Autonomous delivery system
A cross-discipline effort in collaboration with Toyota Mobility Foundation to develop a system that helps Non-profit organizations enhance access to receiving and distributing food.
SUMMARY
PROBLEM
Inefficient and fragmented food distribution system impacting staff productivity and satisfaction of food pantry recipients of Non-profit organizations.
USERS
Non-Profit organization volunteers and their clients in the Haughville neighborhood.
SOLUTION
An integrated network of Non-profit organizations to access and deliver food to their recipients.
MY ROLE
Product Designer:
User Research, Ideation, Visual Design, and Testing
DURATION
12 months
Video demonstration of the solution
UX METHODS
Desk Research, Interviews, System Design, Journey Mapping, Prototyping, and Testing
TOOLS
Qualtrics, Zoom, Figma, Miro, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator
TEAM
3 HCI students
6 Engineering students
1 School of Liberal Arts students
3 Faculty Advisors
DELIVERABLES
System design and Prototype
Community non-profit organizations (NPOs) play a vital role in providing services including but not limited to food, job, and education programs to the people within their local community. They aim to assist individuals in improving their lives. The team conducted both primary and secondary research to understand the challenges within the community and the ways community NPOs are trying to solve them.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
The team began accessing the nature of the issue and the communities that get affected the most with access to essential resources.
PANEL DISCUSSION
SAVI
SAVI is a program of the Polis Center at IUPU that provides quantified data and logistics about the different communities and user groups across Central Indiana. It provides the option to create “topic profiles” of different user groups and demographics' including but not limited to basic needs, food access, crime, education, equity, and community development for a region or specific geographic areas.
The team created profiles of neighborhoods served by Community NPO (from Survey data - See here) which were later used for narrowing down Community NPO(s) to run a pilot for the project (See here).
Sample SAVI data of the Marion County
SURVEYS
The team designed surveys for NPO leaders and their clients to get their perspectives on the current environment and its challenges.
To gain insights into the operating environment and functioning of Community NPOs in Indianapolis, we conducted an online survey using Qualtrics. In collaboration with our advisors, we reached out to various NPOs to participate in the survey. The survey was designed with five distinct categories:
CATEGORY #1
Informed consent
CATEGORY #2
Demographics
CATEGORY #3
Deliveries received by the organization
CATEGORY #4
Deliveries received by their recipients
CATEGORY #5
Willingness to participate in the interview
INTERVIEWS
To gather qualitative data, the team interviewed the community non-profit organization leaders. The protocol aimed to understand NPO operations and challenges while ensuring the interview wouldn't be more than an hour.
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
For the selected NPOs, the team got the opportunity to meet the leaders in person at the organizations, see how they work, and get a deeper understanding of their food programs.
Inventory at a Non-Profit organization
A picture with the CEO of an NPO after a successful talk
INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
INTERVIEW PANEL STRUCTURE
Each interview involved a student from the HCI and Engineering team, with one taking notes and the other conducting the interview.
CATEGORY #1
Informed consent
CATEGORY #2
Resources organization uses to obtain food
CATEGORY #3
Inventory management
CATEGORY #4
Providing resources to the clients
The team and mentors had the opportunity to attend a breakfast event hosted by Gleaners, a food bank in Indianapolis where the panelists talked about factors that affect hunger and health issues and the impact it can have on the Indianapolis community.
Image of the 4 panelists and the host from the event (www.ibj.com)
DESIGN CHALLENGE
WHAT
From October 2021 and May 2022, the TMF team collaborated with an autonomous vehicle company, Udelv to provide services to 2 Non-Profit Organizations in Indianapolis. After analyzing the results of this pilot test, TMF recognized the significance of comprehending the problem first before implementing a solution. As a result, they decided to approach the project from a Human-Centered perspective. To explore this perspective further, on 26th April, the TMF team conducted a 24-hour design challenge at IUPUI to gain insights into its potential effectiveness.
Video demonstreation of the TMF's work with NPOs in Indianapolis
HOW
STEP #1
Vehcile demo for design reference
STEP #2
Vehicle pain points identification
STEP #3: Team Formation
HCI+Engineering+Business school students+1 faculty mentor+ 1 Non-profit organization member
STEP #4
Problem grouping
STEP #5
Perform research analysis
STEP #6
Generate user stories
STEP #7
Ideate using using user stories
STEP #8
Final presentations
RESULTS
TMF appreciated the cross-disciplinary approach students and faculty at IUPUI provided. The collaboration offered TMF a new direction for approaching contactless delivery for Non-profit organizations. A human-centered approach to a human problem.
Two months after the Design Challenge, TMF reached out to IUPUI to work on this project. The aim was to identify issues and help NPOs provide essentials to their clients using Autonomous Vehicle.
Image from the Design Challenge
TIMELINE
MY LEARNINGS
ADAPT
For a long-term project like this, it's important to acknowledge that not everything will go exactly as planned and there will always a need to adapt.
ENHANCE COLLABORATION
When working with diverse teams possessing various skill sets, it is crucial to foster a culture of mutual learning and cooperation to achieve superior project outcomes.
CULTIVATE EMPATHY
This project taught me the importance of understanding others' challenges and fostering empathy to learn effectively.
DESIGN PROCESS
USER RESEARCH
DEFINE
IDEATE
DESIGN
FEEDBACK
1
2
3
4
5
TMF Indiana Contactless Service
TMF joined hands with ESN and Udelv to provide services to two non-profit organizations in central Indiana. With the extra delivery capacity supplied by the Toyota Sienna equipped with Udelv’s technology, they could triple the weekly deliveries to the community.
