Myself and three other students (two master students and one PhD student) were tasked to work on a problem related to the health of the human population. We decided to work on a project around environmental health. We worked together on an end-to-end UX design process to aim to answer the question "How can we minimize individual waste?"
MY ROLE
UX Researcher + UX Designer
PROJECT TYPE
Class Project
TIMEFRAME
September 2020 - December 2020
PROJECT SUMMARY
It is inarguable that we need to be environmentally conscious. The consequences of greenhouse gases, overabundance of plastics, and deforestation are dramatically rising each year. These afflictions manifest as decreasing biodiversity and increasing the danger to public health at a community and global scale.
Our goal is to present a design solution that can help aid in minimizing individual waste. After conducting research and analysis, we decided that our design solution would need to be designed as a native mobile application. The reasoning behind this decision is due to one of the main features our design solution includes, which is the ability to analyze products using a smartphone camera. Additionally, users are not always at home when making decisions on product disposal or product purchasing. Therefore, it was an important decision to provide users this type of service in a mobile form.
Watch our project infomercial below for a quick overview of our design solution.
THE CHALLENGE
When it comes to digital threads and online forums, they offer a great opportunity for connecting and brainstorming with other communities at a global level. Anonymity and ease of social media platforms allow for greater communication overcoming barriers of shyness and technological complexity. However, as seen with social media it can also be causes for arguments and spread misinformation.
Another potential inhibitor is the lack of accountability or physical resources; individuals may have this information but be unable to act on it or slowly lose motivation over time. Large political-focused organizations like the website mentioned before demand a certain amount of time and resources. This may be difficult for those from lower income communities and families with other schedule commitments. Another potential barrier is the amount of social energy demanded to participate in these groups. The level of engagement is also highly dependent on the local chapter of these organizations.
Lastly, there are many applications that attempt to remedy these issues with a focus on easily addressing confusion that often comes up when discussing waste. However, many of these applications are seemingly unprofessional, affecting the perceived reliability of the application. These applications may be difficult to use and possibly contain outdated information frustrating potential users. The same issue of personal accountability is ignored as users facing these annoyances could eventually be deterred.
The target audience of the design question is general and focused towards anyone with a slight interest in improving their own environmentally conscious behavior. We propose a solution that addresses those who have little time, patience, and resources, but overall good intentions.
THE SOLUTION
Over a 10 week timeline, we employed a user-centered design process to discover and address barriers individuals experience with individual waste management.
Preliminary Research
Our preliminary research for this project included:
A search of digital applications to see if any similar products for environmental-based intervention had been introduced to market
Each group member executing various user research methodologies from IDEO’s “Look, Learn, Ask, Try” concept cards to explore different research methods and get some quick initial insights on how recycling and sustainability fit into the lives of our potential users
A group sketching exercise where we diverged and then converged on interesting virtual intervention-techniques and user needs that we may have gleaned up until that point
Some of the ideas that we decided to focus on for the project included:
Utilizing novel technological innovations like camera scanning and voice-activation to help aid in waste management
Creating waste management interventions that would help people feel more confident in their waste disposal abilities
Provide emotional support to encourage sticking to personal and community sustainability habits
Increase accountability to increase permanent adoption of habits
Increase knowledge of local resources and waste disposal processes
Making sure the app is a resource that people can easily use during day-to-day activities
Some ideas that were considered but decided out of scope for this project iteration:
Comparison of sustainability between multiple consumer-grade products
GIS visualization techniques for showing information about local waste disposal facilities
A map showing sustainability efforts of neighbors in your local community
Blog of curated posts for environmental awareness
Interviews
Our group performed four semi-structured interviews of individuals who fit our target demographic for the app. The interviews were performed both in-person and over Zoom, depending on appropriate COVID safety standards for the situation. Each interview started with an introduction of our project, and then the researcher proceeded to ask a series of 14 pre-determined questions, as well as any follow up questions that seemed of interest to the researcher based on interviewee responses. The questions at the beginning of the interview were aimed at gaining insight into the day-to-day life of potential users and establishing context for the waste management specific questions that followed.
