TREE WAGEN

An innovative solution to understand the environmental impact of food sourcing and food waste.

Tree Wagen is a dining tray that is designed to help users monitor and correct users’ food waste and sourcing habits. The design is inspired by typical trays seen in dining halls but operates as a technological device that can inform users about their food and eating habits and how they are impacting the planet.

This was a collaborative group project that required each individual to be in charge of one aspect of the project. I was in charge of creating the poster but our team as a whole collectively contributed to the design and research process.

timeline: sept - dec 2019
partners: julianna bassett, connie hui, karolina vass
tools: sketchup, littlebits, adobe cc, laser-cutting

prompt to iteratively design, prototype, and test an interactive device that (a) makes people aware of climate's impact on one or more aspects of life on our planet; and/or (b) helps remedy these impacts. the device makes visible far-off or otherwise invisible manifestations of climate change, and cultivates conversations about climate change that may positively shape future behavior towards reducing or preventing its further impact.

problem how can we create a device that college students can use and inform of their food wasting and sourcing habits while raising awareness on the impact of human food consumption on climate change?

understanding the food consumption problem

With a world population that continues to grow exponentially, so does our food production around the world. Roughly one third of the food, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes, produced in the world for human consumption gets lost or wasted every year. Food waste and loss leaves a huge carbon footprint of nearly 3.3 billion tons of carbon and food sourcing also accounts for nearly 25% of all food production emissions. Food waste amounts to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labour and capital and needlessly produces greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming and climate change. The Tree Wagen aims to bring more awareness about the food wastage problem and help people change their habits to reduce waste and encourage users to eat locally and sustainably produced products.

rapid prototyping

In our prototype, we experimented with two forms of expressing this issue: an awareness mechanism and a tray interface. We proceeded to develop both of these concepts and implement them in our rapid prototyping phase of ideation. While mind mapping though, we produced simple sketches to communicate these brainstormed ideas. We decided to execute our prototypes in two separate groups based off of our curated topic related to climate change: food sourcing and food waste. The first group developed an awareness tool; the second, an interface. Using low-fidelity materials such as cardboard and foil, we were able to execute a simplistic visual model of these draft ideas. Overall, by allowing our premature ideas to come to fruition, we discerned our ideas and how to move forward. This ideation strategy allowed the team to assess plausible interactive components of our designs. The dining hall tray interface will, in some capacity, identify and track where people’s food choices are being sourced from. An additional element might be weight measurement to calculate food waste.

user personas & scenarios

We created personas and scenarios for two typical users that might be found on a college campus. One is more adept to environmentalism and climate change, and the other is quite indifferent to such matters. Ignorance is a big issue among college students and some current world issues and these personas display how this awareness gap can take form and be reconciled for users like Susan and Chad alike. These personas allowed us to really consider potential users and misconceptions that can easily form bias with our product. Additionally, our product can be universally applied, being that everyone has the opportunity to learn, no matter their background or preexisting habits.

iterative process

storyboards

We developed a user interaction with our artifact via a story board. Scene by scene we considered how an individual might use the tray. We showed our story board to another team, who commented on the affirmation component. They questioned the potential guilt component that recognizing bad food decisions might give to a user. With this suggestion in mind, we plan to allow positive, affirmative points, to accumulate to offer free meals or “freebies” of some sort. There is now incentive without guilt, and the message is conveyed regardless. The hope, then, would be that the user realizes the impact they have and begin to avoid the negative choices on their own.

user testing

prototyping

Using the feedback received from our user testing, we built on our previous prototypes and iteratively designed variations of the tray and conducted more user testing for each new version. This was an extremely important and critical process as the user’s responses were extremely informative in understanding the things that worked in our design and the things that didn’t and could be improved.

the product

Tree Wagen is a dining tray that is designed to help users monitor and correct users’ food waste and sourcing habits. The design is inspired by typical trays seen in dining halls but operates as a technological device that can inform users about their food and eating habits and how they are impacting the planet.

the deliverable