Design that Matters Field Journal

Condom Vending Machine

Back at AJA in Mali, the director Souleymane Sarr asked DtM to look into ways to improve their design for a condom vending machine. AIDS, or SIDA in French, is a huge and growing problem across Africa. In conservative Muslim societies like Mali, young men are often put off from buying condoms due to the attached social stigma of premarital sex. The coin-operated, purely mechanical AJA machine is designed to provide an easy, anonymous alternative to buying condoms at the pharmacy or local boutique.

Several international and local organizations are involved in public education about the use of condoms. These include distributing stickers with pro-condom messages, organizing rallies and parades for young people, and setting up roadside stands for condom distribution. There are also lots of billboards advertising condoms and safe sex in general--this particular sign, from downtown Cotonou, Benin, is aimed at truck drivers, a population particularly at risk for becoming infected with HIV/AIDS, and often responsible for spreading the disease to the rural communities they pass through.

Issues with the current design of the AJA condom vending machine relate to reliability and noise.

The 100 CFA coin (equivalent to US$0.20) necessary to operate the machine is about the same diameter as an American quarter, but thicker and heavier (exact dimensions will be posted when we get back to Cambridge). The vending machine must be able to reliably distinguish between denominations, and to avoid it getting abused by an irate customer, it should reliably eject incorrect coins. The machine should have a window or some other means of indicating the supply of condoms remaining. The ability to make change is currently considered outside the scope of the design.

In terms of dispensing condoms, the machine's current hopper and slide has a habit of jamming. It may also be possible for a particularly frenzied customer to shake condoms lose without paying anything, which sort of defeats the purpose of a vending machine.

In terms of noise, the current plunger-driven, spring-controlled vending mechanism makes a sound like a rusty guillotine--one that doesn't exactly convey a sense of discreetness and anonymity.

Video of the AJA condom vending machine in action will be posted when we get back to Cambridge.

Posted by Timothy Prestero at August 11, 2003 02:55 PM