capacity to house homeless people"

Technology :

"Homeless/Jobless:Can use smartphones" "Old volunteers not comfortable with smartphone" "Lack of awareness" "Lack of means to contact help"

Manpower :

"Not enough volunteers" "Not enough donors" "Not enough food rescued"

Social Stigma :

"Unwilling to deal directly with homeless people" "Unwilling to ask help" "Corporate Policies"

Empathy Mapping

Empathy Map created while working on it as a class project

Empathy Map created while working for communityInnovate Indy Healthy Food Access Challenge

Now that we're getting to know our user pretty well, what solution would be best for them?

64% of people with lower income own a smartphone (Poushter, 2016.) From the interview, our participant mentioned knowing how to use smartphones like iPhone. The issue is that they do not have access to internet through it as they cannot afford a service. The Smart Badge idea is somewhat similar to Food Stamps that are provided by the government, it still does not make the users aware of all existing options where they can get a free healthy meal, so the interactive public kiosk(The Food Artery) was the best choice.

Accessible

This solution would be available to everyone in need.

Design

This solution’s design is similar to other mobile/tablet interfaces. Since 64% of people with lower income own a smartphone, this would be near-intuitive for them.

Communication and connection

This solution would facilitate connections between those in need and nonprofits to obtain food.

Information

This solution goes beyond giving the name and directions of the place offering food; it also lists needed requirements, among other useful information.

Customizability

This solution would enable the obtainment of results that match their circumstances.

Three main features of the system

1. It lets homeless/food-insecure people access real-time updated information about nearby food donation locations without the need for registering into the system.

2. If one registers, it gives a personalized list taking into account dietary restrictions and medical conditions and the documents the person has necessary to avail free food from these suggested locations.

3. Once registered, the user also has the option of reserving a spot for a convenient (predetermined) food delivery locations (by non-profit organizations like Second Helpings) in case the suggested locations are too far away.

Let's draw some storyboards and create a journey map to better understand the context where the system will be used!

Storyboard 1:

Here, a homeless person uses the public, stationed device to check availability of food and where. He visits the organization where food is available and is served food.

Storyboard 2:

Here, a homeless person uses the public, stationed device to check availability of food and where. He visits the organization where food is available and is served food.

Journey Map