One of the main reasons we chose this user research method was the wide range of insights we could gain through the use of a single method. For example, the interview protocol had a range of open ended and event-specific questions. The open-ended questions were intended to understand the way that the interviewee understands their own beliefs and actions in regard to waste management practices. The event-specific questions were intended to get at how the interviewee actually acts in regard to waste management practices. Having these pieces of information is important for us to design an effective behavior change app because we need to know how to fit the app naturally into a person’s day-to-day while helping them to close the gap between their motivations and their actual behavior.
Survey
We utilized a survey as our second user research method. The survey was deployed online and started with an overview of our project. We asked a set of 16 questions that were broken down into four categories. The first section involved retrieving contact information and demographics to help us understand who was answering our survey. The second section could be described as a set of “warm-up” questions that help the respondent get into the mindset of answering questions related to waste management and help us get a sense of the respondent’s familiarity and level of engagement with this issue. These questions were all related to the respondent’s confidence and beliefs on Likert scales. The third section was the main part of the survey, and helped us to understand the respondent’s current behavior and motivations in regard to waste management, as well as areas that they would like to change their behavior. The final section was the “cool-down” section and related to a few open-ended questions that could help us understand if the respondent had any information about waste management practices that we had missed.
The usefulness of a survey for us was related to getting a broader sense of user motivations and behaviors. While the interviews were great for getting in depth on a few individuals, the survey was more easily disseminated to a larger audience. In this way, the two methods complemented each other nicely.
Flow Analysis
The final user research method our group used was flow analysis. The flowchart was completed after interviews and aimed to create a generalized process for how people created and processed waste. The flow chart is broken into three sections.
The first section, purchasing, came from our own understanding of waste intervention techniques. Options about selecting and purchasing came from our interviews such as how they walked through the store, finding an item of interest, and deciding to purchase it. The considerations section highlights important questions with subjective responses from an individual’s perspectives. These questions considered altogether dictate whether or not the user decides to purchase the product.
The using section was aimed to provide a transition between the purchasing and disposal process, with no distinction between a certain kind of making from cooking, arts, or even landscaping. A general process in using is taking an object and transforming it, through one of the various actions listed in the transformation space or other possible actions not listed. For much of the using process, transformations are applied sequentially with decisions about the quality and fidelity of the product influencing if transformation is necessary. Many of the transformations lead into a quality deliberation space which the individual decides to further add to it, if it’s complete, or if it is waste. Removal follows this trend as well, but creates byproducts that often lead to disposal.
The last section, waste follows the different thought processes used in disposing of a general object. Considerations are mental processes performed by the user that can be completed in any order. Typically these considerations are about the materials itself and similar to the other sections, are completely subjective. After the considerations region, the flowchart questions the local infrastructure and shows how it can impact the waste disposal process.
This flowchart methodology shows the entire waste management process from the start, at the purchasing level to the end at the disposal level. The flowchart also provides a visual diagram showing possible placements for environmental intervention. Incidentally, the visual layout identified two areas of consideration at the purchasing and disposal process that may become key events for creating sustainable habits. The vagueness of the consideration regions force inquisition about what the specific and diverse thought processes in this region are. With this perspective, we can inquire further research into streamlining and making a more comprehensive process.
Findings | Motivations
Our users’ motivations to reduce personal waste were varied, but multiple interviewees and survey respondents mentioned reducing their impact on the environment as a key motivation. Hand-in-hand with environmental impact was a sense of the feeling they got when they were successful in waste reduction. One user mentioned feeling good about the positive impact of his actions. Another discussed her negative feelings about the economic disparity between the United States and the manufacturing world. Engaging the users’ feelings, whether they be positive or negative, through simple feedback in app or tallying/reporting of waste reduction behavior may be key to sustained interactions with the app, as well as successful waste reduction.
