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In UOCD (User Oriented Collaborative Design), Brian Shih, Lindsay Gordon, and myself were tasked with designing for vending machine technicians. Throughout the semester, we learned about personas, designing for usability, affordances, and the ethical considerations of human subjects research. There were many deliverables throughout the course of the semester to demonstrate the depth and bredth of our research and prototyping. At the end of the semester, we narrowed all of our design ideas down to one and produced a final prototype and related materials.

Our final project, titled “Better Box”, makes it easier for vending machine technicians to load merchandise into machines from their dolly. Because the Better Box opens from the side, it allows the technicians to leave them stacked on the cart, only opening them as needed to access their contents. The boxes are rugged, reusable, tossable, and feature an easy locking system to prevent accidental opening. Our goal was to improve on the flimsy cardboard boxes that are currently stacked and unstacked from dollies during the loading process.

In addition to this poster detailing some of the features of our box, we also produced a full-size prototype of our box.

Just as important as the designs and prototypes was the knowledge that we gained about the actual user-oriented design process. Much of the class was devoted to analyzing our own methods and the previous experience and wisdom of other design studios. At the end of the semester, we produced the following poster to summarize our experiences over the semester in a graphical manner.