I enrolled into the free online course ‘Design Kit: The Course for Human-Centered Design’, presented by the world renowned design thinking advocate, IDEO. I’ve previously done design thinking workshops during my internship at SAP, but thought I could definitely improve my skills in this area.
A major facet of the design thinking process is a strong emphasis on collaboration, hence I met my 5 teammates in a local Meetup event, we all come from different background which allows us thinking from different perspectives in problem solving process.
We worked on a challenge called “How might we provide healthier food options to people in need”. We targeted this “people in need” to tertiary students with the assumption that they have problem with having and maintaining healthy eating habits due to lack of education and time.
INSPRIATION PHASE
We did a brainstorm of our current knowledge, assumptions and things we wanted to find out more about. We then ascertained some "buckets" we could aim to "fill" with information that we collected form interviews and observations.
Who did we talk to?
- People to learn from (Students, parents,"healthy people")
- Expert (Nutritionist)
Where did we observe?
- In context immersions (Supermarket, university canteen, gym, library)
We collected all the information from our various interviews and observations and a few different categories then emerged that lead to our key insights.
“I know it's unhealthy but I don't care”
A few of the interviewees had a common theme of enjoying the taste of unhealthy food and eating it anyway even when they acknowledge it's unhealthy.
“I‘ll have ice cream when my dad does”
We found that one of the interviewees would have unhealthy food when their family did - this was consistent with other interviewees who also tended to make less healthy food choices when they were in a social setting.
“I snack on chips and sweet things when I study”
We found that all the students that one group interviewed all snacked on chips or other sweet junk food whilst studying to give them more energy.
Key Insights
Theme: Social Settings
Insight 1:
People say they tend to eat unhealthy when in social settings due to the influence of others.
Insight 2:
A lot of student eat socially, as they may be living away from their family, they might eat with housemates, or classmates。
Insight 3:
Students' who live at home will be heavily influenced by what their parent eat.
Theme: Apathy
Insight 1:
How good something tastes exceeds people's concern about how healthy it is.
Insight 2:
Healthy is just not a priority to them, as most are well aware of how unhealthy their current diet is, but consciously choose not to improve.
Insight 3:
Some continue eating unhealthy due to habit.
Theme: Time & Convenience
Insight 1:
Many live busy lifestyles, juggling part time work with study, and have little time for healthy meal preparation.
Insight 2:
Many will just choose to eat at a certain restaurant due to proximity, whether it be healthy or unhealthy
Insight 3:
Many seem to think time and convenience are the barriers to eating a more healthy diet.
How might we questions
IDEATION PHASE
Product Overview
Prototype & questions to answer
We conducted a guerrilla user testing in RMIT building and State Library of Victoria, gathered the feedbacks and prepared for the future iterations.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR FUTURE ITERATIONS
For future iterations, we should break down the prototyping process into multiple tests which aim to answer the multiple assumptions this whole idea presents, rather than testing the whole idea in 1 prototype.
There are many assumed behaviours of the customer which need to work in order for the whole idea to work (let along technical/ business challenges.)
Need to devise a test for each stage outlined in the user journey/ storyboard, then evaluate from there.
Some of the assumptions we needed to validate include:
1. Students are will to eat a whole meal in a study area.
2. Student will notice a large poster board in the study area
3. Students are willing and patient enough to download an app and scan to order a meal via a method they have not encountered before.
4. Students will understand the concept, or be intrigued enough to find out from just a visual board.
5. Students are willing to go to a certain location every time to order from that particular provider, as opposed to other meal delivery apps which offer more variety and flexibility.
6. Students are willing to proceed with an online transaction of an unfamiliar brand.
We should also tests that aim for an observable reaction, not an opinion, without leading or influencing the subject. Prototypes or tests which require too much pushing and asking for opinion inevitably lead to biased opinions.
