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Cooperative Project
Where Remote Meets Urban: Creating Connected Experiences
Collaborative Project with SF Express
Role
Design & UX Research
Team
Kelvin Fong
Daniel Tsang
Year
2024
Project Type
School Project
Overview
SwiftFresh is a service concept developed in Hong Kong PolyU (Polytechnic University) is collaborating with SF Express to explore how fresh food and health food shopping can become.collaboration with SF Express to explore how fresh food and health-focused shopping could become more accessible for residents living on Hong Kong's outlying islands. The project focuses on a simple but important question: how might we reduce the friction of getting fresh ingredients while also supporting healthier everyday choices?
Rather than treating drone delivery as the final answer, we used it as part of a broader service strategy. Our goal was to design an experience that could work within the realities of island living, while still feeling practical, useful, and grounded in real user needs.
Target Audience
The research focuses on residents of Hong Kong's outlying islands—Cheung Chau, Peng Chau, and Lamma Island—to understand how drone delivery technology can enhance their daily life.
For many residents, buying fresh ingredients is not just a matter of convenience. It is shaped by ferry schedules, transport costs, supply limitations, and the extra effort needed to shop outside the island. SwiftFresh was designed with these realities in mind.
Research Method
To understand the problem more clearly, we combined quantitative and qualitative methods. We conducted 56 surveys, 15 face-to-face interviews, and 4 on-site visits with residents of Cheung Chau, Peng Chau, and Lamma Island.
56
📝 Surveys
15
💬 Interviews
4
🏝️ Site Visits
The surveys helped us understand which products were most affected by limited supply and higher prices. The interviews gave us a deeper view into daily routines, shopping behaviour, and the trade-offs residents make when choosing where and how to buy food. The site visits helped us observe the island context directly and understand how geography influences shopping decisions.
Together, these methods helped us move beyond assumptions. Instead of treating the issue as a simple delivery problem, we began to understand it as a broader access problem shaped by location, time, cost, and lifestyle goals.
Survey Findings
Fresh food was the most commonly reported category affected by both limited availability and higher prices, suggesting that food accessibility should become the primary design focus.
Problems
Fresh food is hard to access consistently
Residents often said that the food they wanted was not always available on the island. Even when basic items were available, the range of fresh ingredients was limited, which made it harder to cook balanced meals at home.
Shopping outside the island is possible, but not always practical
Travelling to the city may offer more choices, but it also introduces ferry fares, longer travel time, and more effort. In many cases, the cost of leaving the island reduced the benefit of the trip.
Health pursuit
Many interviewees also told us they valued healthy eating and tried to maintain a balanced diet. Some used supplements to support their well-being. However, good intentions did not fully solve the problem when fresh ingredients were difficult to buy regularly.
Design Principles
Improve accessibility
The service should make it easier for residents to find and receive the food and health-related products they need.
Reduce travel burdens
The service should reduce the need for residents to spend extra time and money travelling off the island for better food options.
Support healthier choices
The service should not only improve access, but also help users make healthier decisions with less effort.
Design Concept
Online Marketplace
The marketplace helps island residents access fresh ingredients and health-related products without travelling to the city. Orders are fulfilled through local market partners, delivered by SF Express drones, and stored in cold-chain lockers for convenient collection.
Personalized nutrition test
Users begin by entering their health goals, dietary preferences, and basic information to receive a personalised nutrition plan. By providing tailored dietary guidance and meal recommendations, the feature helps users make healthier choices with greater confidence once fresh ingredients become more accessible.
Healthy Recipe
This feature turns nutritional guidance into practical meals by recommending recipes that match each user's dietary goals. Users can view nutritional information, cooking instructions, and purchase ingredients directly as recipe bundles or individual items, creating a seamless journey from planning to cooking.
Nutrition Tracker
The tracker helps users monitor their daily food intake, compare it against their nutrition goals, and receive ongoing recommendations. Rather than focusing on a single purchase, it encourages long-term healthy habits by helping users stay aware of their eating patterns and progress.
Reflection
Research shapes the concept, not the other way around
It was not about forcing drone technology into a concept. It was about using research to shape a service that could make healthy living feel more practical for people living in a constrained environment.
Validation is the next step.
If we were to continue this project, we would focus on three things: validating the operational side, testing whether users actually want the nutrition-support layer, and exploring the business model in more depth.
© 2026. Made by Billy S.
