A4

**__Introduction__**

Poverty exists even in the most unlikely places, from the streets of Toronto to the schoolyards of children; it is a social issue that continues to be on the rise during these turbulent economic times. With an estimated five million Canadians living in poverty, including “hundreds of thousands who are visibly homeless and millions more without the means to meet basic human needs” (Dagan, 2010), it is clear that the epidemic of poverty continues to be in the Canadian consciousness. With the recession still being very much an open wound yet to heal over any time soon, many Canadians are running out of unemployment benefits and are accessing the food banks to “fill the gap” (Gersho, 2010). “This is a reality check. Food banks are seeing firsthand the recession is not over for a large number of Canadians” notes the Executive Director of Food Banks Canada (Gersho, 2010), whereas another reporter raises the important question of “Have both governments and the Canadian public turned their backs on the poorest of the poor?" (Walkom, 2006).

To make sure the above question never becomes a factual statement, this leads to our design concept which is intended to raise awareness about this social issue and encourage specifically the University of Toronto Mississauga students, staff, and community to take action. Although students may be aware that poverty exists, many are reluctant to “take the next step” and actually lend a helping hand to those in need. In order to increase interest and participation, we as group have developed a design concept that is interactive, fun, and resourceful at the same time through our design of the //Donation Boxes// situated throughout various regions on campus. The aim through these donation boxes is to gather as much bare essentials needed to cover the necessities of daily life, whether it be food, clothing, shelter, educational equipment, to leisure items such as sports equipment. The initial concept was influenced by the average recycle bins located at school. From here, we gathered observations about book drop-offs at the library to the local food bank at school and found that these resources were not being used to the best of their capabilities. By researching creative outlets online, we discovered unique examples of recycling (Bottle Bank Arcade Machine, 2009 ), which lead us to dramatically alter our typical concept of the donation box into an interactive station that gathers donated items, engages end-users by presenting information on poverty, rewarding end-users with a point-system, and ultimately, play along in a simulated game specifically related to their item of donation. With these integral refinements in our project, we hope to encourage community participation in addressing the socially relevant issue of poverty.

**__ End Users __** After all the field work that has been done we have to come to determine that the student body is the main user of this design. The prototype is meant to attract users, male or female of all languages, in between the ages of 18 and 24. Considering the fact that the prototype is being targeted in traffic areas within academic institutions to motivate the student body to take part and donate. Through field work we have come to realize the negative influence that comes with inconvenience. Designer must be well aware of his/her user when implementing a new prototype in an academic institution, where for most students every second counts due to part-time jobs and full time school schedule. This emphasises the importance of the Charity Boxes location, considering the fact that not many students are going to be wasting their time looking for the donation areas around campus. We know this is a big issue due to the observations recorded for the Food bank, and clothing donation boxes which were located in the worst areas around campus and received minimum donations.

Motivation is key to inspiring students to take part in donating, and is one of the big issues our design group has been trying to tackle since the very beginning. Through these past months we have been trying to find ways to make donations worth the users time, which has been done through several ways, such as; Location, Point System, Trivia questions to spread awareness about poverty and influence further donations… and now we have a way to make the donation process fun and more interactive to further escalate the number of donations. We hope that the fun factors added to the donation boxes, which will be illustrated in sections to come, will initiate a “word of mouth” rising interest in the Donation Boxes and number of donations. What inspired the Fun factor and its effects on donators was the previously mentioned “Bottle Bank Arcade” ( The fun theory.com. “Bottle Bank Arcade Machine.” 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2010. < [] >).

