Ono Foods Co. // Automated Food Truck

PROJECT/

Ono Food Co wants to make healthy, delicious, affordable smoothies accessible to everyone. Automation is a key ingredient. Ono developed a robot that makes smoothies, built inside of a truck.

When Thing Tank was brought in, the robot had already been developed. But the customer facing facade of the van needed refinement. That facade had a lot of work to do. It had to express Ono’s hip, but organic, brand values. It had to make ordering and pick up as intuitive as possible. And it had to draw customers’ attention to the cool part—watching a robot make your smoothie.

Working backwards from the brand and experience goals we collaborated with the Ono team on service design options and the facade designs that would enable them. We landed on a design that moves pick up and ordering as far apart as possible, provides queue-less delivery and draw’s customer’s attention to the food theatre happening inside. The wooden screen breaks food truck conventions with warmth and timeless modernity.

RESULT/

Ono’s truck officially launched in November of 2019 and it has cause quite a stir. It’s more than a robot in a truck. The team is deploying powerful tools to make sure they are in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the system’s impressive throughput. And smoothies are just the beginning.