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Intitial Design Ideas

Originally, there were 4 different directions that were being looked into:

1. Redesign of coin mechanism

2. Redesign exterior of machine

3. Bring machines into local schools

4. Make a user manual

 

1. The coin mechanism idea was due to the huge stigma of buying condoms. We thought there may be a fear that the loud sound of the coin mechanism would turn deter people from using the condom vending machine. When we asked Helena (a Worker at an HIV clinic in Ghana) how she felt about the coin mechanism she said  “I really don’t mind the noise, since those who purchased these condoms come after we have closed at 2pm and on Wednesday, we have pple with one common condition so noboby really care, but if it can be done, why not. But it has not affected buying or I have not had any complains.” Therefore, the redesign of the coin mechanism was nixed.

2. Helena then asked us to “Can we have a different design on the box? I like the Kente covering but that is our official cloth for occasions, and I don’t want it in a cloth form, at least we can have it in a paper form with the HIV/AIDS and the Sankofa symbols we did with Audrey. The black tape that was used is also peeling off making it a bit unattractive.” This brought up the redesign of the exterior of machine.

By updating the aesthetics of the machine we wanted to “Make the machine into something that people want to take care of.”

3. We wanted to bring the condom vending machines into local schools so we can provide for teenagers or college students who may be in embarassed right here in the United States. Schools have certain vendors that they are allowed to purchase supplies from. Putting a condom vending machine in the schools may interfere with the vendor contracts. Therefore, designs for fraternities were considered.

4. The machine would be intuitive, so we settled on putting instructions on how to refill the condoms on the inside of the door of the machine so that whoever is refilling and caring for the machine would know how to properly refill the machine.