Retailers like Target set up in-store recycling kiosks to help customers recycle materials they consume. However,offering recycling opportunities alone isn’t motivating enough for retail customers. This lack of recyling leads to indirect waste and hinders the sustainability goals of these companies.
From the customers’ perspective, they aren’t aware of where to recycle the materials, and the process seems daunting due to the lack of support and motivation.
In this Adobe Creative Jam contest, the request was to design a mobile app that aids the recycling process of retail customers.
Our final solution focuses on three pillars:
• Connect the user with local retailers who offer recycling opportunities
• Inform the user of how their items are processed after each recycle
• Motivate the user with a reward point system and show the individual’s environmental impact.
I conducted 3 out of 6 user interviews to understand the recycler’s pain points. Here are the insights I found:
Based on the research, there is an eco-conscious persona and another persona who is not aware of recycling. Since it’s challenging to educate the latter user group on sustainability using only an app, we decided to focus on fulfilling the needs of the eco-conscious persona to keep the scope manageable.
Anna, a busy office worker who advocates sustainability, needs an efficient way of recycling without sacrificing too much of her personal time. Anna also hopes to see the recycling process as she is unsure whether the behaviour makes a difference.
As we dived deeper into Anna’s journey, we decided to tackle the daunting experience of searching for a recycling location and the unmotivated feeling of doubting the actual impact of her contribution.
The recyclers lack support when looking for a location that accepts specific item categories, and the recycling experience doesn’t feel rewarding. Overall, that makes recycling less engaging for the community.
During the feature ideation, the team intentionally left out the ideas that required too much domain expertise and prioritized the ones with higher impact. For instance, a map showing nearby retailers, a recycle tracking system, and a report of the user’s contribution.
To execute these ideas, we started with low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the concept. However, some screens remain medium-fidelity due to the limited timeline. That’s why I redesigned some screens after the contest, focusing on enhancing the UI details.
Greeny aims to convey the feeling of “Earthy, Sustainable, and Approachable”. As I reflect on our process, creating a moodboard was a good way to visualize the look and feel of the app, which successfully drove the creation of the design system.
As our persona Anna struggles with finding a suitable place to recycle, the first idea focuses on displaying nearby retailer kiosks on a map.
The first iteration shows the map up front so the user can view all nearby retailers at once. However, it’s not intuitive to know where to click to find a retailer that matches the user's needs. That’s why the second iteration uses a step-by-step guide to collect the user’s target categories first and only display the retailers that fit these criteria. From there, the user can check the retailer information and choose which one to visit.
To make the process more enjoyable, I added an animation to remind the user of the activity of “throwing items into the recycling bins”.
This small touch brings playfulness to the interaction. As the contest judges commented: “This delightful interaction connects well with people’s mental model of recycling”.
As time and effort become a big concern for Anna, having the companies pick up the items makes it easier to fit regular recycling into Anna’s busy schedule.
To schedule the appointment, Anna will need to input available time slot, address, and items for recycle. When the scheduled day comes, she can leave the items at the front door prior to the scheduled time, and the items will be picked up for recycling.
To solve Anna’s pain point of not knowing “the behind-the-scenes of recycling”, a tracking feature is implemented to allow the users to track the material processing flow from sorting to converting to raw materials. In this way, Anna will be aware of the real-time process of how recycled items are converted to reusable materials to benefit the environment.
By providing a transparent process, the users will also be more motivated to recycle next time, as the tangible outcome of their contribution is one of the biggest rewards for those who are conscious of sustainability.
The users will engage more frequently in recycling as the app provides support and motivation. The retailers will become more environmentally sustainable due to a higher usage rate of their recycle services.
The project won 4th place among 120+ North American design teams in Adobe Creative Jam.
Illustration Reference:
https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/calendar
https://www.freepik.com/vectors/community-work
https://www.freepik.com/vectors/people-recycling
