Synthesis, HMW Questions, Top 3 Ideas, Rapid Prototyping
Synthesis
Learnings
When we started to download all the bits of information we learned from the interviews, we began with our own most memorable impressions from the experience. Then, we dove into our learnings in depth. It was apparent that there were themes as reoccurring information were being said by our participants.
Themes
We grouped our learnings into categories that made it visually easier to digest the information. These themes included meal preparation, food I like, perception of self, perception of healthy eating, eating vs studying, family, job, healthy eating reasons, challenges, food selection.
Insights and How might We’s
Here we compiled all the information in each theme and formed one statement as a result of reoccurring information. Generating “How Might We” questions helped guide us to think about each statement in relation to our design problem. By identifying those questions that resonate closely with the design problem, we can then think about solutions that answer those specific questions.
Meal prep: Students pack home-cooked lunches prepared by a family member.
HMW: How might we get students readily prepared to pack healthy lunches once living independently?
Food Selection: (1) Culture and family eating habits influence an international student’s choice of food over other factors.
HMW: How might we enable international students to explore other cuisines for healthy alternatives?
Food Selection: (2) Cost and convenience are biggest concerns for domestic students when making food choices.
HMW: How might we enable domestic students to resourcefully locate different food varieties and compare prices easily?
Challenge: It is difficult to find local cheap food that is healthy.
HMW: How might we enable students to be able to find cheap and healthy food that they can regularly and easily get access to?
Food I like: Students enjoy food that is easy to make, healthy and tasty.
HMW: How might we provide students the resource and tools to quickly make their own healthy meals?
Perception of self: Students don’t think they are eating healthy enough. HMW: How might we incentivize students to make healthier food choices and stop unhealthy eating habits?
Perception of healthy eating: Students think that eating healthy only means eating fruits + veggies.
HMW: How might we provide students the tools and resources to better food education?
Eating vs. Studying: Students snack consistently, but don’t have a consistent diet during exam periods.
HMW: How might we enable students to have easy access to quick and healthy food options that can help boost studying efficiency and memory?
Family: Students are unprepared to make healthy food choices financially when transitioning into post-secondary education.
HMW: How might we enable students to be prepared and maintain a healthy diet when graduating high school and start becoming independent?
Job: Students work a part-time job to support education.
HMW: How might we enable cost-conscious students to make healthier food choices when facing a choice between healthy and unhealthy food?
Healthy eating reasons: Students try to eat healthy in order to maintain a better physical look.
HMW: How might we utilize body image as a positive motivation to maintain a healthy diet for students?
Ideas
When we met together for an ideation workshop, we had to pick our own top 3 themes and relevant HMW questions. Together, we grouped similar themes and refined the HMW questions. By doing this, we were able to get a clear direction on a more specific area to tackle our original problem statement.
Primary HMW’s
- How might we educate and encourage students to form healthier food habits?
- How might we enable students locate affordable and different food varieties easily?
- How might we enable cost-conscious students to make healthier food choices when facing a choice between healthy and unhealthy food?
Secondary HMW’s
- How might we utilize body image as a positive motivation to maintain a healthy diet for students?
- How might we enable students to have easy access to quick and healthy food options that can help boost studying efficiency and memory?
- How might we provide students the tools and resources to better food education?
From here, we gave ourselves strict 15 minutes to brainstorm design solution ideas for each HMW question to ensure we weren’t spending too much time, but still generating wild and innovative ideas as a group. We discussed, argued, laughed, and in the end, cut our ideas down to 3.
For each of these 3 ideas, we discussed how innovative, exciting, and practical they are. After, we were given the power to give a rating out of 5 in each category, for each idea. This brainstorm, discussion, and decision making process really helped us save time and come to an agreement objectively. We made sure to keep our opinions unbiased and made sure we kept an open mind to all ideas without being defensive. Here were the top 3 ideas.
