Based on the feedback we received from our previous test, we added a receptacle box by the front desk, and waited another week to see the results. Since we only made a change that would affect time taken to sort donations into boxes, that was the only metric we asked employees to pay attention to in this iteration. We received feedback that it took less than a day for employees to take donations from the front box and sort them into the categories at the station. Employees also expressed that the boxes under the table would need to be bigger. … Continue reading TEST & ITERATE: Team Magpies & Peacocks

We tested our idea of an immediate sorting station at the Magpies & Peacocks warehouse. For our medium fidelity prototype, we brought four cardboard boxes representing different categories of donations, and set up our sorting station. We placed a large table Magpies & Peacocks already had away from the front desk, and asked the employees to first empty out donation bags onto the table, sort them into piles on the table, place the piles into their corresponding boxes, and later take the items in the boxes to their assigned locations within the warehouse. We left the prototype for a week … Continue reading TEST: Team Magpies & Peacocks

This week, we built a low fidelity prototype based on our different assumptions. Because our problem was very specific to Magpies & Peacocks, their space, and their needs, it was not really possible for us to come up with a low fidelity prototype that would really reflect the problem space, but we tried our best. After the Mid-Semester Review, we had identified two possible solutions: a space oriented solution, which was an intermediate sorting station to break up the organization process, and a people oriented solution which involved weekly volunteer sessions to deal with the existing mess. After weighing both … Continue reading BUILD: Team Magpies & Peacocks