Nowadays technological revolution brings people into dreaming more and more to efficient ways of shortening their boring or unpleasant activities after work and in their free time. Going to the supermarket and carrying a bag full of groceries back home can be such an activity, which both men and women can feel rather stresful than pleasant to do it. Also, the online delivery apps have a major disadvantage - the delivery program doesn't match the users work program.
Target groups
Custom (For current Miele users, also for people living in apartment units or unifamiliar houses.)Observation
Conclusion
Finding a solution to handle the online grocery commerce, while not being at home, as well as using the solution both as a delivery box and a fridge component.
Solution
The In & Out Fridge acts as a smart mobile fridge box, which can be used to deliver your online groceries while you are not there. You just take it from the specific numbered support from your front door when you arrive home and place it into your existing Miele fridge. Once you empty the box, you bring it back to the support and it can be reused for further orders.
Pain Point
When ordering online, the delivery program usually coincides with the remote user's 9 to 5 program, so nobody's at home to pick up the fresh groceries and even if it does, the groceries won't be fresh anymore when brought in the evening, especially if they are delievered from the market.
Product in its environment
The fridges can be mounted both on existing walls or on their own leg, independent from the walls. Beside the fridge option, they can also have app connection with the users phone for extra safety, a smart cleaning option and also GPS tracking system, in order to know its exact position on the road.
Product views
The In & Out Mobile Fridge can have different compartments for products of different sizes, from pills to eggs, vegetables, meat or cheese. The organic shape is constructed as a third of a Reuleaux Triangle and can permit depositing products of different sizes and shapes.
Product in use
The product works both as a fridge component and as a delivery box, so the user scenario starts from placing your order online, then your groceries are being delivered in the In & Out Fridge, placed in the rack, you take them when you arrive and you put the box back in the rack for further uses.
Additional info
The interaction between the different proccesses and factors implied in the delivery circle - from the remote user to the delivered box, the delivery service, the product supplies and back to the user.
Third party materials used
https://www.stylepark.com/en/lippert/basic-letter-box-multiple-system
https://www.pinterest.es/pin/532691462160928810
https://www.freepik.com/index.php?goto=74&idfoto=1289668
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Co-OClock-Wall-Clock/dp/B0088RDN3I
https://www.gramunion.com/teenkit.tumblr.com/134829890755
https://www.nenz24.ch/miele-kuehlschrank-k-36483-idf-li.html
Hi Bogdan, Good solution. I wonder if it is a share service for the whole building, and there is an option to get more than only one box if you have a big order. Well done :)
Hi Hicham, thank you for the comment! Indeed it can work both for a residential unit with many apartments and a common foyer and also for single family homes. The multiple box user scenario could be an option, I'll take it into consideration. Stay tuned for the updates!:)
Hi dear Bogdan, very nice design!! My only concern is the height, as i am not tall :) what will happen if i have the upper one?? or if the delivery man is not tall?
Hi dear Pavlina! Thanks a lot, I'm very glad you like it! Thanks also for the good advice with the height, I haven't yet calculated it precisely, I guess it should be around max. 1,80 m and it could definitely support variable heights, depending on the number of units/building. Thank you!:)
Hi Bogdan, very nice idea! I was working on a similar concept ( considering the brief we all need to make a cooling box that sticks outside the house ), the similarity is that you can put it in your own fridge. I will stay tuned and try to keep my concept different. Thank you!
Hi Alex! No problem at all, thank you for the message!
Super-stylish concept! I love it:) Probably it also could be possible to make a horizontal variation? I mean, there are a lot of target groups who would love to have such a service - senior people, people with disabilities, tiny Asian women... Anyway, it's up to you to decide:)
Hi dear Tia! Thanks a lot for the input and the good advice, I will update also with different positionings and will take into consideration your thought! Wish you all the best!
Hello there, Good idea with a really good box design. Looking forward to see how you develop it further. Good Luck.
Hi dear Fatima, thank you, I appreciate it!
Hi Bogdan, This is terrific.. Well done :) But there is an important issue I think you can avoid.. The boxes belong to the supplier and not to the building or the consumer.. What about small suppliers who do not have these boxes? and what about suppliers who have boxes with other specifications from competing companies? I suggest that the full boxes should not transported to the building, nor the empty ones in the opposite way. The boxes must remain in the building. The supplier (any supplier) transports the goods in his own method and then deposits it in the box in the building. So simple.. The boxes never move outside the building.. The full box from the foyer to the apartment, and the empty box from the apartment to the foyer again, waiting for next delivery man. Think about it..