**__ Related Work __** // “County of Fairfax, Virginia Clothing Drop Boxes” //

The clothing boxes designed by the county of Fairfax are located in public places so that citizens can easily come and drop off used clothing and goods. The strength associated with the design of these boxes is that they emphasize the need to be structurally sound, clean, and well maintained. Another important component is that the county stresses emptying the boxes regularly to prevent overflow of materials. Furthermore, visually, these boxes look clean and appealing. A limitation to these donation boxes is that they do not incorporate any interactive elements; therefore, they cannot educate the public regarding the social issues that need consideration or items that are in need. Any information available is on a small-posted note outside the box. (Department of Planning & Zoning 2009) // “Bottle Bank Arcade” // The bottle bank arcade is an interesting concept that was developed by Swedish designers to encourage the recycling of not only cans and plastic bottles, but also glass bottles. They found glass bottles were seldom being recycled because recipients would not receive any money for recycling glass bottles. As a result, designers constructed a receptacle that simulated an arcade game with functioning slots and flashing lights along with a scoreboard, so that users could see that they were gaining “points” for participating. As a result, in just one evening the bottle bank arcade gathered close to 100 people and encouraged the use of other, traditional recycle receptacles to be used as well. This proved to be a successful study on the behaviour and habits of end-users and it further demonstrates the importance of making the action seem enjoyable in order for patrons to participate. (The fun theory 2009) // “Self Serve Checkout” // Another commercial prototype that is used in everyday life includes the self-serve checkout. In this checkout users can pay for purchases from a retailer without any assistance from staff. These automated systems can be seen in retail department stores such as Wal-Mart, to grocery stores like Loblaws Superstore, and even at Home Depot. Here, the concept was to eliminate as much staff as possible while having one attendant to watch over several checkout areas to ensure items were properly scanned to prevent theft. In addition, customers would place items into bags that were attached to a scale to ensure items were not removed out of the bag – another security feature. Customers follow step-by-step directions on touch display screen to complete their purchase. (IBM 2010) **__ Academic Competitive Analysis __** “The DONA Robot” The inspiration behind this design came from the idea of engaging individuals. For instance, people tossing coins in water fountains or a pond is thought to be engaging. The DONA robot roams around amongst passers-by and approaches them through a “pet-like interaction” (Cha et al. 159, 2010). The DONA robot has a built in sensor that detects people, moving objects, and works its way around obstacles. “It stops for a while and starts to bow its head appealing for people to make a donation” (Cha et al. 159, 2010). This particular design is also engaging because the medium of using robots could be considered as an attraction for the general public. Therefore, they would like to learn more about the robot and its functions. A limitation that this design entails is its inability to distinguish between a person and a moving object. The DONA robot is interactive in terms of approaching its end-users directly rather than relying on them noticing the donation drop-off box and make the effort to donate. // “IT-Enabled Donation Boxes to Promote Donation” // The main motivation behind this design was the designers’ belief that electronics and information are great ways and strategies to attract individual attention. This thought is also a key component in our design. The IT- Enabled Donation Boxes, design was implemented at a winter festival held in Kobe, Japan. It was made public in the year 2007. It executed four donation boxes, which consisted of “a colourfully illuminated box and a sensor-enabled interactive box” (Kazuya et al. 1, 2009). The end-users in this context are individuals who are passing through this particular area. // “Donation Dashboard” // Donation Dashboard is a system, which recommends that the non-profit organizations create a portfolio of contribution amounts of the individuals that are donating. (Bitton et al. 253, 2009) This design works by keeping track of all the people donating and this enables the organization to monitor donations. Based on the users donation, Donation Dashboard assesses the non-profit organization, which is best suited for that particular kind of donation. (Bitton et al. 2009) Our design group was able to learn a lot through the academic and commercial design ideas researched. These ideas inspired significant changes in our prototype to better meet our users’ needs and motivate further donations. When we began the project our goal was to make the donation boxes easy to find by donators, a key issue hinder the number of donations received by student alumni. This was mentioned in the //“County of Fairfax, Virginia Clothing Drop Boxes”// //, what was also mentioned and not implemented in our design process before was the importance of the donation box being visually appealing. Realizing the importance of aesthetics and its effects on users we decided to make it our next focus. Now making a donation box visually appealing is not easy task, but luckily the “Bottle Bank Arcade” ////  and the “The DONA Robot” //// article aided us in attaining that goal. So instead of having the normal donation box, we have redesigned the boxes to look fun, attractive, and most importantly interactive, a component that was absent from our previous design. For instance the donation box in the gym will have a basketball net, and goal keep, so people can shoot or kick the balls they wish to donate into the donation box **(refer back to appendix???).** //

