\ Design for Good \
The challenge of Project 4, Design for Good, was finding a problem I would be interested in. Initially I took interest in food waste and food composting. This was based on my experience of visiting a recycling facility were they would turn food waste along with other natural waste into compost. Another reason why this sounded interesting was my own experience of having food wasted.
I started researching into the area of food waste and composting starting with the services provided by the Norwich City Council. On their webpage the council supplies lots of useful links regarding proper storage, leftovers recipes, and composting. But I got bored of that idea, as products similar were done before and are available online for those who are really interested. I didn’t see the long haul for a product based on that idea.
I then went on to the UN sustainable goals. I looked in further detail through the articles provided about my chosen goals. Eventually, the statistics regarding high prevalence of anaemia in women and children’s malnutrition got me interested in solving these problems. I wanted to work on a product that could actually be of use and be able to reach a wide range of people.
On the first Monday back, while reading The picture of Dorain Grey at lunch, I thought of donation boxes. Don’t ask why. I don’t know. My family used to be involved in a similar service at Christmas time. We would buy products like clothes, sanitary products, and food, well mostly candy, and make boxes that were then sent to children in poorer communities. I thought my digital product could aid to that process. It could be a middle man between a person willing to help and a charity, therefore cutting the time of one having to reach out in person. Based on an exercise from Sync the City, I started thinking about the purpose and use of my digital product, as well as the financial side of it.
After that I started looking at some statistics to get a better understanding of the issues my potential end users might be experiencing. Some of the issues researched were cost of childcare and baby equipment; financial crisis and worldwide issues; foodbanks, poverty and hunger; as well as inflation and goods and services demand.
miro link: Project 4 / Generative Research / Maggie