Ashley Lowber
Mechanical Engineering Portfolio
Holden App
The Holden App is designed to simplify the food truck park experience. By allowing users to virtually stand in line, visitors to food truck parks won't have to waste time standing around in lines. Whether you come by yourself or with a group of friends, the fellowship and fun of food truck parks won't have to wait for as long as your line takes.
Research
At the outset of our endeavor to redesign the food truck experience, my team decided to first seek inspiration from the origin. Having little food truck experience ourselves besides enjoying meals here and there, we were far from calling ourselves well-versed in the topic. Thus, our first task became to understand the culture and climate surrounding food trucks by conducting research. This led us to explore several food trucks in SF and around the Palo Alto and Mountain View area. I, along with my teammates investigated and visited food trucks, interviewed vendors and customers, collected audio recordings, took photos, and of course indulged in some of the delicious cuisine.
Constructing a POV
After inquiring about all aspects of what it means to run and enjoy food trucks, from learning about vendors’ worst horror stories to the daily limitations of the trucks and perspectives about the most unique part of interacting with customers, we were left with a few issues we determined to unpack further. These areas of interest included redesigning ticketing systems for large parties, ensuring comfort of the vendors, and creating effective advertising. Although all seemed interesting, based on our timeline, resources, and what seemed to be the most pressing needs of food truck park goers, we landed on a POV designed around the feedback we had collected:
Bethany is a customer who struggles to feel at peace in food truck parks on busy days. With so many people around, she can hardly tell where one line ends and the next one starts! Once she finds a long line, she feels like she has no choice but to remain at whatever truck the line leads to. Even if she gets close enough to see that she doesn’t like what’s on the menu, she is determined to avoid another eternity of waiting. What was meant to be a fun night out with friends, often quickly becomes hectic and stressful. What Bethany wants is a more enjoyable ordering and waiting experience that doesn’t disrupt her fun and easy-going mood.
Round 1 Prototypes
1. Diminish Lines
Goal: Create a mobile experience similar to a typical ordering app, but tailored to food trucks. Must be interactive, mirroring the lively atmosphere of a food truck park. It can be used to view the truck and stand in a digital “line” for ordering. This would allow customers and vendors to still interact, and provide the opportunity for customers to ask for suggestions and get to know who is serving them.
Solution: By creating an AR line app, customers will still be required to explore the food truck park and visit different stations, but can do so from a mobile device. Unlike other food services and apps, this app would be designed specifically for the food truck park it is used in, and still require customers to make their actual order in person. The online interface would include graphics of the truck and surroundings, as well as the best menu items. The virtual line of each truck would be displayed, paying homage to the line’s traditional role of signaling to both the vendor and to the consumer which trucks are most popular and busy.
2. Reduce Line Confusion
Part of the chaos that surrounds busy food truck parks is the confusion that comes with figuring out which lines lead where, which path a line traces, and where lines end. From interviews with vendors, we realized this issue is not only difficult for customers, but for servers as well who suffer when crowded spaces deter customers.
After imagining interventions such as paths that could be projected by light shining onto the ground, we figured that the most feasible option for us to prototype and test would be a light-weight, portable rail system. This expandable rail would attach to the side of the truck and would be stretched to identify the path of the line during food truck park rush hour. Our prototype, made mostly from foam core and climbing rope, was constructed greatly in part by my teammates Corey and Jenna, and tested by Sunnie, Jenna, and me.
3. AR advertising
Instead of only writing puns and drawing cartoons on signs on or near the food truck, a more interactive approach could involve having AR advertising on the trucks. Seeing QR codes could interest wandering customers and cause them to pause out of interest for what the codes display. Vendors would paste these large codes as stickers on trucks, or around the park. Codes would link to interactive AR experiences, revealing online menus, videos, seasonal jokes, or anything else vendors could imagine. Here we created a rough prototype for how the system might work.
Reflections and Final Prototype
Taking our prototypes to local food trucks in various locations, our team collected valuable feedback that put our ideas into perspective. During testing, we realized that an app solely used to reduce lines was mostly only applicable for trucks in food truck parks or located nearby other food trucks, rather than for vendors that stand alone. This led us to sharpen our POV in order to narrow down our target consumer base. Other criticisms reflected how AR codes often require specific lighting conditions, which would be difficult to manage throughout the day. In execution, we realized that the expandable rail system would necessarily be heavy (instead of lightweight, as we had planned) in order to stand and not blow over in the wind. In order to be effective, we would have had to create a more heavy-duty attachment for the side of the food truck, but even then, the vendor would have to spend time expanding the rail and re-mounting it. This idea felt less like a unique innovation, and more like a copy of the types of rails we see at concerts and in airports. Though the ideas were there, prototypes 2 and 3 turned out to not be very viable.
Finally, we came back to prototype 1, the app experience. Not only would the app allow people who intend to enjoy the park to have a smoother experience, but it could also serve those on a time crunch who would want to pick up food from a park nearby. In customer interviews, lines and waiting times were common themes that came up when we asked about the least favorable aspects of the food truck experience. The fact is, in food truck parks, eating is designed to be social. However, when everyone from your group wants something different or wants multiple meals, parties get split up, everyone waits in their respective lines, and then people come back together to scramble for a spot to sit and eat before it's time to go. We took the app idea for diminishing lines and went back to the drawing board to consider these reflections. Not only did we want to allow people to order food more easily without becoming impatient in lines, but we also wanted to conserve the character of each individual food truck without using AR. Blending together our feedback, interviews, and a dash of inspiration, we came up with our final concept: the Holden App. This app preserved a lot of the best things about the food truck park experience: it displayed the line, and still allowed you to go up to the vendors themselves to order and retrieve food while smelling the aroma of the dishes being prepared. However, the app became more personalized with avatars that customers can select or customize, and also would display estimated wait times.
After designing the final Holden prototype, we took to SF for one final food truck park session on a busy Friday evening (a time when most vendors indicated that they experienced the largest crowds). After splitting up to find our own meals, we ate and discussed how to best test our idea. We ended up spending hours talking to customers waiting in lines and enjoying food, walking through the app and collecting feedback. We also acted out the process to ensure that the app would function correctly if constructed into a final product. We found that when you have the chance to sit down and enjoy the park while someone waits in line for you (as Holden would do virtually), you are more able to take in the sights and sounds of the venue. Although we gained some constructive criticism regarding adding more avatars, which we planned to do if we were to create an app for the app store, the comments we received were overwhelmingly positive. Below are some screenshots from the final Holden prototype.
