Non Dinary –
A dining experience that looks beyond the gender binary
Welcome to Non Dinary, an educational dining experience focused on the notion of gender as a construct. Non Dinary approaches this conversation in an unconventional and lighthearted way. Our proposition is to create transformational journey for uninformed cisgender people to develop a greater understanding of gender non-conformity.
As well as this, the intention is to capture the level of comprehension on the wider spectrum of gender, the changes in gender acceptance geographically and over time and to better understand learning patterns to raise institutional awareness.
MA1 – Team 1
Francesco Cagnola
Kiran Dulay
Kun Qian
Luwen Zhang
Saumya Singhal
Yue Yu

WHAT?
Tell us what the concept is about. What are you designing? What are the key benefits?
Welcome to
Preliminary research indicated that interactive experiences are one of the most effective and memorable ways to learn.
By pairing up with existing restaurants to curate unique menus and learning from and with LGBTQ+ charities,
At various points during the meal,
For those who leave the meal wanting to integrate what they’ve learnt into their life, our vision is to provide an additional platform to share stories, organise meetups and allow individuals to connect. By collaborating with gender non-conforming brands and artists the platform will be a hub for gender non-conforming fashion, music and events. It promotes restaurants who have collaborated with us on a menu and identifies them as gender non-conforming friendly. A future goal is to get gender non-conforming friendly restaurants marked with our logo on navigation apps and recommendation websites such as Google Maps or Tripadvisor. Additionally, the
WHY?
Tell us some of the key findings of your background research and what is the problem you are trying to address.
According to James Marcia, a well-developed identity gives you a good sense of self, which is a strong foundation for happiness. Identity consists of 2 parts: how I see myself and how others see me. A
However, gender identity is not parallel with gender expression, meaning that if you identify as
Based on our interviews, there are many shared problems faced by people in the gender non-conforming community: Pressure to conform to gender norms. Uncomfortable and exhausting conversations explaining gender identity and expression. Fulfilling others expectations to make them feel more comfortable. Receiving disapproving stares or hate crimes. Inability to perform gender expression on a spectrum without ridicule or shame.
Worldwide, not all governments are considering people who are gender non-conforming. This year, 650,000 people in the UK didn’t identify as either male or female. Despite this, the UK government rejected
With increasing awareness of gender fluidity and an increasing number of gender non-conforming people coming out, Non Dinary exists in a future where the conventional concept of gender and gender roles are being put under question. It will become more prevalent to know someone or come into contact with someone in this community. In 5-10 years time, this will no longer be something that we can continue to ignore. By consequence, governments and institutions will need to reset their attitude in a more accepting way. Non Dinary’s aim is to bring down the barriers between the gender non-conforming & cisgender.
WHO?
Tell us something about your users and key stakeholders involved.
It’s an inclusive place where all are welcome, however
Our target user is someone who wants to learn more about gender non-conformity but doesn’t know how. Given the way that the education system teaches gender, it’s hard to break free from ingrained gender discrimination. This can lead to confusion and hesitance to approach the topic out of fear of offending or being politically incorrect. Looking on the internet can be very overwhelming as there’s a lot out there, and can leave out the personal aspect of individuals’ journeys.
WHEN?
Give us an idea of the future scenario where your project will be working.
Non
By prototyping our proposition as an exhibition space, we will collaborate with a local LGBTQ+ artist to help create the interactive tools for data collection. This will allow each space to be unique and representative of the location in which it’s held. The ideal method of data collection is one of the key elements that we wish to understand during our prototyping phase.
In the early stage of prototyping we will cook for the dining experiences according to food standard. We’ve identified Wagamama as one of the first potential culinary partners to curate a menu given their support for the LGBTQ+ community and their “Make it Rainbow” campaign. With this in mind, we plan to take advantage of social media culture, by creating a hashtag to attract our target audience and buid our community. We will do this by giving our customers a fun and unique food experience which they can upload to their social media platforms and share with their friends.
WHERE?
Tell us if you have thought of a specific location where to prototype.
HOW?
Give us an idea of your strategy, your process, your prototyping plan and the next steps.
We united “when”, “where” and “how”