Wacky Vendo
Objectives
Practicing Public space observation
Challenge:
You have been asked by an industrial design firm to create a new kind of vending machine- one whose contents would fit the needs of your local neighborhood.
- What could you sell within this vending machine that would make sense for your local market?
- How would you design the physical shape of the machine to stand out from the soda machines that we’ve all grown used to?
- Based on the contents of your machine, do you have unique space requirements?
- Will you need electricity in order to keep thinks refrigerated or heated?
- How would you handle monetary transactions?
Product:
Vending machine contents:
- umbrella – for unpredictable NYC rains
- ATM 10% fee. limit $10 – for emergency cash
- water
- city map (roads, subway, landmarks etc) – for tourists
- coffee – for sustenance
- cigarettes
- tissue paper
- donuts – as food
- coca-cola
- first aid kit – emergency
The machine is designed to provide essentials and emergency products to people like a first-aid kit or an umbrella. It even has the city’s emergency service contact numbers on the side, thus serving as an emergency vendo. Shaped like an exclamation mark to symbolise emergency, and brightly coloured to catch people’s attention, the vending machine’s purpose is to provide everyday things to the citizens of New York. Its contents do not need to be refrigerated and needs power only to process moentray transactions in the form of cash or credit.
Reflection:
This assignment helped me understand how every city’s requirements differ and how products like a vending machine need to be designed based on these particular requirements.