Attributes
Hospitality, experience audit, service design, illustration, site visits, photography, cultural research, cultural comparison, design for hospitality, consumer behaviour, customer experience.
Hospitality, experience audit, service design, illustration, site visits, photography, cultural research, cultural comparison, design for hospitality, consumer behaviour, customer experience.
Project
'How is everything?' - A research-driven design for solo dining experience in Naarm / Melbourne's hospitality scene
'How is everything?' - A research-driven design for solo dining experience in Naarm / Melbourne's hospitality scene
Brief
The brief required students to hop on a journey of discovering, analysing, comparing, articulating, and generating insights from food-led experiences in Naarm / Melbourne. With a selected type of food-led experience, we began a six-week research of three stages that led to three deliverables.
The brief required students to hop on a journey of discovering, analysing, comparing, articulating, and generating insights from food-led experiences in Naarm / Melbourne. With a selected type of food-led experience, we began a six-week research of three stages that led to three deliverables.
Stages
1 - Research & Presentation
2 - A "Leave Behind"*
3 - Moodboard**
1 - Research & Presentation
2 - A "Leave Behind"*
3 - Moodboard**
*an object that concludes and proposes for better food-led experience of research
**an object that communicates each line of inquiry
**an object that communicates each line of inquiry
Acknowledgement
Stage 1 & 2 are collaborative efforts of Chelsey Connor, Lily Sinclair, Rio Muniandy, and Jing Bin Ter.
Context of Research
Solo dining makes up a 40% of traffic share in the Australian food service industry from 2017 to 2019. Continuing its surge, we are curious about the culture context of its emergence and trend and intend to investigate the friendliness towards solo diner in Melbourne, which is critical in respecting diversity.
Solo dining makes up a 40% of traffic share in the Australian food service industry from 2017 to 2019. Continuing its surge, we are curious about the culture context of its emergence and trend and intend to investigate the friendliness towards solo diner in Melbourne, which is critical in respecting diversity.
What causes the solo pandemic? They are the increase in single dweller, individual lifestyle caused by frequent travel, and COVID-19 restrictions on face-to-face meetup. Psychologically, the heavily communal and socialised society has impacted the mental wellbeing.
So, solo dining has been a part of the culture which can’t be neglected.
Researching Topic
Solo Dining Experience in Naarm / Melbourne
Solo Dining Experience in Naarm / Melbourne
The Team and solo dining
It was nice to have a group with diverse backgrounds. Chelsey and Lily are local Australians, Rio is an American raised in Malaysia whilst I (JB, Jing Bin) am pure Malaysian. This contextualised the potential of undergoing cultural comparison throughout the research, and the intervening of values and perspectives of local and international students.
It was nice to have a group with diverse backgrounds. Chelsey and Lily are local Australians, Rio is an American raised in Malaysia whilst I (JB, Jing Bin) am pure Malaysian. This contextualised the potential of undergoing cultural comparison throughout the research, and the intervening of values and perspectives of local and international students.
As Rio and I arrived in Naarm / Melbourne alone, we discovered that the solo dining experience here had some gaps. Our conversation was later sparked around solo dining experience we had got at different places, says ramen booths at Japan, "chop chop" courtesy at Singapore hawker centres, late night "mamak" in Malaysia, and so on. However, Melburnians are quite obsessed with parties and sorts of group dining. These led to our inquiries about solo dining experience and its culture, needs, gaps and pain points, whereabouts, and even influences on mental wellbeing.
Therefore, we embarked on a "solo dining trip" in Melbourne, and we now have a very different perspective compared to our initial bias and assumptions.
About the studio - 'Hospitable Futures'
'Hospitable Futures' is a studio offered to the cohort of Year 2 & 3 students in Bachelor's Degree of Communication Design at RMIT University, Australia. Led by Rebecca Nally and Rachel Worcou, students embarked on a 14-week journey of discovering, auditing, reflecting, proposing, prototyping hospitality experience in Naarm / Melbourne. The studio learning spanned across food-led experience to prison tourism, aiming to transform the possibly most inhospitable place into hospitable site whilst honestly acknowledging its history.
'Hospitable Futures' is a studio offered to the cohort of Year 2 & 3 students in Bachelor's Degree of Communication Design at RMIT University, Australia. Led by Rebecca Nally and Rachel Worcou, students embarked on a 14-week journey of discovering, auditing, reflecting, proposing, prototyping hospitality experience in Naarm / Melbourne. The studio learning spanned across food-led experience to prison tourism, aiming to transform the possibly most inhospitable place into hospitable site whilst honestly acknowledging its history.