The //“Self Serve Checkout”//// brought to our attention the importance of having an interactive screen as efficient and easy to operate by the user as possible. The donation process should be faster and the least bit frustrating to the user in order for it to be successful. Taking that into consideration we have remodelled the operating system of the screens to best suit the users needs. Finally the “Donation Dashboard”// // article illustrated the importance of keeping up an up-to-date profile status of the donator illustrating the number of donations he or she have contributed and the points they have that can be used around the academic institution being attended //

** Design Process ** Of the several design process models we studied, the Iterative Design model best describes our overall design progress. We started out with a broad and unclear idea that was open to many design possibilities and opportunities, and slowly targeted a specific and clear design model. The overlapping loops in the Iterative Design model illustrate the process of continuously changing and refining our design idea, specifically in a “messy” manner. **__ Design Criteria __** As a start to this design process, our team began with an extremely broad topic and narrowed down to a specific design criteria. We were interested in developing a design that would benefit a wide majority of people. Upon our researching process, we had agreed to tackle the issue of poverty and base our design on that particular subject. Designing drop-off boxes and the focus on donation was going to be our main design criteria. **__ Idea __** However, the idea of donation and donation boxes were not enough to start designing, a deeper focus on exactly what our design was and what we aim to achieve needed to be narrowed down. At first, the donation idea tackled a broad range of aspects of donation as well as a broad target of end-users. Our idea of donation was to include all possible items of donations such as clothing, food, and money funding. Also, we had hoped that we implement the idea of raising awareness by focusing on specific areas in the GTA. Situating donation boxes in malls, community centres, as well as schools would achieve our goal. According to Sanders and Stappers, at that point, our design was still at the fuzzy front end stage of the Iterative Design model (Sanders & Stappers, p.6). This is the phase in which our design idea is redefined and revised to what we aim to achieve. It is the following stage that it really begins to narrow down to a more refined idea with a particular focal point. **__ Concept __** As we progress through the design process and learn more about our end-users and target market, we were able to expand on our idea of raising awareness in deeper detail in terms of location, end-users, and the overall design. Our main concept, raising awareness about poverty, remained the same throughout our design process. However, our area of focus had originally been the GTA with the implementation of dropboxes in malls, community centres, as well as schools. We decided to focus on a more specific area and a definite crowd. The UTM Campus will be where our area of focus in which our end-users will be students and faculty. How idea behind our design is to implement interactive donation boxes around campus where each one will have a designated purpose. For example, a dropbox designated for clothing and athletic equipment will be situated in the Gym Building, Books and school supplies will have a designated dropbox at the library, and a dropbox at the Student Center will be designated for non-perishable food items. **__ Prototype __** By now, we have a clear concept of our design and what we aim to achieve in the development of the first prototype. Version 1 of the prototype illustrated an interactive screen that would ideally be located beside each dropbox around the UTM campus. A low fidelity prototype was developed on Power Point to imitate the donation process that an actual end-user would go through. The interface was tested on potential end-users of the final product. We observed the obstacles, difficulties, and challenges that the end-users faced during the prototype test and applied certain changes and improvements to the second prototype. Version 2 of the prototype, developed on InDesign, illustrated a more interactive interface that highly resembles the final design of the touch-screens located beside each dropbox. This high-fidelity prototype eliminated the Wizard of Oz technique that was used in the first prototype testing. At this stage of the design process, our design was iterated in terms of the level of interactivity of the touch-screen as well as the appearance of the dropboxes. ** *ADD PIC OF FIRST AND SECOND PROTOTYPE* ** The progress of the touch screen design process is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 demonstrates the first prototype of the interface, where Figure 2 demonstrates version 2 of the prototype. **__ Product __** As we approach the end point of the Iterative Design model, we’ve narrowed down a very broad idea of raising poverty awareness to specific methods of doing it with deeper focus and detail on end-users and the overall design. At that point of the Iterative Design model, the overlapping loops fade to a straight forward line. We have a set plan of the overall appearance of each dropbox and the interactive touch screens. The design of each dropbox was iterated numerous times throughout the design process with the intention of creating highly interactive and “fun” dropboxes. For example, one of the features that were added, and then later on enhanced, was the point system that created an incentive for students/faculty to donate. The physical appearance of each dropbox around campus had a specific design that enhanced the interactivity and the “fun” factor to each dropbox. ** *ADD PIC OF FIRST AND SECOND DROPBOX SKETCH* ** The progress of the dropbox design process is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 3 demonstrates the simple and basic look of the dropbox, where Figure 4 illustrates the improved appearance of the dropbox design.


