Design a vending machine for blind people.

What is a vending machine?
A machine that 
Offer a set of pre-determined products
Select the product
Pay for the product
Collect and consume the product

Clarifying questions

Is this a physical vending machine for snacks and/or drinks
Does this machine accept cash / coins and credit cards / UPI or all
Is this product built only for blind people or normal ppl as well
Is this product for fully impaired, partial, color blind or all 3

Answers:

This physical vending machine is to dispense packaged snacks. This vending machine is designed only for fully impaired users.

For this product, we would focus on the individual who can speak and hear but is fully impaired.

User Journey

A. Normal People - Visually abled

User walks to the Vending machine
User sees the items that are available in the vending machine
User sees what is not available in the vending machine
User makes a selection
User sees the price
User enters the quantity
User makes a payment (cash, card)
User takes the dispensed product
User walks away from the vending machine with the purchase.

Considering the above user journey, listed below are user pain points for the Fully Impaired (FI) individual

Locating the vending machine
Unable to determine which food items are available for purchase and which are out of stock.
Not knowing where to input the item to purchase and quantity
Not knowing the price of the item to be purchased
Not knowing where to swipe the card, security of the details being inputted (shoulder surfing)
Not knowing where to insert the cash, notes to use
Counting and inserting the right amount in the vending machine could take more time as compared with user having normal sight.
Finding where the product has been dispensed.

Solutions

Solution 1 is more user-friendly. For the 1st iteration we can go with Solution 1 and later on, implement the braille keypad from Solution 2 if deemed necessary.

Metrics
# of users that completed the transaction
# of users that completed the selection but were unable to complete payment
# of times the user completed the selection, and payment but was unable to pick the dispensed product.
# of times the user was unable to browse through the available items and make any selection
# of drops due to voice input not being received by the vending machine.

Put signs in Braille on the outside of the machine. Design the signs in a way where they can be easily updated by the person filling the machine. Signs placed above or below product or product image on the outside of the machine.

Attach slots with ashesive, the slots are designed to have plates put into them (similar to the slot a name plate is put into on the outside of a door). The plates have on them written in Braille: product name, order code, price. These are three separate plates which can be inserted independently, to customize the product indicators for each machine. To prevent accidental removal of the Braille plates, give the plates a magnetic backing and use either metal slots or attach a magnetic strip on the slots. Alternatively, you could have one closed end and a clip at the open end of the slot to block the plates from slipping out accidentally.

To address product availability, use a buzzer which noticeably vibrates and signal "out of stock" with two consecutive short buzzes and signal "in stock" with one long buzz. Place the buzzer beside the "coin return" button/lever.

To indicate a product has successfully vended, utilize the buzzer to signal this with two consecutive long buzzes. If a product does not successfully vend, either by machine malfunction or because of the user (incorrect payment amount, unrecognized product code, payment denied, or vending canceled by user), use three consecutive short buzzes to indicate product has failed to vend.

There are several variations to the outlined solutions, depending on machine layout, product options, and user experience goals.

Instead of buzzes, you could play tones (low or high pitch or both simulatneously, if you do not have any users who are both visually and hearing impaired).

For machines with a set product selection, such as branded beverage vending machines, the Braille product indicators can be permanently affixed to the machine with the option of having removable Braille price indicators.

Product slots and plates can be made by a third party, the vending machine manufacturer, or provided by manufacturers of the products stocked in the machine. If this is a solution for an individual business/office that has a vending machine, it can be fairly easy to create your own product indication system by hand (use magnetic strips with adhesive backing and affix these in front of products/product images on the outside of the machine, use a Braille label-maker to make the product/code/price indicators and attach these to magnetic strips with an adhesive). The only way to implement the "out of/in stock" and "error/success" buzzers or tones is for that to be done by a certified mechanic employed to the task by the vending machine manufacturer (though if you are not violating the terms of use for the machine by doing so, you can certainly rig this yourself if you have experience with circuit boards).

I hope this helps.

Clarify:
1. Is it a physical vending machine?
2. The blind people we target are totally blind, but can hear and speak?
Assuming the answer is YES.

Identify User Groups
Blind people, but also technicals and operators, and for business purpose, we also need to support normal people.
I will focus on blind people since it’s our goal.

Report User Needs
1. When blind people pass by, they need to know where is the vending machine and how to get there
2. When they are in front of the vending machine, they need to know the items on sale, name, price and stock
3. They ‘choose’ a specific item and pay for it
4. Then pick up the item they bought
5. They can leave the feedback

Cut Through Prioritization
I guess 1, 2, 3 user needs are essential, while 4 could be the same as normal ones, since not that much hard to get it, and 5 might be considered in the future.

List Solutions
1. App for the blind people, it will notify them when there is a vending machine nearby, and ask whether they would like to have some snack or drink via voice and vibration
2. The vending machine can detect there is a blind customer there via App, or there is a big physical button for blind people to wake up the vending machine
3. Automatically introduce the items by voice, including name, price and stock, blind people can respond to it
4. Blind people can directly say what they want via voice input, vending machine give them voice feedback
5. Pay by the credit card or app without inputting password (normally no password required under $200)
6. App can be voice controlled in advance with a specific item or the user preference

Evaluate the Trade-offs
1. Impact 5, Cost 4
2. Impact 5, Cost 2
3. Impact 4, Cost 3
4. Impact 5, Cost 3
5. Impact 5, Cost 2
6. Impact 3, Cost 3

Summarize
I will choose 1, 2, 4, 5 solutions to provide a vending machine with voice and app support for the blind people buy some snack and drinks.

