An app that saves the planet by promoting the importance of recycling,
raising awareness, and making recycling an action that is easy to do.
An app that saves the planet by promoting the importance of recycling,
raising awareness, and making recycling an action that is easy to do.
App project for a UX course in Communication Studies at Reichman University.
October 2021- January 2022
I was a leading UX designer in a team of 3 students. My role was leading the research and designing the application based on the research. I enjoyed producing the personas, understanding who my users are, who the competitors are and what they are doing. With this research, I have been able to make better design decisions.
As part of a UX course at Reichman University, I was assigned to create an app in groups on any subject I chose. My partner told me that she had moved apartments and was unable to find a recycling bin for cartons in her new neighborhood.
Following this story, I created a recycling app, that makes the locations of the bins accessible by using navigation, provides information about the different types of bins, and shows cleaning days and lectures on the subject o fhelping the environment. The main purpose of the app is to raise awareness of recycling and to make recycling more efficient.
Pollution in Israel is worsening, a large part of it is because of the lack of recycling. While most residents are aware of the problem, and want to do more to help the environment, they don’t succeed in doing so.
Below are the core problems this product aims
to solve:
Most people don't know where the closest recycling bins are to their homes
People are really busy and they don't have time to search for recycling bins.
People usually know individual bins (green, blue, and orange) but there are so many different bins. In addition, they usually don't know which product belongs to which bin, and therefore they throw their trash in the nearest bin, even if it is not suitable.
Pollution in Israel is worsening, a large part of it is because of the lack of recycling. While most residents are aware of the problem, and want to do more to help the environment, they don’t succeed in doing so.
Below are the core problems this product aims
to solve:
Most people don't know where the closest recycling bins are to their homes
People are really busy and they don't have time to search for recycling bins.
People usually know individual bins (green, blue, and orange) but there are so many different bins. In addition, they usually don't know which product belongs to which bin, and therefore they throw their trash in the nearest bin, even if it is not suitable.
At the discovery phase of my project, I conducted user interviews in order to get a better understanding of the problem. I decided to conduct in-depth interviews with different types of people that could represent my target audience.
I did in-depth interviews rather than questionnaires because I felt it was necessary to get to know the person, their motivations, needs, difficulties, and pains in order to create an app that suited them in the best way possible.
I interviewed people that differ from one other, in order to reach as many different target audiences as possible.
Examples of questions I asked the interviewees:
Most of the interviewees expressed interest in recycling and doing more for the environment than they are currently doing.
Most of the interviewees said that their main difficulty in recycling is the lack of accessibility, time and knowledge.
As part of the market analysis, I was looking for similar apps, in order to understand if there is needs in the market, and how my app would be different from others. I found 4 similar apps and I wrote about how each app is similar to my idea and how it’s different. In addition, I created a system of axes, I presented the topic of the information feature and the navigation feature. It was important for me to choose these topics because, according to the research, I realized that for users the navigation to the desired bins and the information about the types of bins is very important and necessary.
From the main problems that arose from the interviews and the construction of the personas, I mentioned 5 main problems. From those, I chose the most significant problem that I would focus on (accessibility).
After I found the most significant problem, I built a question that would define the problem and guide me: “How can I make the issue of recycling accessible to the general public?”
To solve the main problem in the best way, I thought of 10 different ideas of solutions, then I chose three of them which I think were the most suitable ideas for solving the main problem, and from them, I chose the chosen idea which is the app I created.
From the main problems that arose from the interviews and the construction of the personas, I mentioned 5 main problems. From those, I chose the most significant problem that I would focus on (accessibility).
After I found the most significant problem, I built a question that would define the problem and guide me: “How can I make the issue of recycling accessible to the general public?”
To solve the main problem in the best way, I thought of 10 different ideas of solutions, then I chose three of them which I think were the most suitable ideas for solving the main problem, and from them, I chose the chosen idea which is the app I created.
I created the personas to understand who the main users of the app are/would be, and to focus more specifically on their personality traits, who they are, what their needs are, what are their motivations, and what are their difficulties. I created the personas based on the insight of the interviewees. After creating the personas, it became clear to me that most people want to do more for the environment, but don’t, mainly because of the lack of time, accessibility, and knowledge.
I created the personas to understand who the main users of the app are/would be, and to focus more specifically on their personality traits, who they are, what their needs are, what are their motivations, and what are their difficulties. I created the personas based on the insight of the interviewees. After creating the personas, it became clear to me that most people want to do more for the environment, but don’t, mainly because of the lack of time, accessibility, and knowledge.
I usually start the design with sketches, to plan how everything will look, see the line of thinking and design, do a brainstorm and see how the research that I have done on the users, has come into the design. For the home screen, I created 3 different versions. The version that I chose also changed after I did a user test. On the home screen, it was important that the map is in the center, in order to give the users the answer to their needs. In addition, I built a short questionnaire to allow more direction within the app for each user. I made a short and concise questionnaire for a short and easy process.
Before designing the app, I looked at various websites and apps to take inspiration. Taking what I saw, I built an inspiration board which helped me throughout the design process. When I started designing it was important to me to convey a clean and fresh visual style, I did this by using shades of green, round font, icons, and more. I designed it for mobile use, I did it because most people who want to search now for a bin or information, will want to do it immediately. During the design, I changed the home page several times. One of the times I understood, according to the users, that the initial search of the bins should be searched by-product, to do so effectively, I inserted a carousel of different products that when the user clicks on one of them he sees a map with the bins related to the products closest to him.
Before designing the app, I looked at various websites and apps to take inspiration. Taking what I saw, I built an inspiration board which helped me throughout the design process. When I started designing it was important to me to convey a clean and fresh visual style, I did this by using shades of green, round font, icons, and more. I designed it for mobile use, I did it because most people who want to search now for a bin or information, will want to do it immediately. During the design, I changed the home page several times. One of the times I understood, according to the users, that the initial search of the bins should be searched by-product, to do so effectively, I inserted a carousel of different products that when the user clicks on one of them he sees a map with the bins related to the products closest to him.
Before launching the product, I did a Guerrilla testing round, in order to reveal possible usability problems. For the Guerrilla Testing, I built five tasks that the users will check in the app. I walked around Reichman University, and let five people check out the app. I documented them and asked them to speak out loud and explain every action they do. Through this, I was able to understand what parts they did easily, and what they were having a hard getting into. From the results, I discovered two recurring problems, which were incomprehensible to the users. In the second round, I built five different tasks, and again, five people were tested and I came across two problems that recurred in the users. Following the Guerrilla tests, I made some changes to the app.