Nianxi Wu (She/Her)
Nianxi Wu is a problem solver and an innovator who cares about both the commercial and social implications of her work. Service Design and User Research are areas where she is experienced and she has a design, psychology and sociology background.
Good research is important to her. She believes it is the key to people’s hearts and understanding complex situations. She uses critical thinking, is detail-oriented and utilises human perspective in design practice. Her areas of work include digital technology, healthcare, retail, active travel and social design. She cares about human connections, maintaining the ecosystem of our planet, and embracing design for positive impacts.
Contact
E-MA | GSA*Liveworks
Challenge
Reducing food waste at the consumption stage.
The food supply chain is responsible for 30% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. This environmental damage not only has a major impact on the natural environment, but also leads to a gradual depletion of natural resources and affects our food production. If we can’t produce enough food, the problems outweigh rising food costs, food scarcity and unsustainable ecosystems.
Yet more than 40% of the world’s food is thrown away yearly, with the UK throwing away 10 million tonnes of food per year, which equates to 6.5 million meals and could provide 10 meals per year for every citizen. The largest amount of food waste is at the consumption stage (14.7%).
Approach
Enable consumers to make informed decisions and re-build connection with food.
To gain a better understanding of the food system, I interviewed various experts in the food supply chain and consumers. Working with target users and retail staff, we co-created and tested a prototype of the service, identified key behavioural trigger points and designed a new customer journey. I finally chose how to work with retail to help consumers re-establish their relationship with food and foster new consumer behaviours for a sustainable food future, considering the investment costs and the premise of the current retail model.
They stated that the future sustainable food system needs to focus on transparency, traceability, and sustainability. When it comes to food waste, retailers have more power and responsibility than consumers. Providing consumers with effective information about food is what will enable them to make better choices. The greater the consumers’ ability to recognize food’s value, the more conscious they will be of their consumption and the less food they will waste.
I then spent time interviewing various consumers, collaborating to understand their needs and barriers, and I targeted a group of pioneer users who are focused on sustainable consumption and demand to buy food that also meets health needs, is environmentally friendly, and is affordable. However, the lack of visibility of the environmental impact of food, as well as a lack of sustainable options, made this decision difficult for them.
Outcome
A service to foster consumer & food supply chain into a sustainable future.
E-MA is a food supply chain environmental impact assessment tool, it designed to assist consumers in making informed decisions and re-establishing a connection with food during their food shopping experience.
The service calculates the supply chain carbon footprint of food products, assigning each product an environmental impact score and labelling it with the relevant colour. Consumers can use the labels to quickly identify foods that have different environmental impacts and make better choices for their health and the environment.
E-MA enables consumers to make more informed decisions about the future of food by making the food supply chain more transparent. It also enables food retailers to use their power more effectively and to be more socially responsible. It reduces supermarket food waste while encouraging a transformation in the food industry supply chain toward a more sustainable food future.
Impact
In a short term, E-MA enables consumers to make more informed decisions and build better connections with food.
In the mid-term, it encourages the food supply chain and retailers to shift to a more transparent model, achieving SBT.
In a long term, E-MA responds to the Economic Circular Economy Bill being launched by the Scottish Government lately, making a small positive impact on a 10-year economic transformation strategy implementation.
Project Links
Self Care Community system | GSA*NHS 24
Challenge
Plenty of non-critical calls to NHS 111 is one big reason caused the backlog of NHS24, which increased loads of pressure to call handlers and fewer opportunities for those who really need medical support to connect to NHS services. At the same time, the long waiting time to get a response makes patients’ experience with calling 111 become worse – it’s a negative loop in the current system.
Approach
Integrating patients’ needs into preventive supportive community services.
we worked with the NHS24 design team, NHS staff and patients to understand and contextualise the current NHS healthcare system priorities, planning and the needs of healthcare professionals and patients.
we conducted street interviews, in-depth interviews and co-design workshops to gain a deeper understanding of the different needs of current users and to translate them into service mapping according to priority.
we have received positive feedback from the NHS24 team of experts who have assisted us in getting the solution optimised, as well as from a number of core users who have tested it to prove the viability of the service solution.
Outcome
An online community system facilitated on NHS inform platform.
Offload pressure of non-critical calls from NHS 111 by empowering preventive care via an online Self-care community system facilitated on NHS inform website.
Impact
“Providing and caring for someone and seeing them flourish and grow from it give me empowerment ( in this process). ” – K, the core user
We identified and brought to life the different users and their emotional journeys using NHS24 services, determining themes and topics for tailoring responses, events and experiences to NHS24 targeted users. by working in the open, sharing and learning as we went along, we demonstrated our work to the NHS Service design & expert team and aligned everyone behind one vision for the efficient, critical service.
Through collaboration across sectors, we were able to map and re-design a deliverable community care system based on current service offerings, allowing for a more efficient, critical, compelling experience for stakeholders, towards the sustainability of NHS in the long term.