All the interviewees were concerned about how their actions were viewed by important people in their lives. For one person, it was how her children viewed their consumption of goods and striving toward a more minimalist lifestyle. For another, it was the feelings of his significant other toward his behavior. One simply put it as being socially responsible. The motivation to connect with others, maintain good relationships, and be viewed positively is strong. It is supported that social connections and relationships play an important role in waste management and perhaps can be leveraged to increase sustainability efforts.
Findings | Goals & Needs
Many of our users were concerned about buying products that are not only made from recyclable materials, but are also durable and long lasting. Single-use plastics and plastics in general were called out as a main area interviewees wanted to increase sustainability efforts around. One interviewee was focused on buying less products overall as a means to reduce her waste. Durability and quality, as well as recyclability of products, are all elements that the interviewees consider when purchasing.
Convenience in recycling, as well as an easy and straightforward process was an essential goal of our interviewees. They reported too much information, inaccurate information, and contradictorily, not enough information when needed about recycling, in particular recycling plastics. Our interviewees lead varied and busy lives, so information that is accurate, quick to access, easy to understand and act upon, and simple (essential in nature) is key.
Building a community of like minded people to engage in waste reduction and sustainability conversation was mentioned by interviewees. They were explicit in their desire for a community in which they could be supported, praised, and encouraged for their waste reduction efforts. This concept goes further than support from interviewees’ families and friends and expands to a greater social interaction. Our users are social media savvy, using Instagram and Facebook regularly. They are accustomed to sharing information about their daily lives with friends, family, and even strangers. Our application can leverage this desire for connection to a greater community to help people achieve their goals.
Findings | Pain Points & Hesitations
A common pain point our users mentioned was concerning information and access. They were usually confused about how to recycle plastics and what symbols meant. They also reported not knowing what their city waste management process was for certain materials and that their city waste management did not provide varied options for non-landfill items. Finally, one interviewee was concerned about the prevalence of misinformation available on the internet. Our native application can fill this gap by providing accurate and easy to act on guidance and information regarding both recyclability of materials, as well as city/county requirements. Furthermore, our application could provide a means of advocating at a city level for varied waste management options.
The process required to appropriately recycle or compost was another pain point for our users. Three interviewees and multiple survey respondents reported that the cleaning process undertaken before recycling materials was troublesome. One stated that he did not like to compost because of the mess created, as well as a lack of appropriate disposal for compost by his city. Another reported feeling rushed and too busy when attempting to clean recyclables and occasionally not recycling because of this process. One interviewee had three separate waste bins in her house to manage landfill, recycling, and composting. It appears that our application will have to overcome the reported real world hassle of cleaning and managing waste in order to be effective at increasing waste reduction efforts.
Developing habits was mentioned by two interviewees as an area in which they struggled. They mentioned feeling rushed and falling short of their goals when they did not have good habits in place regarding waste reduction. Hand-in-hand with habits, one interviewee mentioned feeling alone in his waste reduction efforts. Finally, one interviewee was unsure if his efforts made any impact on the environment. Combining these pain points together, it appears that daily personal structure and positive reinforcement or feedback is important to establishing, maintaining, and expanding waste reduction efforts. Perhaps this structure and immediate positive reinforcement is a way to overcome the previously mentioned “process” pain point.
Personas
The findings from our research helped us create three types of personas for our product.
Primary Persona:
Secondary Persona:
Supplementary Personas:
Design Requirements
The solution should:
Work on a mobile device for convenience and on-the-go use
Be convenient so busy people can use it easily
Relate back to motivations of environmental sustainability
Connect users with a larger community of like minded individuals
Help the user identify ways to buy more sustainable and fewer products
Help the user identify what is recyclable
Provide info on regulations and practices specific to the user’s location
Provide actionable information
Make the user feel good about the actions they are taking
Changes to Project Scope
Original Design Question: How can we minimize individual waste?
