Audience: Ashley Reeves, Senior Organizational Design Lead, IDEO ; Andy Law, Faculty at Rhode Island School of Design
Collaborators: Samantha Ho, Isabel Arango
Roles : Experience Strategist
How might we design an experience around Yogurt?
As part of a three day IDEO Design Methods Challenge, I collaborated with peers from my graduate cohort to create a meaningful experience around yogurt. For the design sprint, we were simply handed a tub of vanilla yogurt and tasked to create an experience by applying IDEO's user-oriented design methods to practice.
Isabel tasting the yogurt given to us for the challenge
DAY 1 afternoon:
We began our research by tasting the flavored yogurt and reflecting on what that experience looks and feels like. As a second step, we began comparing how flavored yogurt was used in different cultures as Samantha, Isabel and I come from different cultures spanning India, Hong Kong, USA, Colombia, and Spain and the in-betweens. What we learnt from each other surprised us.
For example, Isabel shared that in Columbia,how her grandmother makes her own yogurt and never buys it from a grocery store. I brought up how flavored yogurt was virtually non-existent in my diet growing up in India and how yogurt was used in Indian weddings and spread on the faces of the bride and groom.
After some initial brainstorming, we decided to interview three people each about their yogurt buying and eating habits and specifically ask for their opinion on frozen yogurt. The first set of insights revealed that frozen yogurt has a completely different connotation and perception than traditional yogurt and we were curious as to why.
DAY 2 Morning:
We began this day by developing a research plan consisting of user interviews, researching existing precedent and potential problem spaces, and then embodied prototyping/desk research. We each conducted long form qualitative interviews referring to the same discussion guide to ensure consistency in data collection with nine participants aged 20–26.
From our interviews, we were able to pull out to a key leading insight:
Convenience is a key determinant when our target audience is deciding where to eat and as such, frozen yogurt is noticeably more popular than traditional yogurt.
DAY 2 Afternoon:
We researched everything from highly involved convenience oriented food experiences, such as the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM to vending machines and fast-food drive-thrus. We then returned to our participants and asked them specifically about why they prefer frozen yogurt. There was an overwhelming response that the most valued characteristic of frozen yogurt is the ability to customize.
Another factor we learned about and considered was how the pandemic affected how people interact with eating food in public spaces. We asked ourselves:
“Would people want to go to a yogurt shop and touch the handles everybody else has touched?”
How might we preserve the customization factor of frozen yogurt while optimizing the experience to be convenient and pandemic-friendly?
DAY 3 Morning:
We met next morning and were casually discussing what we had for dinner. Samantha mentioned she tried this new kebab place and Isabel mentioned she made jello shots.
In that moment, we had a crazy idea! What if we could combine Jello, frozen yogurt, and kebabs?
None of us thought this chain of thought could result in a serious contender but we continued to build on it co-creating and drawing on our research insights.
Within the next hour a new yogurt experience we named Frozello was conceived... We learned that when you combine flavored yogurt and jello, you get a tasty dessert and the mix holds its shape longer than traditional frozen yogurt.
DAY 3 Afternoon:
We asked ourselves, what if you could customize your frozello popsicle by simply selecting your flavors and assembling yourself. This “stab and go” model directly addresses the facets of the frozen yogurt experience that our participants valued as well as provides a convenient and enjoyable experience.
I was extremely lucky to have Samantha and Isabel on my team who are highly skilled at visualization and sketching. We took the afternoon to sketch our vision of how the machine would work.
The frozello dispenser
Interaxtion design
DAY 3 Evening:
After conceptualizing the idea, we needed to visually communicate our idea in the clearest way possible. We wanted to take our users through the journey of interacting with Frozello and provide them a relatable scenario. As such, the next step was prototyping a touchpoint. Isabel came up with the idea of a grooved surface so each Frozello "kebab" would be stable on the stick and decrease the surface area in contact with each flavor to ensure distinct flavour profiles. We quickly 3D printed a mold and froze some of flavored yogurt-jello mix ourselves as a roof of concept to share with our participants to get feedback on.
Frozello's wall mountable design can be a great addition for small and medium sized businesses to increase their revenue from in-store sales by providing an experience for their customers to engage with.
Another possibility we speculate is yogurt companies partnering with local businesses and renting space from vendors to place a Frozello machine with their product in stores.
The concept was presented to senior leadership from IDEO, RISD Faculty, and peers in the graduate cohort.
This three day design challenge surprised us in ways we did not anticipate. From reaching out to our personal network and conducting interviews over text messages to rapid prototyping and visually communicating a moonshot idea, we were convinced that when designers and engineers pair up and begin with the end user, something magical is bound to happen.