Call it a first-world problem but nothing makes a bad day worse than your phone running out of juice.

Get Charged! is the first network of phone-charger dispensers available in convenient urban locations, there to help people get the power they need and put a smile back on their face.

The vending machines are designed to stand out, with a playful, amusing look to spread cheer. The charging devices, called Chargies, arrive with a giant grin and a surprise - they contain a message of good-will recorded by the last user.

While running out of battery can be a real downer, getting your phone up and running again is a source of joy. Chargies seek to capitalize on that moment, allowing users to tell their story, express their delight and pass it on to the next person who needs to get that positive charge.

With vending machines deployed at existing public transport infrastructure, Get Charged! benefits from urban ubiquity, high-footfall, easy access at all hours and reaches the modern city-dweller uninterrupted during their transit.

During the video-prototyping course the brief was to develop a service for people who need to recharge their mobile phones when chargers and power sources are not readily available. Having settled on a concept around vending machines and a message in a bottle metaphor, our challenge was to communicate, through a short video, a world in which Chargie devices are commonly available.

In order to do this we built a prototype version of the Get Charged! network, including a dispenser, Chargie devices, vending machine UI and floor stickers to help individuals find a station. We used low-fi prototyping and research to evaluate early convictions before moving to the higher fidelity version presented to an audience including industry insiders.