// January 2021 – April 2021 (15 weeks)
Timeline
My Role
// Solo designer, service design project
The Problem
There is a lack of healthy food options in Canada and especially in most busy downtown areas. I wanted to create a similar experience that is in most Asian countries, where people could order food and pick it up warm from a hot food vending machine. While trying to provide lower fees to businesses and customers, and being able to supply customers with healthy food options with low wait times so that they can pick up the food and enjoy it.
Research Plan
My research goal is to figure out ways where local restaurants can sell their food from a pick-up vending machine station in busy areas. I believe this would be perfect in big cities where people don’t have a lot of time to go out for lunch and get a healthy meal. This solves that problem by preordering food to pick it up or simply having the vending machine restocked with restaurant popular dishes. This would be perfect for getting more money back into the pockets of the local restaurants and away from big food delivery companies. Instead of taking a percentage of each meal sold, I was thinking there could be simply a subscription fee for the restaurants. My main focus on this research will be the customer since they’re the target market. I want to know if people would be interested in this concept, what would make it more convenient for them, what they might feel like the vending machine has and how I can think about incorporating some of their ideas.
The Solution
Helping local
Ordering Process
// showcasing local restaurants, which will encourage buying from local businesses.
// Promoting healthier food.
// Helping people in a rush to pick up healthy food if they have short lunch breaks.
// Putting money back into the pockets of the community.
Pick Up
// Vending machines will have hot and cold sections where customers can pick up food without it getting cold.
// Utilizing UV lights in the vending machine to sanitize it.
// Having special codes so that no one will steal the food, while also incorporating a QR code to scan if you do not want to input a code.
Restaurant Backend
// Creating a simple way for restaurant owners to add and take things off their menus.
// Simple user friendly environment through common icons and interaction.
// Being able to real time edit meal descriptions.
Order Processing Backend
// Being able to see live what orders are coming in, and how many are still in need of processing.
// Being able to delay an order incase of high traffic and cancel if items have runout.
// At the end of a day you can see how many tickets and orders have been played along side with profit display.
Process
My research process for this study is using secondary data to see how other hot food vending machine companies operate, and what their strengths and pain points are. I will also be interviewing restaurant owners that have used apps like Uber Eats to understand what their pain points are since during covid it seems like a lot of businesses are getting taken advantage of. Also, I will be interviewing people that have a background within the food distribution industry. Using the data gathered from this to create a service design report, and add more data as it comes in.
Sign-in
For the sign-up process, we made it simple for the user, you simply click “get started” and you get brought to the sign-up process. You can then pick between a few options to sign in, followed up with adding your location and you are done!
Pick-up
In the pickup process, the user finds a vending machine within their distance. Afterward, they are offered an array of available food options. They can create an order or purchase what’s already inside, to go ahead and pickup.
Pre-ordering
When preordering the user gets to look at restaurant suggestions in their area. Once they pick a meal they will proceed to pay, which will be followed up by a time estimate and loading screen to let you know when your meal was delivered to the vending machine.
Check-out
When completing an order you will receive the box number in which your meal is located, and the password to opening your box.
Join the team
To sign your restaurant up for this service, you can simply go to the account tab. Once tapped “become a partner” you will have to fill out some information about your restaurant. Afterward, we will contact you with a contract, and if you’d like to proceed we will send you a tablet that will handle your orders.
Tablet orders
You will receive new orders that you can either accept or cancel. Once the order is prepared you can wait for a few orders to stack up first, then a courier will come by to pick up the orders. You can have a mix of preorders and suggested items to place into the vending machine.
Tablet menu
In the menu you will be able to add all your menu items to the interface, you can even toggle the eyeballs to hide items off the app, in case you run out of that meal or ingredients.
Research
Interview Results
Interviewing Professionals & Restaurant Owners
After interviewing people who are in the food distribution industry and local restaurant owners, these were some of my results.