Design a Vending Machine for Blind People
What is the purpose of a Vending Machine – Offer a choice of pre-determined products to someone and help them make a selection and pay for the item.
Clarifying questions –
Is this a physical vending machine for snacks and/or drinks?
Does it accept cash/coins or credit card or both?
Does this vending machine need to work for blind people and normally sighted people or only blind people? – Both?
Do we assume that our blind users are 100% blind (legally blind)?
Lets say that the answers to all these questions is Yes.
What are the main needs for users of vending machines and what are the gaps for blind/visually impaired people?
1. Product Discovery – A vending machine has a stock of different (but limited categories) of snacks and or drinks. People usually “see” these selections to make a choice. People “see” if a product is in stock or out of stock. Gap for blind people – They cannot see the categories and selections visually.
Snacks are usually in the categories of chips, pop corn, bars (chocolate, granola), nuts
Drinks are usually in the categories of water, juice, soda

2. Product Selection – There are usually unique numbers associated with each product selection that a user has to key in or touch to select the product they want. Gap for blind people – They cannot see the number or the location of the product in the vending machine to key in or make a selection for what they want.

3. Complete Transaction – The user is shown the price of the product either up front or once the selection is made. They insert cash, coins or swipe their card to make a payment. Once a product has been selected and paid for, it comes out of the vending machine. The user takes the product out and goes on his/her way. Gap for blind people – They cannot see the price of the product and it may be hard for them to insert the exact cash/coins or swipe their card for payment purposes. It may be hard for them to know where the product came out once the transaction is complete.

Since blind people cannot rely on sight, they will have to rely on their other senses – touch, sound and smell. We can eliminate smell for this use case as the products will be packaged in a vending machine.
We can rely on audio and touch for helping with product discovery, selection and transaction

Features
1. Product Discovery and Selection: Product Discovery and Selection can be done via initiating user input or by reading out a menu that’s not tedious/long to hear. When the blind person comes near the vending machine,

• A very simple way to solve this problem would be to have a visually capable human being sit next to the vending machine and help the blind person make the product selection and choice.
• In the absence of a human being, by facial recognition through cameras, the machine can detect that this person is blind or as a simpler solution – a voice could simply ask if the person needs assistance with selection
• A voice prompt near the machine could ask for – Would you like a snack or a drink today? If the user says – snack- they can be prompted for chips, bars or popcorn. When they say chips- they can be given the 4 different options within the menu and the user can make a choice via voice input. Alternatively, the user could interrupt the voice prompt to specifically ask for a particular product they like and the machine can either confirm or offer a similar product/substitute. Over time, the vending machine could get smarter by learning the user’s preferences.
• Or there could be a mobile solution: There could be integration between an app on the user’s phone and the vending machine for the user to handle these voice interactions through their own mobile phone which would then communicate with the vending machine via blue tooth. Data would be stored about the user’s preferences on the vending machine app on their phone. The phone could also help with detecting the location of the nearest vending machine through voice assisted navigation. The phone/app could even let the user know if the product is out of stock and offer an alternative.
• Once the machine has understood the user’s choice, it can confirm the choice by asking the user and by asking for quantity, amount to be paid.
2. Transaction – Getting the product from the vending machine can be done in multiple ways
a. The selected product could fall in to a mechanical arm attached to the vending machine which would then start buzzing – prompting the user to move their hand towards the arm. Once they place their arm on the mechanical arm, it could guide the user to pick the selected product from there.
b. Payment information should be pre- updated in the mobile app account associated with the vending machine or in the vending machine payment system (similar to Uber or Lyft). A friend or a relative of the blind person could help setting this account up front. The mobile app interaction of selecting the product and confirming the purchase via voice would deduct the payment amount from their account.
c. Another option is to use crowd sourced apps where the blind person can take a picture of the bill/coin they have and ask the mobile app if it’s the correct amount. A company had done this recently using Amazon mechanical turk but I like the first pre-paid option much more.
3. Prioritization
a. Product Selection – I would build the voice activated mobile vending machine app instead of creating the voice processing capability in the vending machine itself . This would make the mobile app more generic and potentially help it work with different kinds of vending machines with different product selections. (I am not going in to data set up requirements here)
b. Transaction – I would build the buzzing mechanical arm to deliver the snack near the blind person so that they don’t have to worry about pulling the snack from a difficult position in the machine.
c. Transaction – I would build the pre-paid account capability to make payment processing easier for the blind person.
This would constitute my MVP.
4. Metrics and Launch Plan
a. Adoption and Engagement– How many blind users are downloading the vending machine app (app downloads), monthly active usage (how many are using the app regularly at vending machines), how many vending machines are converting to this model and integrating with my app (app integrations)
b. Customer feedback – I would get audio NPS feedback from my blind users to see whats working and not working – are they able to select products easily, is the NLP working well?
c. I would first test it in schools or colleges with blind students to see if they adopt and engage with this vending machine – app combination product as well as collect customer feedback. I would continue rolling it out to more schools, colleges, cities across US depending on nature of feedback, adoption and usage improvements.
d. Monetization – I would like to offer these machines at a discount and get revenue from the vendors whose products are being offered in the machine as this is for a socially relevant and inclusive cause.