Project Objective

4 team members from different colleges, CGU, NTHU and NCKU taking this mooc as a side project and try to deal with the problem: “How could we help people choose harmless vegetables and fruits?” by the human-centered design method taught in the course.

Personal Objective

I was the initiator of this project due to my determination of being able to fully understand and implement human-centered design. I was really fascinated by human-centered design after reading Change by Design written by Tim Brown. Therefore, when I saw this course on Acumen, I tried hard to find people who are also passionate about the course to go through it thoroughly.

The Process of HCD course

Course overview

Design Kit: The Course for Human-Centered Design is a seven-week curriculum offered by IDEO and +Acumen that introduce the concepts of human-centered design and how this approach can be used to create innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions for social change.
Each week, we need to read the material and workshop guide first, and take turns to lead the workshop.

Design Challenge

How could we help people choose harmless vegetables and fruits?

We discussed a lot to frame our own design challenge that would not be too broad or too narrow. The final challenge was selected due to the increasing problems of food safety which we all see it as an important issue.

Research

Interviews of five vegetable buyers, one extreme case (always eats out), one expert (vegetable vendor). Three field observations (Wellcome supermarket、traditional market、Organic Health Mart). One analogous inspiration location (library).

In this inspiration phase, we tried to get access to those who we thought we could learn from, built interview guide, conduct interviews, and immerse ourselves in context.

Insight

People judge vegetables and fruits by first impression.
People care about the feeling of reunion and contribution to family.
People enjoy more than buying vegetables in traditional markets.
People’s values and interests reflect on what they eat.

In the Ideaiton phase, we started to dig into our research to find out insights. We found insight from four parts of our research, information, family, interaction, and lifestyle. Then, we chose the insight statements that touched us the most. I think it was the most challenging part in this course. How to see the true meaning of people's behavior in context and the quotes in interviews? The process was tough, but I find it really fascinating to successfully translate the findings into insights.

Information
1. People believe information based on existing knowledge and experiences.
2. The information about vegetables and fruits is not transparent. 
3. People don’t actually care about the provided information on the Traceability. 
4. People judge vegetables and fruits by first impression.

Family
1. People care about the feeling of reunion and contribute to family. 
2. People’s values and behaviors are deeply influenced by their family. 
3. Women are always in charge of diet in Taiwanese family.

Interaction
1. People buy vegetables and fruits from the vendors they believe or in the place where they feel comfortable. 
2. Vendors are pleasant with loyal buyers.
3. There is gap between traditional markets and young generations.
4. People enjoy more than buying vegetables in traditional markets.

Lifestyle
1. Some people give up cooking because they are tired and lack of time after work.
2. People’s values and interests reflect on what they eat. 
3. People change dietary behaviors while facing serious health issues.
4. People create new experience while cooking together. 
5. People’s dietary behaviors are influenced by their living environment.

Opportunities for Design

HMW help people choose harmless vegetables and fruits intuitively?
HMW involve families in caring about “eating harmless”?
HMW create an educational and connective purchasing journey for people?
HMW influence people’s values by improving their dietary behaviors?

Later, we convert all the insight statements in to "How migh we" questions. I found this method quite useful. When you ask questions, you start to think more broadly.

Solution

Gesture monitor, Body sensor, Turning the abstract concept of components into audible voice, Theme recipe, Promotion project in traditional market

In the end, we generate several promising solutions. Gesture monitor can identify your interaction with vegetable or fruit and give the information you might want to know. Body sensor could inspect your health condition when you walk through it and recommend what you need to eat. Turning the abstract concept of components into audible voice is an interesting way to convey information. Theme recipe tries to influence people's eating behavior.

What I've Learned

Teamwork, Human-Centered Design

As an initiator of this project, I was really lucky to find members specializing in different background from different colleges. We were all unfamiliar to each other at first, but we end up having a great time working together. Everyone led the workshop in an organized way. And we checked whether we were in the same direction, whether we fully understood what each other's talking about. To communicate accurately, we even broke down each sentence into single words and made sure if everyone's thinking about the same meaning.

Reflection

In the inspiration phase, we failed to interview one farmer and one social enterprise dealing with food safety issues, then we got something wrong in the ideation phase. Our insights didn't correspond to our initial design challenge that much. It was really a pity that we didn't conduct our research completely.