Challenge:

Create an app which:

• Promotes people to start recycling

• Make recycling more accessible

• Make people feel like they are making a difference on a small scale (community) and larger scale (planet)

Let’s talk to some people…

I interviewed 3 people from within my own network who recycle and collected survey responses from 19 people. I wanted to find out…

• What are challenges people face when it comes to recycling

• Is it convenient

• What can make it more accessible

• Why do people recycling

• What do people do when they are unsure how to recycle something

What did we find out?

• Majority of people surveyed/ interviews had curbside pickup or recycling facilities in their apartment

• The most important reason people are recycling are for environmental benefits

• 2/3 of survey respondents recycle daily, with the remainder recycling weekly

• The vast majority of people do not separate their recyclables

• People who did separate, separate by paper, glass, aluminum, plastic

• None of the interviewees knew how to recycle electronics properly

• If someone is unsure of how to properly recycle an item, they throw it in the trash

• Biggest challenge is knowing if something is recyclable

Using the Research findings the following empathy map was created in order to get an idea of who the user would be

How can we help?

In an attempt to figure out what problem to help solve, the following affinity diagram was created to get a broader view of people’s needs when it comes to recycling.

What needs did the affinity digram reveal to us?

• Knowledge on what is recyclable

• Know how to recycle specific products

• Need recycling locations close to them

• Need places to recycle easily available

• Need to feel like recycling is a natural behavior

• Convenience

• Feel like recycling is an integral part of their lifestyle

What to do?

I felt that the main issue people had with with recycling was knowledge based. User interviews indicated that even people who recycle regularly don’t have a lot of information on what was actually recyclable, and how to recycle certain items. Secondary research also illustrated this as a problem because this lack of knowledge causes a lot of items which people think they are recycling to end up in a landfill.

User Journey Map

The following journey map shows a typical situation based on research of what happens when a user is unable to find out quickly whether an item is recyclable or not.

How might we…

With a POV chosen, I took the HMW statements from the affinity diagram and brainstormed possible solutions for each statement

How might we provide a guide with steps on how to recycle all kinds of products

How might we allow Emma to figure out if items are recyclable without searching it

The solution decided upon was to provide users with an educational tool, that gives specific instructions on how to recycle products so that they don’t unknowingly end up in landfills. This solution solves one of the major problems that users were having based on the research that they were not sure how to recycle certain objects. It also helps solve one of the major problems with recycling in general, that a lot of people’s items that they think is getting recycled is actually ending up in landfills due to improper preparation

How do we get users to keep using the app?

Once users learn how to properly recycle certain items, what was making them come back to the app and continue recycling regularly? From a business perspective there needed to be features that would assist in customer retention.

Possible solutions for the following How might we statement was brainstormed to get some ideas.

How might we incentivize users to continue recycling

What is the app actually going to do?

• The must haves are related to the main the main solution of educating users on how to recycle specific items

• The nice to haves have to do wit customer retenion

It has to be recognizable

I wanted the navigation of the app to be intuitive. Inspiration came from existing apps designed to assist with recycling, and fitness apps, such as MyFitnessPal which included a similar navigation when users are tracking their meals.

Pen to paper

With the sitemap in hand, I conducted crazy 8’s and came up with the following layouts for the a few of the main pages for the mobile app which would provide information on what is recyclable, and how to recycle specific products.

I included positive effects on the items page because in the user interviews there was a common theme of not knowing if what they are doing is actually helping, or what the impact actually is.

Community?

I wanted to promote community within the app because the end goal is making an impact on ones own town, or city, and with more people working towards that goal a greater impact can be made. The following storyboard illustrates an example of how word of mouth can spread use of the app, and possibly further action towards more thoughtful recycling and conservation.

Wireframing

The wireframes were completed, I kept the branding pretty simple for this phase. I wanted to main color to be green which represents the environment, and when an item was not recyclable I wanted a bright red X that was easy to see to signify that.

Test Objectives

• Test the flow of the design

• Test is users are able to navigate to specific items

• Test if users can add a recyclable item to their recycling activity list

• Test if users can check the recycling activity of a previous date

Five Users were remotely tested the app through zoom. I wanted to test whether users were able to

• Find out how to recycle a plastic bottle

• Add a water bottle to their recycling activity list

• Navigate to their recycling activity today

• Navigate to their recycling activity on Christmas

• See who is on the app within the community

Main Change

The part of the user which caused the most issues was when participants were asked to add the water bottle to their recent recycling activity. Users initially had to start typing what they wanted to add, and that oval with the + sign would pop up like predictive text and they could click that. Users were confused because there was a + sign there, and another one beside the input field. A couple users wondered if they would be adding the item twice.

• I changed the + button to “add” and made the above oval an indicator for recently added items, which would turn green when clicked on.

UI after updates

What’s next?

• If possible I would like to add a feature where users can take pictures of barcodes of items and those items will automatically be added to their list. However, I am not sure if there is a database available with the packaging materials of of products

• Add a graph function which shows monthly recycling activity. Users stated that seeing improvement on a monthly basis would motivate them to continue using the app and recycling

• Create some type of way to verify that users are actually recycling what they claim they are

• I would like to make the community more robust with a page dedicated to events related to conservation

• Make it more clear what is required to win prizes such as gift cards to eco friendly businesses, and having a tree planted for a certain amount of points

Reflection

It is hard to build an app that helps with recycling information that can be used in any location because required preparation of recyclables varies from place to place. I was designing this app from the perspective of someone living in Chicago. If enough people who are interested in recycling properly within a city and/or community use this app, and the concept is proven, maybe Recycli can be given to orgnizations in other cities who can update the recycling directions and information so it matches the needs of their city/community.