Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Learning Log #5: Vending Machines

Along the lines of Service Design, it has also become less and less of a person to person type of services. It has become more of a person to machine service. Vending machines are service designs that have been around for a long time. It seems odd since I talked about McDonald's and Starbucks, which have human interaction, to vending machines which do not, but are still a service design since they serve people. I've been noticing at more places that your ordinary vending machine is not just used for snacks and drinks anymore. There are places in which you can get a whole meal from a vending machine or an ipod or a camera or even ice cream. I find it interesting that becomes less used as person to person communication. The technology in our world is almost like it is taking over human interaction with one another.

There a place in New York called, "Bamn!" that serves your food automatically through a vending machine. Ipods are not only being sold at the Apple Store, but in vending machines too, you can even customize them with accessories that the also have in the vending machines. In Japan, everything seems to be a vending machine now. There is not a lot of human to human services anymore, they have relied on vending machines to take over for them. Even the snack and drink vending machines have been upgraded, they have more of a robotic feel to them. Vending machines are just another example of service design, but are they really helping society by getting rid of some of the human interaction? Here's a video that I found that explains some of these vending machines:

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