New Design Question: How can we design an app that would make it more convenient and engaging to minimize individual waste?
Our new design question narrows in on one part of a broad and wide-ranging design problem. Now that we have input from our users, we know that they want to make a difference and reduce their overall production of waste but also need to be able to fit it into their day-to-day activities for the efforts to be realistic to undertake. We also understand that they are seeking social engagement and support, accurate and quick information, and a scaffolding to build good habits on.
Design Decisions
Early on in our design process, we decided that our design solution would need to be designed as a native mobile application. The reasoning behind this decision is due to one of the main features our design solution includes, which is the ability to analyze products using a smartphone camera. Additionally, users are not always at home when making decisions on product disposal or product purchasing. Therefore, it was an important decision to provide users this type of service in a mobile form.
We decided to incorporate three different main features for RiCi. The three main features include, My RiCi, Analyze, & Community. These three different features can be accessed on the dashboard located on the bottom of the application. My RiCi provides a space for users to track their waste productivity, Analyze provides users a method to gather more information on how to dispose of their waste & alternatively what products they should purchase, and Community provides a space for users to connect with their community, whether it is participating in events, or competing in challenges with their friends. In order to create a guideline of what needs to be designed in the prototype, we created user flows for each main feature.
My RiCi is the main page users will be opening up to when initiating the RiCi application. My RiCi is designed to hold information about the activity of the user (i.e. recycling activity), provide a page to quickly add commonly disposed items, view challenges, and an option to add personal journal entries. Ultimately, My RiCi provides an overall self-accountability feature to the application by making sure the users know they are responsible for their own choices and actions.
The decision to open up the application to My RiCi and specifically display the Activity page, is based on the idea that we want the user to be informed of their achievements and progress through their badges and statistics. By providing this information to users immediately after opening up the application, it will encourage users to further participate in progress towards their personal goals and badges. The implementation of data visualization through graphs of activity over time, and percentage completion rates for badges, reinforce the idea that opening or using RiCi will assist with informing the user they are “making a difference”, by participating in acts to help reduce waste and ultimately impacting the environment in a positive way.
The Quick Add page provides a way for users to quickly add products that they commonly recycle. The Quick Add page displays recently and commonly recycled products based on what the user has scanned in the past. This feature allows users who commonly recycle certain items to bypass scanning a product every time they want to record a recycled item, resulting in less time needed to enter information about their activity. Additionally, if users want to recycle multiple items of the same product, there is an option to “add” (or subtract) the item from the recycled inventory. This feature allows users to save time when needing to add multiple items at once.
Challenges was designed to gamify the RiCi experience. Gamification was a goal for our team because it would assist in users returning to the application in order to view and update their challenge progress. This ultimately leads users to complete their badges, which results in the user feeling a sense of achievement and contribution to bettering the health of the environment. Users can view the current challenges they are participating in as well as view new challenges. The Challenges page also provides more information about specific challenges (i.e. challenge description) to help encourage users to participate in the challenge as well as specifying the different goals that are included as part of the challenge. Additionally, users can view other users who are participating in challenges and a “Leaderboard” will display users who have completed the most goals in a challenge.
The Journal page provides users a mechanism to consciously think about their own habits for reducing waste. Journal is based on the perspective that as long as users are thinking about their habits or hardships, then they are more easily able to change their waste disposal habits and contributions to environmental health.
Our user research indicates (refer to section from research data) that our target user population has a difficult time with figuring out how to dispose of their products. Analyze is designed to help the user gain information about how to dispose of their waste based on their current location. RiCi will provide users relative information on waste disposal based on county/state regulations. Alternatively, users can also use this feature to help with their product consumption. For example, users can analyze products while grocery shopping to help decide whether they should purchase a product based on how the product would need to be disposed of. Additionally, Analyze will provide information on alternative products the user can purchase that are more sustainable or environmentally friendly. Ultimately, Analyze is designed to be the technological assistance to provide the user with information in order to promote better waste disposal habits and promote more sustainable product consumption.