• The vending machine idea could be promoted in a way to increase socializing since so many people are craving socialization
• It can become the evolution of food trucks, where people can meet up and social distance while eating together
• Since Covid, local businesses have been getting taken advantage of since now they have to use apps like Uber Eats to thrive, but Uber Eats takes a big percentage of the earnings from the restaurants
• Can help local businesses market themselves to people who never tried them before
• Making sure to figure out a way to have the machine sanitized to prevent bacteria
• Making sure to have a way that people won’t break or destroy the machine
• Instead of having random people signing up to deliver food to the machine, make them go through proper training since most businesses suffer because of the random delivery driver. If a driver makes a mistake and the meal gets refunded when using other food delivery apps the restaurant is the one that takes the hit and has to reimburse the user, the driver, and the app for their services
• This could be a great solution to workplaces like hospitals since a lot of the workers, work late and aren’t able to eat a proper meal, and already rely on vending machines The interviews, really broadened my insight on how much other delivery companies are taking advantage of local business, what shocked me was that if anything goes wrong the restaurants are the ones that take the blame and have to pay, while the company operating the 6 app doesn’t have to do anything but provide the “service” as the middle man between the restaurant and user. I like the idea of this becoming one day an extension of food trucks where people can meet up and be able to distance themselves while eating a meal together.
Secondary Research
Findings
What I have learned is that a lot of the hot vending machines usually have the sauce separated from the food to help prolong it, this way when the customer gets it they can mix it all themselves and enjoy a hot meal.
From Farmers Fridge I liked their idea of having a predictive algorithm that helps manage inventory, it understands what food will most likely sell the best that day if they should restock it and when it’s going bad. They even have a system in place that if the food is getting old, the machine locks the food so it can’t be bought, and they donate the food to local shelters instead of throwing it out and causing food waste. Furthermore, their containers are 100% recyclable, with a built-in recycling bin in the vending machine to reduce waste, all together they only produce 5% food waste.
What I believe the biggest challenge might be is the stigma of healthy eating from a vending machine which Farm Fridge is having a hard time with as well. During my research, I came across another hot food vending machine company called JC Meal Box they were very similar to all the rest, but on a much bigger scale and a ghost kitchen kind of idea, but what I found fascinating was that they were using inside the vending machine a UV light sterilization system to keep the food from being compromised during COVID. Lastly, during my research I found a vending machine company called Hot Spot, they hire drivers and train them to be food delivery drivers to the vending machine.
Problem Statment & Solution
Results
From all the companies I’ve researched I have taken out the key features they use and ideas they implemented. My plan for the vending machine is for it to have multiple compartments to keep the food warm, with a UV light to sterilize the food containers. The UV light is the perfect idea for creating a clean sterile environment since people would be placing and taking food out often, its also not extremely expensive to place UV lights, and this would help adhere to the health and safety guideline since hot food vending machines go by the same standards are restaurants. A problem that I believe would be hard to face is making sure the food can last as long as possible, the solution to this would be to create containers that we would send out to the restaurants when they sign up with us, the containers would have layers, for example, let us say someone orders ramen the container would have on the very base layer the broth, with a secondary layer of noodles, meat, and veggies, then once you get your container you simply mix it all, this helps prevent the food from going bad. You might consider them wasteful, but within each vending machine, there will be a slot for people to recycle their containers.
The way the sign up will work for restaurants would be that they pay for a subscription fee, which will include vending machine maintenance cost, service fee, and with the subscription fee, we will include containers for the vending machine (if the restaurant runs out of containers we will provide them with more).
On the main page you will add your address, after it will show you where the closest vending machine is to your location, following up with local restaurants you can order from. Once an order is placed they will receive a code that is used to unlock their box with their meal inside. With a special message that reveals where the recycling compartment is in the vending machine.
How might we...
How might we create a simple way to provide healthy food in high traffic areas quickly, while helping local businesses?
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe this will be a great way for people in high traffic areas that are on the go or too busy to make lunch and dinner. Using a hot food vending machine we can promote healthier food options to the public while helping local businesses. Furthermore, there is so much more you can do, for example at Humber College, you could partner up with gourmet express where the cooking students could sell the meals they make out of the vending machine to local students; since students are notorious for not cooking for themselves or unhealthy eating habits they can turn to the vending machine to sell food. This will benefit the cooking students and the students that live on campus or near to be able to eat healthier and bring revenue to the school.
If I had more time...
• Dig deeper into the secondary research regarding vending machine providers.
• Interview vending machine manufacturers.
• Better adhere to WCAG standards.
• Speak with subject matter experts and expand on white paper research
Takeaways & What I’d Do Differently
From working on this project I learned that a lot of local businesses are getting taken advantage of by big food delivery companies, I was shocked to learn that they’re the ones that have to pay for everything that goes wrong. What I wish I would have done differently would be to have started early on by trying to contact vending machine manufacturers to learn the inner workings of them to better understand all my limitations.