MIFresh: A kiosk system to promote local produce consumption

I led a comprehensive contextual inquiry process to understand Detroit’s existing food system, interviewing approximately 34 stakeholders and conducting observations at local grocery stores, farmer’s markets, and a food delivery service. Our team discovered that low consumer demand for fresh local produce was the greatest obstacle to increasing consumption of Michigan grown fruits and vegetables and that the ideal location for an intervention was the local grocery store. Through storyboards and sketches we designed a Flash prototype for MIFresh, a shopping intervention system consisting of a wall-mounted large display and multiple kiosk terminals. The public display provides local food awareness, education and important instructions to promote customer interaction with the individual kiosks. The kiosks promote the purchase of local produce by utilizing familiar shopping features such as coupons and rewards programs. We tested a hi-fi prototype of the system with 5 grocery shoppers in Detroit and received positive feedback from all participants. For more information on the project please visit our website and view the poster we presented at CHI.