Growing The Essentials
Harvest came out of the extensive research that was conducted in the domain of food in India. Macro trends in the food and agricultural industry in India were studied along with the problems and their effect on a system level. We looked at the trends in the Indian kitchen and their cultural significance.
Harvest came out of an opportunity of intervention in this system. It helps the families of India to keep their culture intact. It is a smart modular pot which helps you grow the essential produce(spices and herbs) required on a daily basis in an Indian kitchen and helps the family to move towards the notion of “self reliance” in the context of food.
Harvest is a modular smart pot which helps you to grow essential produce required to keep the cultural identity of a family intact.
To define the user group for conducting the study, we first decided upon the intent of the project which is sensible living through food.
The user base that we decided upon after considering the intent and the area of execution was people belonging to the age of 30-40 years and staying in Ahmedabad.
After talking to our user base, we understood that the overall essence of the Indian kitchen is all about the dynamics of the family and the importance that Indian food has in expressing culture.
We spoke to all members of the household and realized that the Indian household runs on two core principles: acquiring abundance and directing abundance.
Every member of the household plays a different role in the kitchen. The breadwinner is responsible for acquiring resources, which are the duties of Shiv, and the other members of the family are the one who direct the use the resources to create food that is aligned to the family's goal (known as Shakti). These two roles go hand in hand.
Every household has a masala box from which food is created. The masala box plays an integral part in the Indian kitchen. Every masala box revolves around the same ingredients but the proportions of using them results in the variations of taste. Different proportions and different outcomes define the taste of different cultures and the family’s food identity
This variation in proportions helps create a unique food identity for the family which acts as their source of pride.
To understand the problem better and its source we looked at the changes that have occurred over time.
Pesticides have become an inevitable part of food. Most of our users are unaware about how to deal with pesticides in a healthy way.
There is a rise in the organic food industry, but it is not an affordable replacement for the ingredients available to everyone.
Families are losing their legacy to the standardization of masalas by companies like Everest and MTR.
The inevitable pesticide problem combined with the need for localization means that it is no longer about just being able to acquire resources, it is now important to acquire these resources in a meaningful way. We are moving towards a future of acquiring meaningful abundance.
People take a lot of pride in showing the legacy of their family through food. Being able to procure for the family plays a major role in this sense of pride.
These behaviours thus show us that for a family, their ability to procure food without losing the essence of their legacy is a source of pride. Being able to create that abundance in a meaningful way has become a matter of concern in these changing times.
Knowing this, can we help people to acquire meaningful abundance of essential produce that makes their food unique and helps them express their culture in a community?
Harvest is a plant pod that caters to the family’s needs as well as that of a community using different features based on the principles of community growth. Data algorithms will be used to run the system and assist the users in growing their own essential kitchen ingredients.
Based on the space one has, Harvest will suggest the best combination of modular pots and essentials which will be suitable for your space and environment through sensors.
The growing pods will help the users grow the daily essential spices and herbs. This will help the family continue expressing their individuality through their unique use of spices.
The community-level pods are designed to grow vegetables and essentials at the community level and to bring a sense of belonging and collaboration within the community.
Technology plays a very important role in shaping the idea and bringing Harvest to life. The feasibility of the product and how everything is going to connect from collecting data in numbers via pods to calculating and providing information to the users on an interface will all be driven by an integrated technology ecosystem.
The mobile application is the feature that ties together our entire device. The aim is to provide information to the users in a way that is understandable.
An application is the best way to make this possible. It allows all the resources and features of the product to be controlled in a very simple way with a device at the palm of your hands.
Based on the user flow, medium fidelity screens are made with the consistent guidelines.
Based on the user flow, medium fidelity screens are made with consistent guidelines. Medium fidelity prototype is a prototype with limited functionality but clickable areas which presents the interactions and navigation possibilities of an application. A correct content description is emphasized. For every action step, a basic visual design is created. The medium fidelity prototype is used for the validation of the interaction concept..
The application layout encourages consistency across platforms, environments, and screen sizes by using uniform elements and spacing. The application is designed and crafted on the bases of three main design principles shown below.
The Harvest service map defines all the interaction touch-points for the users and also helps us understand the how the company providing Harvest will assist the users.
Harvest helped us understand the Indian household well, especially in the context of food. Harvest is a system that is built for the future. It aims to empower communities and families to become self sustaining and move towards a more healthier lifestyle. Harvest is one manifestation of what sensible living through food will look like.