Product Description & Research

2.1 Product Description

The product I will redesign is a food delivery box. During this pandemic, it’s important to minimize human interaction in food delivery services. Delivery drivers, however, usually have a higher chance to get infected because of the high frequency that they have to interact with people, from restaurants to customers’ residence. Most food delivery boxes/bags in the market are designed in the way that people still need to put food inside by hand, which increases the risk of contagion. To keep people involved in the food delivery business safe, the objective of this project is to redesign a closed insulated box that minimizes human contact with food containers using light-weight and recyclable materials.

The concept of repurposing is utilized. This repurposed food delivery box also consists of hygienic and reusable purposes. Conventionally, delivery drivers can simply wear gloves as they receive or deliver food. Given the shortage of many hygienic products, wearing single-use gloves is neither durable nor eco-friendly. Therefore, a delivery box consisting of the function of gloves is suitable in the current delivery business.

It avoids human contact with the surface of food containers - just like what gloves do.
It can be reused - because the user is the only person holding the handles in this box, it is safe to be reused.
It can be recycled - it consists of thermoplastic like ABS.

2.2 Research, Empathizing

List of websites:

[1]https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#:~:text=Coronaviruses%20are%20generally%20thought%20to,for%20general%20food%20safety.

[2]https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-it-safe-to-get-food-delivered-can-you-catch-coronavirus-from-the-packaging-will-it-survive-on-the-surface-of-your-takeout-2020-03-24

[3]https://www.insider.com/food-delivery-safe-during-coronavirus-experts-advice-groceries-meals-2020-3

[4]https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/communication/food-safety-meal-kits.html

[5]https://www.webmd.com/lung/how-long-covid-19-lives-on-surfaces

[6]https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973

[7]https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/best-practices-retail-food-stores-restaurants-and-food-pick-updelivery-services-during-covid-19

[8]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/04/03/what-to-know-about-the-risks-of-restaurant-takeout-and-delivery-and-how-to-minimize-them/

[9]https://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2009/10/quickly-tapping-threading-holes-in.html

[10]https://www.amazon.com/Insulated-Food-Delivery-Bag-Carrier/dp/B00YVDP4KS

List of journal articles:

[11] https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12782

[12] https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3182(00)70563-2

Summary:

From the extensive research, I’ve learned the exigence of prompting proper personal protective equipment (PPE) in the food delivery services and possible direction of redesigning the food delivery box. The journal article [11] mainly discusses that high-school students need food safety education specific to their usual interactions with food, including the foods, tools, and settings students regularly encounter. Although this result is not directly linked to this current pandemic, the lack of education in food safety still reminds us that these students might be likely to handle delivered food inappropriately. The second journal article [12] urges us to keep home-delivered meal safe. The authors mention that many elderly people in this country rely on home-delivered meals. And unfortunately, elderly people are also extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases because of their aging immune systems. As revealed by CDC [1] and many other sources, this COVID-19 is highly contagious which makes the older adults even more dangerous. According to websites like [2] and [3], there is no confirmatory evidence that COVID-19 can be transmitted from food. However, it doesn’t mean that we can neglect the possible danger from those delivered food. The website [6] explicitly says that this virus can live on certain surfaces for several days. Plastics, like packaging for milk containers or other food containers in general, allow the virus to live up to 3 days. Therefore, I empathize the importance of preventing food delivery services from being another stage of virus spreading.

From websites [7] and [8], it’s important to offer “no touch” deliveries during the services. Although many of these sources don’t explicitly suggest any improvement on the current products, an upgraded version of food delivery box that minimizes human contact with food is necessary. Website [10] shows a common type of food delivery bag in the market. It has thermal insulation and water-resistant features but clearly, it’s not designed for “no touch” deliveries.

Therefore, there are three design concepts for repurposing the new food delivery box to make it effective and simple.

Design concepts:

Design 1: It is simply a box with a pair of gloves attached on the sides. Users can use these gloves to touch the food containers and avoid cross-contamination.

Advantage: Cheap

Disadvantage: Food is kind of hard to be picked up because the motion of gloves is limited.

Design 2: It is a regular box but its bottom can be slide out.

Advantage: Food can be easily transported.

Disadvantage: The sliding mechanism is complicated and the cost might be much higher.

Design 3: It is a box that can be separated into two parts. The food can be picked up or dropped off by merging or separating these two parts. And the use of magnetic tapes allow these two halves of the box to be closed firmly.

Advantage: This design looks cheap and is able to transport food easily and safely.

Disadvantage: The magnetic tape mechanism might not be durable.

Overall, I picked the Design 3 because its structure is simple and is possible to be made from home (using two big plastic boxes). And it satisfies the purpose of the design that avoids human contact with food. This box might also be repurposed if the users want to treat it as a container.

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