The world is inundated with problems ripe with opportunities to better the experiences of those around us. As a designer, it can be challenging to know where to focus your passion to enact meaninful change.
I came up with a simple strategy for quickly exploring a wide range of directions. The phrase, "why don't more people ________"?, allowed me to identify a direction with a potential user in mind right from the start.
Further exploration of the donation category revealed food recovery as an intriguing option. In addition to the impact more recovered food could have on peoples' lives, I was excited to leverage over fifteen years of restaurant industry experience to increase fluency of communications as well as provide a strong foundation of empathy with the prospective stakeholders helping to solve the problem.
One part of the system, the Delivery Cart, meets restaurant staff where they are by considering the limited space of their kitchens. The other part of the system is the Delivery App. The app allows the food banks to communicate a need and the restaurants to communicate availability. Additionally, the app will maintain a running tally for the amount of food donated and the tax credit value they are able to write off at year’s end.
Addressing the concern for donation storage, I developed a low profile cart that can be stowed away when not in use, and placed directly in the walk-in refrigerator when standardized kitchen pans full of food are being set aside for donation.
The app component of the delivery system helps restaurants find food banks and pantries to partner with, ensures the safe transportation of food and tracks the tax credit value recieved for the donations.