Brainstorming a New Vending Machine

After our analysis of our campus vending machines we came up with some design design requirements to consider for a new concept:

• natural and intuitive gestures and process
  • selection, payment and receive drink
  • does not require any learning
• contextualized interaction based on learning and social awareness
• easy-to-use interface to reduce errors
  • more accessible to everyone
• encourage exploration and and browsing
• enjoyable, delightful, and sociable user experience

We first conceptualized the idea of having a window through which a user can physically pick out a drink but the logistics of controlling when and how many drinks can be grabbed was a bit of an issue.

We then decided on incorporating a contextualized touch screen interface to give users a (virtual) tangible interaction while providing visual information and creating an enjoyable experience.

Attraction and Engagement

When not in use, the vending machine’s screen displays featured and most popular drinks to draw attraction from passersby. Sensors can detect when a person is standing in front of the machine, which will then display the drink menu.

Drink Selection: Menu Display

The menu displays large icons detailing the images of available drinks and associated prices. As opposed to the current design, the menu does not show any repetition of drinks, nor does it show drinks that are sold out. Users simply need to touch the icon of a drink to view drink details (nutritional value, volume, etc.) rather than map their drink decision to a button they need to press, reducing selection errors. After viewing details, users can decide to pay for their selected drink or go back and view other choices.

Payment

As opposed to paying first before selecting a drink, our concept accepts payment after the user has already selected a drink. A bucket container for coins allows just one gesture of dropping coins instead of inserting coins individually into a slot.

Drink Collection

Users can easily grab their drink at arm level with little effort.

{ Tags: ideas, interaction, tangible }