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Reimagining JustVend

Feb 2026
System Design UX Research

Students eat from these machines when the mess is closed, when class is about to start, or when the café is too far to walk. We treated the machines as part of that food system.

Food can sit in the machine and still be out of reach. You cannot see the stock from your room, payment needs a network that drops, and the flap is heavy.
Context
Campus Infrastructure
Team
Arnav, Jashith, Rajshekhar
Role
Research & System Design
Date
Feb 2026

The problem

We interviewed people and watched the machines at the hours they get used. Morning rush, the gap between classes, late night. Students go there when the mess or the cafés are shut, or when they do not have time to walk.

Three things break the trip. You cannot tell which machine still has what you want. Payment and the map both fail when campus Wi-Fi fails. The security flap is heavy, and getting the item out is a wrestle if your hands are tired or hurt.

Method

Interviews were short and next to the flap. We also talked to people who never buy. Security sits beside machines they are not allowed to use.

What we could change was small. Campus Wi-Fi stays bad, the machines stay where they are, and nobody was funding a new mess. The job was to make the machines that already exist easier to read and use.

ConstraintInventory is real only if someone restocked. A map that lies is worse than no map.
ConstraintPayments drop when the network drops. Offline has to be a first path, not a toast.
ConstraintThe flap is a physical object. Tired or injured hands were part of the brief, not an accessibility add-on.

What we changed

Three changes, on the machines that already exist. Show what is actually stocked. Let someone pay when the network is down. Open the flap outward, and show what they have spent without nagging them.

A map of what is stocked

Students can see what each machine still has before they walk. The map is a list of real stock, machine by machine.

People look for the item they want, then the nearest machine that has it. A trip across campus for an empty slot was the failure we kept hearing.

Pay when the network is down

If Wi-Fi drops, the phone pays from an offline wallet with a balance loaded earlier. A tap confirms you are at this machine. If GPS drops, you can say which machine you are at.

Payment that needs a perfect network fails at the moment someone is hungry. The offline path has to work on the first try, and it has to be this machine, not the one two buildings over.

The flap, and what you have spent

The heavy flap becomes one that opens outward, so a tired or injured hand can get the item. A spend total sits on the phone. It shows the sum. It does not nudge, and it does not turn spending into a game.

People use these machines when they are late or tired. The flap should not be a second workout, and the spend total should be a number they can see, not a prompt.

One night

11:30 PM. Mess closed, project half-done. You do not walk the hostel loop hoping a machine still has something edible. You search "Protein Bars." The map names the machine that still has them.

You get there. Campus Wi-Fi is dead. The offline wallet is already on the phone, so you tap. A check asks you to confirm you are at this machine, not the one two buildings over. That was the failure we kept seeing when GPS and payment both guessed. Then you lift an outward flap, phone still in the other hand.

That is the whole job: know what is in the box before you walk, pay when the network is gone, take the food without a wrestling match. The ethics questions below are what this journey still does not answer.

Questions still open

A wider brief, one that includes security and other people who work on campus, still has these open.

Students were unhappy even on discounted items. They said they were falling for it, and they called the offers marketing tactics. A lower price did not fix a trip that felt like a trick.
Students who buy the items marked healthy are still unhappy. The packet says wellness. The machine is still mostly junk food. It is not clear that anyone is eating better.
Security guards and campus workers sit beside the machines and still cannot use them. A service that leaves out the people standing next to it is unfinished.
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