Neighbor

In the process of applying principles of human-centered design without knowing the language I had to find people that could help me. Face to face interviews conducted with the help of other people required preparation and previous research. As a first phase, I approached users to which I could interact with and prepared questions that they could share with their friends.

To expand my exploration of the context I conducted some days of on field documentation, revolving around the food environment in China. I then used the information gathered during these days to formulate more precise and in context questions for the vendors. I had to make most out of the few times I had external help with the interviews.

While conducting research I started iterating on possible solutions, presenting them to experts of culture and my group of english speaking chinese users, with whom I worked in close contact.

Because my users were not in the same place, and were working during the day I approached feedbacks on the solution as a written form, this decision took full advantage of the Wechat platform and helped me have comparable feedbacks. As to not scare my users away I gave my users context, to explain what I was trying to achieve, instead of providing a form to complete. This decision lead to interesting and involved feedbacks that were contextualized well on what I was doing.

My theme revolved around reducing food waste and being it a broad topic it was necessary to do a substantial literature review and to understand possible directions that the project could have taken.

I set my user range on the young Chinese people as they are currently very sensible about lifestyle and health, both their health and the environment’s. From an historical point of view and a technological point of view is the user range that offers the most opportunities to be developed in a project, starting from a broad theme of reducing food waste.

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The system surrounding the user choice in regards of food is broad and, especially in the Chinese environment, includes a great number of choices, that are reflected by a very diverse and particular selection of offers, that ranges from at home meals to on the street offers.

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In academic literature, solutions to sustainability problems caused by the general population are generally addressed as a governmental problem, however, despise the virtuous examples,reduction of food waste in urban households is still an open problem. The question remains as if there could be a solution that is meaningful for its participants and does not require the government’s intervention.

To expand on my academic research I interviewed local people on the theme of food, to understand their relationship with it. I then grouped my insights on sticky notes and drawn some observations on them, down below the most significative findings of my cycle of interviews.

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In the case of buying food in China, food itself is to be seen as a service in itself, while premium food is a commodity, food at anytime, anywhere and cheap is a required service for how Shanghai, in particular, works, as the working hours are long, the average house is small, and lacks cooking facilities, the many needed to make a traditional Chinese dish, do not find space in modern houses for the young population. Missing the facilities, and having a price point so low, prepared food becomes basic, and cooking a hobby, an activity to be done in spare time.

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From my interviews it emerged the scenario of cooking as a recreational activity, expanding on the theme it was revealed that even with passion and time commitment the act of cooking is a waste generating activity. As of now the service providing food to people, both prepared from restaurants, and raw ingredients from supermarkets have excessively large portions for the average consumer, that throws away leftovers or forgets about extra ingredients in the fridge.

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This constant throwing away food creates a negative emotional loop in the user that defines and changes the relationship with food.

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During the interviewing process I organized three days of structured on-field observation, to documentand refine what was emerging from my unstructured observations and my research.I mainly wanted to find a space of opportunity in the everyday life of people,while getting a more clear understanding of the relationship between food and people, both from the point of view of the user and also including the vendor.

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The desire to be healthy has brought the people that I interviewed to buy fruits every day, despise the fact that they are a high priced good, so I expanded my research in this direction to find space of opportunity for my project.

From my interviews it was possible to define a user journey that revolved around buying fruits at a traditional vendor.

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Vendors try to cut their losses of “not good looking but still good to eat” food by creating special offers, however a ground level presentation is common for this kind of lesser quality products.

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In the context of food,my users want to improve on their habits, being that a lot of them was buying fruits, combined with the fact that fruits are fairly expensive and that shop owners have to expose their goods to attract attention, I found this as an opportunity to lessen waste on multiple levels while giving local owners new spaces to grow their business.

In conclusion, I wanted to prototype something that started a conversation about difficult topics with people, while trying to find a way to conceptualize a sustainable interaction between business and users that had a positive impact on the reduction of food waste. Ultimately creating a positive connection between people, city and food.

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The dynamic of utilizing an already established contact between provider and user to evolve it in a more premium and personalized experience I think is a possible direction that small businesses in China could do to stay relevant and authentic.

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Finally, designing in a foreign context for me was a challenge, especially in a solo project, in a way the language barrier and cultural differences forces you as a designer to make choices. The entire process for me was a series of choices.

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Interacting with people had to come through a filter of some kind, be it a translating friend or a smartphone translation, this has been especially noticeable when talkingto shop owners, as I had limited possibilities in expressing and understanding conversation. To be as user centered and to follow the principles of service design I had to gain insights in other ways, I made the choice of observation and analysis as it was extensive and could help me in obtaining information from the people I could talk more easily to.

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In the end the project is a concept of what could be done with a locally owned business, but the interest and reflection that had generated in the process with the people that I talked to is still to be considered a positive result.

References

Bräutigam,K.-R., Jörissen, J., & Priefer, C. (2014). The extent of food waste generation across EU-27: Different calculation methods and the reliability oftheir results. Waste Management & Research, 32(8), 683–694. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X14545374

EllenMacArthur Foundation. (2018). Cities and circular economy for food (p.34). Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

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Pinder, S., Pat Walsh, MicheleOrndorff, Erica Milton, & Jenna Trescott. (n.d.). The future of food:New realities for the industry (p. 26). Kurt Salmon.

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