IDEO Future Design Challenge

Type: Group Innovation Design Challenge, Future Design

Duration : 1 Day Design Challenge

How Might We Envision Regenerative and Nourishing Food Futures for 2050?

Background

Nov 9th 2019, I was selected to participate IDEO Innovation Challenge @ Berkeley Haas, together with 25 graduate students from different departments at UC Berkeley. People from IDEO and openIDEO led and shared with us key concepts and methods of:

• Design Thinking

• Design Research (Focus on People)

• Unpack observations and tell stories

• Search for insights Idea generations (Brainstorming rules)

• Prototyping methods

• Business Model

• Storytelling for influence

I found out 2 points related to Design Research are quite interesting.

• Seek inspiration from extreme users.

In my previous product design experience, I was told to focus on the target users and design specific for those users’ needs. However, when I communicated with people from IDEO, I realized extreme users can also bring inspiration to design better products for target users. Extreme cases help people to design products from different angles for target users.

• Going out to observe the richness of people in natural contexts.

One of instructors shared their user research stories. When they interviewed an old lady that if she has any difficulty of using a specific medicine. The lady answered “Super easy!”. She stated that she was able to use the medicine easily by herself. However, when they actually observed how did the lady take the medicine, they realized, the lady used a wrong way to take the medicine. User interviews sometimes may not truly reflect the real user behaviors. In order to fully understand users’ needs, it’s important to observe people’s behavior in natural contexts.

Future Food Systems Design Process

Our team contains 2 MBA students, 1 computer science student, 1 public health student and me. My role is Designer and Storyteller. The area our team focused on is Culture. 

As the world grows and cultures intermingle, so too will food continue to adapt and change. What is the future of our food and how it connects us to one another?

Design Research

In order to fully visualized the food culture of 2050, We did the design research for different stakeholders.

Design Research Questions for CPG(Consumer packaged goods) Expert, Food Access Expert, and Food Waste and Sustainable Agriculture Expert.

Research Questions:

Detailed Interview Notes

Synthesis & Interpretation

After design research, we started to search for meaning of our observations and interviews. We ordered our observations based on themes and search for the insights.

A Japanese mom shared with us her stories as Immigrants which triggled our thoughts. 

• She needs to go to Tokyo Fish market (very far away) to get Japanese food.

• Parents wanted kids to assimilate Japanese food culture

• Multicultural Kids had difficulty in culture identity

• How does food play a role in identifying with your culture?

• How do food innovations impact food culture in an immigrant setting?

Idea Generation

Vision Statement

Prototyping and Storytelling

We Imagine: 2050 is a world where cultural diversity is enabled and celebrated with regard to food production, consumption and disposal.

I came up with the wearable idea and use my hat to present our ideas.

In the future, everyone has a magic hat which is their personal assistant and also a communication tool with other people.

One day, I decided to make some traditional Chinese dishes on the next day, but I was not able to finish all the things by myself. So I decided to invite 2 more people to come visit. I told my hat my plan. The hat immediately checked out the available ingredients in my fridge and ordered the right amount of other ingredients. The order was directly sent to local farmers and automatic transportation robots would send those ingredients to me on time. At the same time, the hat helped me send the invitation to my neighborhood for 2 opening spots for Chinese food at my house. 10 mins later, I received a hat call. A mom and her daughter’s hologram appeared. She said she was interested in bringing her daughter to enjoy the Chinese food with me. We chatted for a while, and I decided to officially invite them to come.

On the next day, I had a wonderful time cooking and eating Chinese food with the mother and her daughter. I taught the little girl how to use chopsticks and shared with them a lot of traditional Chinese culture. As my hat ordered right amount of food, there was no food waste. Even if there were any leftovers, people can choose to put food in the food collection box in the community to feed animals.

Food plays an important role in every culture. It also serves as a bridge for people from different cultures. We hope through our design, we can preserve diversity of cultures while also exploring and celebrating that diversity!