Garbage Siri was incorporated into Analyze for instances when users are not able to analyze their product(s) with their smartphone devices. Garbage Siri can be compared to Apple’s “Siri” or Amazon’s “Alexa”. Where users can tap on the microphone button, and ask Garbage Siri questions about the product(s) they want to dispose of. Users who may find Garbage Siri particularly helpful are those who may be occupied with their hands (i.e. washing their recyclables) or those who are visually impaired or differently abled. RiCi advocates for inclusivity and Garbage Siri is one implementation to help RiCi move towards a fully inclusive application.
In order to incorporate community-accountability into RiCi, our team implemented the Community feature, which creates a space for users to connect with their community, such as family, friends, or other people in their community. Community offers a Calendar page, Event page, Posting page and a page dedicated to the user’s friends.
When the Community feature is selected, RiCi will automatically open up to the Calendar page. The Calendar page presents to users a “board game” like view of a calendar. Each day is represented visually and indicates whether there are any upcoming events or any events the participant is currently participating in. As the user scrolls down the screen they can view upcoming events. By selecting different days, a short description of the event will be displayed, such as the event name, and date and time of the event. The user then is given the option to view a full description about an event. The Calendar was implemented in order to give users a visual perspective of current and future events that can be participated in. This design gives the user opportunities to pick and choose events to participate in depending on their availability. The visual indication of how long events are happening, will inform the user how many days they have left to participate in specific events.
The Events page provides users information about upcoming events users can participate in. Events lists four different types of events, such as events the user has subscribed to, events a user’s friends are participating in, new events, and popular events located in close proximity to the users location. Listing events in close proximity to users was implemented in order to make events more accessible to users by using their location data. The type of events that are promoted through RiCi are gatherings users can participate in, such as political movements or collective performance activities like a beach cleanup, etc. When selecting a specific event, users can view more information on the event, such as, a more detailed description of the event, location, date, costs, contact information and attendees. Additionally, by selecting a specific event, the page provides a call to action button which is highly visible to users to make it easy to register
The Posts page allows users to share information with their friends. Users can freely express what’s on their mind, share information about petitions to sign, or simply ask questions, like, asking where recycling facilities are located in nearby communities. Different posts are categorized by the type of post the information is related to, such as, “Discussion”, “DIY”, “Politics”, “Resources”, “Social”. Overall, this page was implemented in order to promote community engagement to ultimately achieve the goal of bettering the environmental health of communities. Through socializing with the community, sharing information about resources, and sharing information on DIY projects, users are given the opportunity to work together as a community to improve waste management.
The Friends page is a location for users to view their friends. Users can scroll through their friends and view brief information regarding messages, badges, and calendar events. When selecting a specific friend, users are given the options to view more detailed information about their friends, such as messages, badges, events, and postings. Providing an option for users to private message each other can encourage community engagement, if, for example, users personally invite their friends to events. The option to view friends badges will inform users of badges their friends have completed or are working towards, and can result in “competitiveness” (gamification) which would increase a users engagement in waste management. Users can also view events their friends are participating in, which may encourage users to also participate in those same events. Additionally, users can view posts that their friends have published. These posts are less intimate than the messages, but allow users to reach a wider audience when sharing information or seeking answers to questions. Overall, the Friends page is a centralized location in RiCi for users to engage with and view information about their friends.
THE RESULTS
Reflection
RiCi was my first ever end-to end user centered design project. During the process, most tasks were fairly new to me. The only areas I felt most comfortable in was the research area, since I already have several years of research experience. However, I really enjoyed the challenge of thinking as a UX Designer. This was my first project contributing as a UX Designer and I learned about sketching, user flows, wire framing, style guides, iterating and how to use Figma for prototyping. This project helped set my foundation as a UX designer.