TMF Design Challenge
04/26 to 04/27 2022
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesTMF+IUPUI Collab
06/2022
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesProject setup
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesPhase 1 team
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesResearch Protocol
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with stu along with the NPO Leader listSecondary Research
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesIRB Review, feedback, and approval
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesSurveys sent
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesGleaners confrence
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesClient review
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesData analysis
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesPhase 1 final client presentation
(01/01/2022)
TMF conducted a 24-hour design challenge at
IUPUI with students and faculties from different disciplinesJUL
APR
AUG
SEP
This is your Product section paragraph. It’s an ideal place to showcase the types of products available, and underline any important or unique features.
4 PHASES
To ensure a seamless progression of the project and maintain a human-centered approach, the project managers have divided it into four distinct phases that will extend over multiple semesters. As of now, I have actively participated in Phases 1 and 2.
The team carefully studied the data and used it to narrow down the problem areas and the Community Non-profit organization that they could work with in the next phases.
105
Community NPOs contacted for surveys
30
Community NPOs responded to the survey
Funneled community NPOs for interview using 3 key criteria to keep the project scope relevant
24
Community NPOs that provide food programs to their recepients
CRITERIA #1
22
Community NPOs in neighborhoods with ~25% food desert population
CRITERIA #2
14
Community NPOs serving at least 4 types of the identified users
CRITERIA #3
Out of 14, only 9 responded for interview
9
Community NPOs interviewed
Selected community NPOs with the most versatile service offerings
2
Community NPOs visited for contextual inquiry
1
Community NPOs selected for pilot program
1 Hawthorne Community Center
After thorough analysis, the team made an informed decision to pilot the program with the Hawthorne community center located in the Haughville neighborhood in Indianapolis.
ABOUT HAWTHORNE COMMUNITY CENTER - THEIR CURRENT FLOW
ABOUT #1
Offers early childhood and school-age programs for children and youth, social activities for seniors, and opportunities for adults to build financial stability.
ABOUT #2
Offers food pickup twice a month from their pantry for the community.
ABOUT #3
Moves 100-150 boxes of food a week into the community.
Hawthorne community center's current workflow
PROBLEM AREAS TO FOCUS
PROBLEM #1
Disconnected NPOs: Encounters difficulties in identifying and requesting resources from other entities that may be necessary for their operations.
PROBLEM #2
Low staff productivity: Ordering and collecting food is a labor-intensive process that requires human effort, with organizations often preferring volunteers to allocate their time to other services.
PROBLEM #3
Lack of storage: Lacks storage space and it gets challenging to store perishable items (received from gleaners and other sources) and keep them fresh for longer duration.
PROBLEM #4
Low residence satisfaction: Faces hurdles in providing resources to all required individuals in their communities due to fresh food unavailability or limited volunteer support.
Hawthorne community center
Following the survey, interview, and contextual inquiry structure, the data gathered from them was analyzed across 3 categories to develop a journey map to effectively record the way NPOs provide food to their community.
ANALYSIS CATEGORIES
CATEGORY #1
Obtaining resources
CATEGORY #2
Inventory management
CATEGORY #3
Community distribution
The issues were thoroughly discussed with the entire team and the solution that emerged was designing a new system that included 3 components:
Autonomous food delivery truck
A truck with compartments to pick up and deliver food conveniently
Application interface
To order and keep track of food in the inventory
Food vending machine
Stock food and keep them fresh for people in the community to access whenever they want
SOLUTION COMPONENTS
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM AREAS
Improve staff productivity
A phone application to get details about the pick-up and send the information to the autonomous vehicle.
Address storage issue
Using the phone application, a user places an order and the vehicle goes to gleaners to pick up and returns to stock the vending machine
Improve residence satisfaction
Clients can use the app to see available items and retrieve them from the vending machine without assistance
Connect NPOs
Organizations can send requests or deliveries via the application and autonomous vehicles
The team designed and recommended a total systems approach that would offer to improve the efficacy of the food offering by Hawthorne while also connecting the other Community Non-profit organizations in the Haughville neighborhood.
SYSTEM FLOW
VEHICLE DESIGN AND FLOW
Digital screen for instructions
Conveyer belt for vending machine
VENDING MACHINE FLOW
MOBILE APPLICATION FLOW
This summer of 2023 (June to August), I along with 2 other students and a mentor continued collecting more data to submit a final report to the clients before handing over the project to the next team to begin Phase 3 of the project.
STEP #1
Interview the food sources for Hawthorne community center, Gleaners, and Midwest food bank to understand how they supply the food.
STEP #2
Interview 2-4 food pantries and understand their workflows for enhancing the solution.
STEP #3
Document the workflows in the form of Value Stream Maps (part of the Lean six sigma process)
STEP #4
Begin Phase 3 by handing over the project with the updated research and solution to the next team.
CLIENT KEY FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK #1
Connect NPOs: Organizations can send requests or deliveries via the application and autonomous vehicles.
FEEDBACK #2
Improve staff productivity: A phone application to get details about the pick-up and send the information to the autonomous vehicle.
FEEDBACK #3
Address storage issue: Using the phone application, a user places an order and the vehicle goes to gleaners to pick up and returns to stock the vending machine.
FEEDBACK #4
Improve residence satisfaction: Clients can see the available items via the app and can directly go to the vending machine to retrieve desired items without any assistance.
HAWTHORNE LEADER FEEDBACK
The leader of Hawthorne Community Center enthusiastically embraced the idea and is fully committed to further exploring the proposed designs. Their primary objective is to enhance staff productivity and modernize their outdated business model. By achieving these goals, the center aims to significantly improve its ability to serve the community with essential services such as food assistance and other valuable resources