Spring 2016 | Visiting Scholar
UC San Diego, Design Lab
Summary:
Workshop focused on creating opportunities for participants to explore and propose situated design solutions to the pressing issue of food deserts by applying principles of design thinking and methods of human-centered design in specific scenarios.
Challenge:
How might we provide fresh, healthy, and affordable food to economically distressed communities living in food deserts*?
Workshop Objectives:
Explore and assess the needs and situation of a specific community that lives in a food desert area. • Identify constraints and opportunities in the area in order to propose design solutions that are adequate for that specific context.
Collaboratively propose design solutions that are sensitive to the characteristics and situation of a specific community.
Use low-fidelity techniques of representation to materialize and communicate design solutions.
* What are food deserts?
Food deserts are urban and rural areas without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. To qualify as a food desert, an area must have a poverty rate of 20% or greater, and at least 500 people or 33% of the area’s population must live at least one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store in ur- ban areas or at least 10 miles from a supermarket or large grocery store in rural areas (Source: USDA).
More info (Design Lab's Flickr Gallery)