Dear Bogdan,
Interesting solution. I appreciate you already considering many aspects of the product itself (fit for all kinds of deliveries) and of the user cycle. Find Hicham's comment very good. It is not necessary to run around with empty boxes. However, it might be that Miele takes the empty box to the next marketplace for its next reuse, so not much is wasted. What do you mean with "smart cleaning"? Does that exist already? :)
The process on slide 2 is, as you know, not supposed to be there, as there is where you show the pain point(s). For this diagram you can use the optional slide. That's what it's for.
Cheers & hope it helps, Diana
Hi dear Diana! Thanks a lot for the feedback! I will change the slide 2. As for the smart cleaning option, I thought it to be a process to be taken care of, through a Miele accessory, by the delivery unit or the supply unit, not the end user, this is why I've made this kind of cycle where the empty boxes are being taken away to be washed and desinfected in a dedicated room/space and reused further. As they are all the same shape and they would have a shell and an inner body, the cleaning proccess could be easier at a larger scale, safer in a single dedicated point and more convenient for the user, which won’t have to take care of this - with a similar rack as the vertical one, with spinning brushes and water+detergent jets for each inner body of the box. As for Hicham's idea of keeping the boxes inside, this could also work very well, maybe with letting the customers choose if they want this product+service with or without the cleaning option.
Wish you all the best, Bogdan
Thank you very much dear Mario, much appreciated!:)
Thanks a lot dear Wasaki, I appreciate it!
Hey Bogdan,
We are getting very close to the end of this project. I have a couple of more questions for you here. What drove your design, basically the shape? as at the moment the shape of a fridge is pretty square. And hence, there would have to be a good reasoning (level of relevance) why regular customers would give their standards.
And who owns what in your model? Do you envision it to be an integrated system operated by Miele? Who owns and pays for the central unit, installed in apartment buildings or public spaces? Is it the owner of the flat? Or is it someone else (i.e. couriers (DHL, etc.) or retailers (Amazon, etc.)? Does the customer pay for the service? If no, who does? And, on a more practical note, who maintains and cleans the units?
I hope this helps and good luck! Diana
Hi dear Diana,
Thank you for the questions! The shape of the fridge is 1/3 of a full Reuleaux triangle, first of all as a statement of differentiation through form - the product would work as a "satellite" of the main fridge, so it should appeal as a different product than the fridge itself, through a revolutionary, easy to remember and iconic shape, different from that of the rigid box, second at all, because the 1/3 Reuleux triangle shape, in its planimetric organicity (from narrow to wide), can be versatile enough to keep products of different shapes and also different products (for example strawberries, bananas, eggs, ham and milk - they can all be placed in the "satellite" box, from small to big, according to their dimensions) and, third of all, because the shape could also be versatile enough to easily have a main fix core which gives constant energy to all the satellittes, either if you position them as a 3 winged island disposal, or just 2 winged and 1 winged mounted to the wall position, as seen in slide 3. Regarding the owning of the product, it can either be owned by delivery entities in collaboration with the suppliers and rented for the users, in which case they also take care of the cleaning and maintaining of the boxes, while the user pays for the full service (it can work as a premium option for the user), or it can be thought as a community buy from the owner of the block (they can buy only the central nucleus, after which all the satellites are being bought separately by the users - in this case Hicham's idea of not getting the boxes out of the foyer applies - and also the maintaining and cleaning is the duty of the owner's boxes.
Wish you all the best!
Bogdan
Hi, very well described and presented idea. Also, the design of product is on point. Congrats Good Luck
Thank you dear Fatima, much appreciated!:)
Hey Bogdan, in the begining of the project I had an idea and what do I see - you already submitted it, to the point of even the smallest details. Also, you made a great presentation, so thumbs up and good luck!
Hi dear Yuliyan! I didn't know, next time we'll team up! Thanks a lot for the support and all the best to you too!
Thanks a lot dear Tommaso, much appreciated!:)
Many thanks dear Gus, I appreciate it!:)
Thank you dear Hicham! And Big Congrats to you too, really well deserved feedback prize!:)
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