Process

Initially we began discussing the type of community we wanted to focus on. First narrowing down to foodies, we then narrowed down further to desserts. Within this category, we defined our problem around the difficult choice of selecting an ice cream flavor. We also wanted to enhance the neighborhood connectivity by installing this in a local store instead of a large national chain.

When designing the space, our primary challenge was around the interaction of the ice cream scoop balls themselves. Initially, the balls would just be in a reservoir on top and would be fed down the correct tube. However, we wanted to add additional interaction to the experience. So, we elected to have the customer place a ball on an “elevator” beside the counter. The mechanism would then raise the ball and direct it towards the correct tube. Getting the ball to elevate to the top of the store and falling out was the biggest challenge with unpredictable behavior from the continuously winding servo. Three or four different mechanisms were explored before the final version was selected and proven.