 * // Description of Version 1 of the High Fidelity Prototype // **

Version 1 of the high fidelity prototype demonstrates the ­characteristics and features of the interactive touch screens positioned beside each of the UTM Donation Dropboxes. It allows the user to swipe his/her student T-card for their personal profile to be uploaded. When they physically place their items in the dropbox, the screen informs the user of the approximate weight of their donations as well as the points they accumulate from their action. The screen then presents the opportunity for the student to additional points through answering a trivia question. These questions are related to the social issue of poverty, specifically. In the prototype’s case, the question is regarding the percentage of families with children who visit the Mississauga Food Bank. One purpose for these is to educate and inform the user of the social issue through the revealing of the correct answer as well as additional information. Another intention is to provide an additional incentive for the student’s generosity. The prototype’s button functions allows the user to have certain choices as to choosing to donate again, declining the trivia question and ending the session. Here, the student is not necessarily obliged to perform actions or committed to certain tasks. For example, if the user finds that they are not able to donate, they can press ‘cancel’. Furthermore, if he/she does not have time for the trivia question, they can hit ‘finish’. The version 1 prototype interface presents a simple and clean appearance. This communicates a sense of tidiness and maintenance for the concept of donation dropboxes. Through the screen’s portrayal of neatness, it provides a pleasing and appealing feeling to these donation areas and moves away from the cluttered and messy ideas behind public dropboxes.

Version 2 of High Fidelity Prototype This prototype demonstrates the interactive touch screen positioned by the UTM Donation Dropbox. An added element includes the University of Toronto Student Union logo watermarked on every screen. A concern raised during Version 1 testing was the ambiguity of the association behind these drop boxes. The logo now gives the user a sense of who and how their donations are being handled. The user swipes their T-card and their profile is loaded. Each donation dropbox will have a game relevant to that particular category of item. For example, the sporting equipment dropbox will include nets, goals etc to kick or throw the ball in. This prototype demonstrates the food dropbox where the student must toss the items in a chef’s mouth as it randomly open and closes. The interface lets the user to press the screen to begin and again to complete. In Version 2, the user now has the ability to view their profile from any point during the session. This personal profile gives access to the user’s point database, specifically, when they earn their points, and when and where they are redeemed. Furthermore, a donation history displays when and where they have donated in the past, as well as the category of item (food, clothing etc.). This feature was added as the users, during testing, expressed the need to have a better understanding of their points as well as their donation patterns and trends. Once the items are placed, the weight of them is calculated. Each category of items will have their own weight – point system. For food, 1 lb equals 1 point. Afterwards, the donator is given the opportunity to earn more points through a trivia question. Similar to Version 1, these questions are related to the social issue of poverty as well as provide a further incentive for giving. Whether the user is correct or incorrect, a statement displaying the right answer as well as further real-time important information is shown. For example: which food item are currently needed most according to the Mississauga Food Bank. Another important feature is the receipt. The user is able to choose the form: print or email or even no receipt at all. This receipt will provide their points information as well around campus that they can be redeemed along with a list of how they can be used. The ‘Make Another Donation’ feature has been removed from Version 2. Originally, this option was included to give the donator another opportunity to add more items in case some were forgotten or other various reasons. However, during testing, users felt it would be an unlikely scenario for this option would be chosen as all items to be donated would be done at once. Also, for the interactive screen to ask for ‘more donations’, it may negatively imply that the original donation was not appreciated or enough.

Conclusion It’s interesting to see how an idea can start somewhere and then through test phases observations and creation of low fidelity prototypes you can end up somewhere you would have never expected. The final design that we put forward is in its own way fun, informative, motivational and above all helpful to those in need. We hope our final design is successful ultimate goal, which is spreading awareness of poverty and influencing people to take action and donate and help those in need. We hope that more follow in our footsteps and try to help those in need, the times are only getting harder with the richer getting richer and the poor getting poorer. More help is needed from the people who can, and if we as a society can all come together and create efficient and even fun ways to help those in need, then a our world can slowly become a better place.