Drink packaging can go from the most economic even minimalistic Asian design approach, in which all we have is a bag and a straw, to the becoming-standard western wax coated paper cup. These are replacing the plastic cups not because of economical reasons but because of environmental issues. That is also why we rarely see warm takeaways in expandable polystyrene containers.

So, if we do are starting to design thinking of environmentally friendly products, why not go a step forward and change disposable cups for permanent ones? After all, the really effective solution to reduce waste is to avoid its production. On top of it there is the significant amount of energy saved in the whole process chain. Through a good product design strategy we can find a new solution for an old problem.

Refund systems have always been around; bars still return empty bottles and cases to the provider. Public transport systems in some cities don´t provide paper tickets, but magnetic cards that are returned after use to be reused.

Germany has succeeded in establishing a standardized refund system for plastic and glass bottles and has almost eliminated the use of cans for beverage in the German market.

Big fast food chains are in fact a very suitable environment for a cup refund system; a titanic number of cups used every day, efficient sharing of resources to reduce costs, multiple branches to return the used cups. In the mid term, it would even be a cheaper solution than disposable cups, not to mention the positive impact on the image of the brand betting on such an initiative.

Design vs Art proposes a cup refund system, integrating collection, washing and handling of cups. Its user oriented design provides easy and time-saving handling and attractive integration in large fast food restaurant chains.

Visit http://designvsart.com/reCups.html for more information.
 

The Problem to Solve

Our agency is based in Munich, a city with a huge public transport network that takes people everywhere. The problem is that as the travelers get more options the network becomes more complex. Then, is very difficult for people to plan a journey without a computer with access to the online route planning system.

There are several services to check this information through a mobile phone but none takes advantage of the latest technology, like GPS.

The Solution

In the following video you can see a fast introduction to our design.

We have been asking users of public transportation about the places they usually go. The answer was that most of them are regularly going to the same places, like work, gym and favorite cafeterias or bars.

So we decided to design an interface as simple as possible that makes the journey planning really fast, wherever the user is but going to those "standard" places. We decided to design our first solution for the iPhone as we realized that tapping on the destination would be the fastest way to do it. 

The Interface

The fromhere interface is clean, it loads fast and eliminates any distraction other applications could have. For us, designing an interface that is fast and easy to use was our main goal. 

The Technology

Thanks to GPS the telephone knows where the user is located. The application then connects to the server to translate coordinates to a real address, such as "Duesseldorfer Strasse 11, Munich".

In the next step the application requests the journey plan between departure and destination to the servers.

Contact Us

Please contact us if you need farther details about the application.

The official fromhere product information website is here: http://www.designvsart.com/fromhere 

Creative Commons

You can use the contents of this article and video under Creative Commons Attributions License 3.0. Just link to http://www.designvsart.com/fromhere

The conference is going to address the design of interactive systems like web and desktop applications, mobile, consumer electronics and digitally enhanced environments. Yeah!

Stars include Alan Cooper, Bill Buxton, Sigi Moeslinger and Malcolm McCullough.

I will keep on posting during my trip!

Hope to see you there.

The site’s design is very clean and simple but keeps the user interested in discovering more about the gallery.

The OKOK Gallery is in Seattle and the current featured artist is Grant Barnhart. On Monday I will have another article about usability and interfaces design for you. Now, enjoy your weekend.

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A good menu and proper wording make this site not-that-crazy and, at the end, user friendly. A simple design and an interface that attract visitors.

Haus der Kunst is one of the leading museums in Munich, Germany.