Introduction For this design challenge, we had to work in groups within our class. I worked with Brett Andreas and Nick Hansen. There are links to their portfolios in my contacts page. We were assigned the task of finding something that could be improved within our school lunch system. We chose to pursue the process of how people pay for their lunches. Instead of having people still punch their school ID's in a number pad, we designed a card that could be swiped over a sensor so students could pay for their lunches quickly and easily.
Brainstorming We used a combination of our own ideas and research photos to come to an overall idea for improving our school lunches. We also took some of our own photos to help us analyze the lunchroom itself and some available technology. The three pictures on the right are pictures we took ourselves.
Quotes As part of our research stage we interviewed some of the lunch ladies in our school because they have experience in this area and are a credible source of opinion.
“What really slows down the lines is when kids have to punch in their numbers. Sometimes they get it wrong, and then they get more flustered and mess up their number even more. The best thing would be to have cards that we can scan as students walk by.” - K-Wing Food Service Employee
“ The keypads in the K-Wing are really touchy, and the main building ones are even worse. They are just so inefficient and make the lunch lines back up even more.” - K-Wing lunch lady
Working Drawing/Prototype We used a sketch as our working drawing and prototype. Because we don't have scanning chips and the ability to create ID cards available, we were unable to make a true prototype. However, this sketch relays our design very accurately.
Methods We chose to have a scanner chip on students' ID cards because we felt it was the most efficient and effective way to have students pay for their lunch. We decided on this design based on a group decision and the quotes from our research. The lunch ladies suggested we have scanner cards, so we followed that idea. The chip would be attached to the card so a students could leave it in their backpack and still pay. The money would be deducted out of an online account, so there would be no lunch line because of having to wait to pay.
Conclusion This project was a good group project. My group of Brett, Nick, and I worked very well together. We did excellent research and brainstorming, so it was easy to come up with a final solution. If I were to do this again, I would make an Inventor drawing of our design so ther are more dimensions, but our sketch still gets the idea across. This project showed me how we can affect the world around us and even find solutions to personally experienced problems.