Idea #1: Educational and Hands-On Meal Prep Program
Score: 43 (Excited — 15, Innovative — 8, Practical — 20)
The general idea around this idea was that students can take this program that consists of workshops, community hands-on experience with meal prep that is easy, healthy, and inexpensive, grocery shopping tours, nutritional talks, and provide resources.
We really like this idea as it gives us free design over the content of this program. Students can join on campus and it gives them the knowledge and experience to live healthily and independently.
Idea #2: Mobile App for Student Meal Prep Ideas and Nutrition Facts
Score: 42 (Excited — 13, Innovative — 11, Practical — 18)
This mobile app idea helps students with meal scheduling, meal prep steps, meal prep ideas, food knowledge, and social connection.
We like the practicality of the idea of a mobile application designed for students. The MVP feature would be easy meal prep ideas provided based on users’ profile. We imagined the social aspect to be a big part of the app feature as it is with young students’ lives. So a social sharing feature like Instagram would be included. However, our concern is the level of adoption of users and competing apps that may offer similar ideas. We’re confident that our app would stand out from competition, but we’re not 100% confident that students are willing to make the effort consistent enough to use the app repeatedly.
Idea #3: On-Campus Stationary Bike & Reward Program
Score: 53 (Excited — 20, Innovative — 19, Practical — 14)
A stationary bike rolled out during exam times (initially) where healthy snacks are rewarded for using it.
This was our favourite idea. Every team member seemed to show excitement and started spewing ideas that would benefit the user as if we were using this ourselves.
We came up with this idea when we started thinking about how often students snack, but don’t always have the budget to do it. We found that students snack more during exam times while studying. Snacking can become expensive, but snacking healthily throughout the day is beneficial to controlling meal portions. We want something students can easily gain access to and develop a balanced healthy eating habit while learning about health and nutrition. This enables students to snack a few times throughout the day in between meals and get some exercise going too!
Snacks offered can vary from cut up vegetables, protein bars, small fruits, nuts, and chips. Yep, we’re not kidding — chips! However, the work you need to put into the bike would be substantially more than let’s say, an apple. An app designed for the students in that school would offer reward suggestions, nutritional facts, bike locations, etc.
We don’t want to give students in need any special treatments. We want to give them the opportunity to study, live, and succeed like anybody else.
Our Pick: Idea #3, On-Campus Stationary Bike & Reward Program
We picked this idea because it was a solution that answered the most HMW questions and it is closely relevant to our original problem statement. It also gained the most interest from the team. We believe that allowing students to earn healthy snacks by exercising could help students develop a healthy snacking diet and learn about nutrition at the same time. We believe that students that live on campus should all have equal access to easy and healthy snacking options, regardless of financial status. We don’t want to give students in need any special treatments. We want to give them the opportunity to study, live, and succeed like anybody else.
Prototyping
During this phase, we wanted to pinpoint the most important aspect throughout the user journey and address the most crucial questions that can potentially hinder the success of the idea. We mapped out the user journey from the initial awareness of the product to the end of the interaction with the product. We then addressed potential questions that focus on the viability from the user’s perspective in each step. We want to lower the barrier to entry and therefore, increase the likelihood that our primary users will be able to use the product effortlessly.
As we tried to convey our own individual ideas we found that using a real physical model could help us do that. One challenge that came up in this exercise was the overflowing ideas for features that could be added to the product. However, this distracted us from really perfecting the MVP feature and ensure that the users will use and want the core idea of what we’re developing.
Initially, I imagined an app that users could download in their phones as the central control and interface for this on-campus stationary bike reward program. After our collaboration, we agreed that by trimming down the steps needed for users to seamlessly use this program and benefit from it, there would be a lower barrier to entry for users. Therefore, we think the idea should only involve two interactions — one with the bike, and one with the food dispensing machine (vending machine).
Our initial prototype involved a lot of discussion, crafts, and laughing. Due to time restraints from the scope of this project, and resource restraints, we had to make the prototype as fast as we can. It depicts the user, Dave, noticing the bike, logging in, using the bike, and claiming his reward.
