APPLIED THEORY IN DESIGN: NEXUS
A step toward creating a more transparent and sustained food system.
Group Project: Team of 4
Project Duration: Sept - Nov 2018
My Role: User Research, UX Design, Project Management, Concept Development.
OVERVIEW
We started out with:
A brief of “FOOD” was given to us, we looked at the food chain as a process of start (grower) to end (consumer) and sensed a gap between the two directly.
So our first step was to look at the current trends in understanding the who, what, why around food eating habits in order to ensure our direction was right to go ahead with.
Who?
Millennials and Generation Z: Young Adults.
Why?
They were more aware of the implications of unhealthy eating habits after seeing their elders go through things that came out of as a negative effect of not eating right.
What?
They are very much interested in knowing about what they consume and were willing to make the effort to stay healthy and fit.
CHALLENGE
How might we redefine the perceptions or the threats based on the current information available by creating an open source network?
The objective
This study was to experience and get to know the culture around healthy eating habits. As our research went forward, our focus moved to include the culture of wellness within the city of Savannah, Georgia. Through intensive research and analysis, we were able to gain a thorough comprehension of what it means to be Healthy. During our research process, we diverged to develop how they relate to wellness and an attempt toward healthy lifestyles/ changes.
Our research (qualitative & quantitative)
A majority showed us that not a lot of people believe and trust the information given out by corporate companies.
SOLUTION/ PROTOTYPE OFFERING
The goal was to connect the Farmers to the Consumer without/ fewer intermediaries in between the process.
The solution consists of three different designs that work together.
One is a Snapshot labeling system, that gives the user a quick and clear overview of important data about the food, increasing transparency and adding value to the brand.
The next is the Nexus app, where farmers can sell their products to consumers without intermediaries. The products are primarily filtered by the amount of information provided to fill up the Snapshot label.
The third is the Nexus Food Banks, outdoor refrigerators placed for the communities at various locations, where the farmers can leave their products in specific areas of the city, thereby reducing distances, closing gaps with an attempt to reduce food deserts.
In the Nexus app:
The products are primarily filtered by the amount of information provided to fill up the Snapshot label (the hexagonal shape label).
Also, the consumers looking to buy vegetables are shown a grade (A - being excellent to D being bad) for the quality of the vegetable which is generated by analytics once the seller (farmers) puts in data about how they have grown the produce.
PROCESS
We had adapted to the double diamond framework which allowed us to diverge into the area of focus and converge to further define the focus using the understanding that we obtained from the previous steps.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Tools Used:
Buzz reports + Popular media scan
Keyword Bibliography
Convergence map
Trends expert interviews
Swot analysis
Subject matter expert interview
Field visit
5 Human factors
Ethnographic interviews
Image sorting
Activity networks
Life cycle mind mapping
ERAF systems diagram
Insight sorting
Persona definition & creation
Opportunity mind map
Ideation session
Concept sketches & sorting
Morphological synthesis
Bold text are the tools that helped us to arrive at end prototype.
LEARNINGS
- To be able to really let go of the ideas that you love in order to move ahead with a better and a more suitable idea that not only is different but also meets with our goals and values.
- Learning to divide and conquer the work when conflicting schedules arise.
- Utilizing new tools for project development in research and also for prototype development.