The project is credited to team: Peaches Zheng, Fatme Elkadry, Ravin Perera & Hannah Mousek, for more information please download the report booklet.
As a team, each of us played different role in accomplishing specific tasks. For example, I was in charge of the visual elements, Fatme was a good writer, Ravin was in charge of 3d rendering, and Hannah excelled in Photoshop. During the research process, I gained new perspectives in how in-depth interview with the users could help me understand the needs of the users and identify the problem. I also learnt to document the progress and memorable moments of team collaboration though a blog. Using a storyboard with a persona in the presentation was one effective strategy that I learnt from this project. In this way of presenting, the audience was more engaged as the persona evoked a sense of empathy. Lastly, the most important thing that I learnt from this project was the importance of team corporation. Without such efficient collaboration between ourselves we wouldn't have came up with this solution.
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The Edmonton Food Bank (EFB) provides food for 25,000 Edmontonians monthly. It
plays a critical role in the establishment of a healthy livelihood for families who cannot
afford to buy or access nutritional food. Although the EFB provides the comfort and
security that comes with the attainment of nutritious food, the environment within the
EFB waiting area is quite discomforting and unwelcoming. The waiting area’s dreary
environment drains morale and energy. As a group, we targeted the problem of the
monotonous environment and redesigned the walls of the waiting area to allow it to
be an interactive, comfortable, and welcoming environment for the clients of the EFB.
We decided to tackle the problem of the environment of the waiting area because of
time and space constraints. This decision led us into our new design question: “How might we foster a welcoming environment in the Edmonton Food Bank waiting area?”
We determined that the best way to implement a comfortable, welcoming environment within the waiting area of the EFB is to intervene on the walls of the space:
We decided to change the wall colour in EFB as appropriate colours play positive role in people's emotion according to various studies.
Adding A Greeting Board, a chalkboard behind the reception desk could be used in multiple ways to increase morale, educate the clients, welcome the clients, and foster a feeling of community. The greeting board is important because it could play a large role in positively distracting and educating the clients and allowing them to feel welcomed by the space around them.
The implementation of an activity within the EFB waiting area that both the adults and children could focus on has the potential of creating a collaborative environment, while also serving as a distraction from the bores of waiting. We concluded that allowing clients to colour on a wall within the waiting area could be an inclusive, accessible, and low maintenance activity.
This is a follow-up individual project for the EFB. I decided to focus on the younger user group. Aimed at an educational purpose, I created a storybook demonstrating how food is prepared at EFB giving the children the opportunities to gain insights on the process and to feel more connected with the community of warm-hearted volunteers.
In doing these projects for the EFB, whether or not they are executed, I felt I was contributing socially in a different way than before.
Concerned by how many plastic bags being consumed everyday, I used an online survey as a way to investigate peoples opinion on using plastic bags and to understand why people made decisions on whether to use reusable bags. From the survey, I identified the problem that the existing reusable bags do not encourage the user to reuse.
From there I did a ideation focusing on the portability of the bag: there is an additional strap with snap buckle on the regular reusable bag. This allows the user to roll the bag up and attach it on their backpacks, purses etc.
To manufacture this ideation in a sustainable way, I found Biomid. It is made of lumber industry by-products and it is 100% sustainable. However, my design requires an additional snap buckle which could not be produced sustainably.
Therefore, I had to gear toward a different direction: creating a DIY instruction that can be distributed in places like fabric hobby stores to encourage people to make their own reusable bags, as being reusable in a practical sense. And it can be also spread on the internet in which people can download freely.
Only four basic components are needed to make an awesome bag. And people are encouraged to try with creativity. From the process, portability, creativity, and pleasure are maximized. The psychological pleasure of making a bag creatively and ideological pleasure of being green drive people to create and to use and to reuse the bag.