The smartphone app allows residents to reserve goods remotely, helping them plan so that they can be assured of tool availability.
+Featured collections of goods help residents make sense of how they can use the service.
The app design supports an experience that feels like shopping.
The task sheet enables residents to share tasks. Entry of tasks via digital touchpoints (kiosk, app) improves legibility and allows cross-channel availability. Tasks are also printed and posted in the shop.
+An open-ended format provides a basic structure for requests, guiding residents and then getting out of their way.
The shop kiosk allows residents to check out goods 24 hours a day, it also decreases the residual costs of staffing.
+An RFID key fob means easy identification, the kiosk allows printing of items such as receipts and task sheets.
Clear lockers both display goods to residents and facilitate check-in and check-out. They ensure security while maintaining a retail-like feel and help residents easily gauge the utility of the service.
+Residents can quickly see what items are available. LEDs indicate items ready for check-out, preventing check-out of reserved items about to be picked up.
Meet with salesperson
Visit site, website, view brochure
Introduce Tool & Task service as an amenity
Produce advertisements
Hire salesperson
Meet with salesperson
Pay, sign contract, plan move
Provide Welcome Packet with condo details and Tool & Task information
Produce Welcome Packet
Provide move dates
Move belongings into new space
Explore new building
Invite new residents to Tool & Task picnic event
Produce invitations
Hire shopkeeper, provide training
Meet with shopkeeper
Receive key fob, How To guide, aid
Aid resident in registration
Answer questions about service
Produce guide, key fob, kiosk
Ready shop
Optionally meet with shopkeeper
View instructional poster if needed
Aid resident in first-time use
Have high-demand tools ready
Purchase initial tool inventory
Produce instructional poster
Bring good to shopkeeper
Assess need for and condition of good
Enter good into inventory system
Inventory management system
Criteria for need
View goods
Optionally reserve goods for future use
Display goods
Indicate if unavailable for reserve/checkout
Reservation System
Website, Smartphone App
Use lockers, kiosk, and key fob
View instructional poster if needed
Record checkout of good
Provide email/print confirmation
Provide lockers, checkout system
Produce instructional poster
Bring to use location
Optionally use instruction card
Provide instruction card
Produce instruction card
Use lockers, kiosk and key fob
View instructional poster if needed
Record return
Record condition of item
Inventory management system
Bring good to shopkeeper
Assess need and condition of good
Inventory management system
Criteria for need
Wait while shopkeeper checks in good
Record check in of good
Provide email/print confirmation
Notification system
Indicate length of pause
Check out good
Change status of good to reserved
Communicate limitations on pause
Criteria for pauses
Bring good to Shopkeeper
Record return
Record condition of item
Inventory management system
Provide task information
Optionally print task slip
Record task
Provide entry points for recording task and system of record
Check touchpoints
Receive notification through preferred touchpoint
Send notification of interest in task
Notification system
Check task description and contact information
Display tasks
Provide display points for tasks: website, app, task board, kiosk
Use requestor’s preferred contact information
Provide preferred contact information
Notification system
There are currently no technological quick fixes for global warming. Our only hope is to change our behavior in ways that significantly slow the rate of global warming... Climatologist Lonnie G. Thompson
Tool & Task provides residents of apartment buildings with access to the resources they need to live well (tool), while also enabling them to support each other in the use of these resources (task).
Through the use of a retailÂ-like shop setting, this service offers an attractive, convenient way for residents to live in a more sustainable manner, primarily through identifying community resources and maximizing their use.
Condominium residents could access tools that solve their daily needs, without having to buy or store them. Tool & Task would make living in smaller spaces more palatable by decreasing the use of living space for storage. Residents would have a service that helps introduce them to their neighbors and enables them to more easily give and receive help.
For developers, Tool & Task could become a new type of amenity, making their offering more appealing to buyers. The service could be a prototype for developers looking to become service providers, or at least in selling the initial service to new communities.
The environmental benefits have not been quantified, but one proposition is that people will more fully use underutilized resources. For perspective, Collaborative Consumption guru Rachel Botsman states that nearly 50% of households own a power drill, yet most drills are only used for 12 minutes in their entire lifetime. Another impact could be cultural: the service as a stepping stone to feeling comfortable living with less and building reliance on each other to help solve problems, rather than consuming.