The interactive donation box uses Arduino and Processing to visualize a community’s contributions to a good cause. It leverages the donation experience by acknowledging their good deeds, and inspiring others to take part in the collaborative effort.

The start

Earlier this year I took Design in Interactive Environments course, where I had the opportunity to build an interactive product for the first time. Towards the end of the course I wanted to create something that is more than just an experiment – something that can visualize audience’s behaviours in a meaningful way. While brainstorming what to build, I recalled Cecilia Uhr’s Change for Change project, which redesigned the donation box to show the positive effect of one’s contribution. Inspired by this project, I decided to see how Arduino and Processing can be incorporated to visualize the community’s contributions to a good cause.

Problem

I started out by observing the donation boxes from many charities and smaller non-profit organizations. These donation boxes feel very disconnected from the audience, usually with just a smallcall-to-action message that can be easily missed or ignored. When a donation is made, it simply goes into a closed box, as if they threw it in a disposal bin. They aren’t acknowledged for their good deed. The lack of excitement and reward in this experience makes people easily miss or ignore it.

Assembling the box

For this project I used Arduino with an ultrasonic distance measuring sensor to detect incoming donations. At first I tried using a weight sensor, but the coins and bills weighed too light for it to detect properly. I coded the ultrasonic distance measuring sensor so that it outputs a value whenever an object is detected within a certain distance from the sensor. Then I attached the sensor inside the box, just beside the slit where the donations will go through. To test the code, I attached the output with an LED to see if it lights up whenever a coin or bill moves through the defined distance from the sensor.

Afterwards, I connected Arduino with Processing so that it visualizes an image on the display whenever a donation goes in the box. The display starts off with an empty state, with a message that suggests the image they will see when they make a donation. To make it more engaging, I created multiple versions of the image and randomized the order so that the audience would see a different image than previous one. It also plays a pinging sound to gamify the experience.

The new donation box

This donation experience consists of two parts: a donation box containing Arduino and the sensor, and a screen that displays Processing sketch, visualizing the community’s contributions. For this project I decided to demonstrate two possible use cases: 1) A non-profit organization collecting donations to bring more safe and clean water to the developing nations in Africa. 2) A local charity collecting donations to plant more trees to restore the nature in the city.

For the first use case, every donation draws a water drop to show how the donation will help provide more water to the developing nations in Africa. For the second use case, every donation shows a tree sprout growing in soil. This not only acknowledges one’s good deed, but also makes the experience rewarding because they can see how their contribution is helping towards a cause. Displaying the community’s effort will help inspire more people to contribute to the donation box.