Project overview
The product:
An app to help people reduce single-use plastic to contribute to the reduction of plastic pollution.
Project duration:
January 2023 - Feb 2023
The problem:
Single use plastic pollution.
The goal:
Create a mobile app to help people make lifestyle changes to reduce single use plastic.
My role:
UX/UI designer, Researcher.
Responsibilities:
Research, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.
Understanding the user
Research | Competitive audit | Persona
Research: Survey summary
Top concerns about plastic
Effects on the ocean and marine life
Litter and trash from plastic
Effects on human health
Effects on climate change
Top barriers to recycling
Lack of programs/services to enable recycling
Not knowing how to participate in recycling programs
Inconvenience of recycling
Lack of trust in recycling programs
Most adoptable zero-waste practices
Choosing new products with reusable packing
Avoiding products that are hard to recycle
Repairing goods when they are worn or broken
Consuming less
Research: Statistics
Plastic waste generated in coastal regions is most at risk of entering the oceans. In 2010 coastal plastic waste generated within 50 kilometers of the coastline amounted to 99.5 million tones.
A study found that plastic fibers were present in 83% of tap water samples worldwide. US and Lebanon residents were most likely to find plastic in their tap water, with 94% of samples testing positive.
At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, and plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris found from surface waters to deep-sea sediments.
Competitive audit
An audit of the most notable apps available with a similar purpose of reducing plastic pollution was conducted to find out what is currently available to help people make changes in their daily lives to help the environment and what is missing to guide them.
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Persona
Problem statement:
Julie is a full-time employee who wants to reduce her single-use plastic because she is concerned about the harm plastic is causing to the ocean.
Julie
28 yr
Researcher
"I've been aware of the harm of single-use plastic for a while now, but I didn't do anything about it because I didn't know where to start."
Goals
Find alternatives to single-use plastic products.
Avoid using products that are hard to recycle.
Frustrations
“There are items that I don’t know how or where to recycle.”
“It’s quite inconvenient to be dealing with recycling.”
Starting the design
Ideation | Paper & Digital wireframes | Low-fidelity prototype | Usability studies
Ideation
To consider different solutions to help the user reduce the use of single-use plastic, I used the Crazy Eight method to encourage myself to think of various solutions.
Paper wireframes
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points.
Digital wireframes
After ideating and drafting some paper wireframes, I created the initial designs for the save the Ocean app.
Low-fidelity prototype
To prepare for usability testing, I created a low-fidelity prototype that connected the user flow of getting started with the app, completing a challenge, finding products using the camera, viewing popular posts, and watching videos.
Testing
Usability study parameters & findings
Usability study: parameters
Study type:
Moderated
Location:
Remote, online
Participants:
3 participants, ages 20-30
Length:
15-25 min with each participant
Usability study: findings
These were the main findings uncovered by the usability study:
'Popular' tab
Users didn't fully understand what they would see in the 'Popular' tab.
Search using camera
Users didn't understand what the picture icon was doing in the 'search alternative products' button and why do they have to take a picture.
Videos
Users were not sure what types of videos they would see and why it was redundant with the videos on the 'Popular tab'.
Wording
Users felt that some of the descriptions weren't clear enough and wanted to see more guiding heading.
Refining the design
Mockups | High-fidelity prototype | Accessibility
Mockup: Homepage
Based on the insights from the usability study, I made changes to the homepage.
– The information in the challenges section was reorganized.
– Recommended products related to the challenge were added and displayed when scrolling down on the homepage.
– The navigation was rearranged and redesigned.
– Wording was improved.
Before
After
Mockup: Community page
After the usability study, I also updated the design for the community page.
– The ‘popular’ tab that was confusing users was renamed ‘community’ and moved to the fixed bottom navigation bar.
– Videos have been moved to the community page and a content filter has been added for users to choose what they see.
– A search bar and a ‘post’ button were added.
Before
After
Mockups
Onboarding
Intro to challenges
Intro to shop
Intro to community
Start challenge
Home page
Home page – challenge completed
Home page – related recommended items to shop
Shopping page
Community page
High-fidelity prototype
The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype and include the design changes made after the usability study.
Accessibility considerations
Headings & labels were used to organize the content and support assistive technologies.
Color combinations with enough contrast were used so the content is easy to read, and main actions stand out.
Going forward
Takeaways | Next steps
Takeaways
Impact:
The app encourages people to believe that there is a feasible way to become more environmentally friendly and motivates them to make a positive impact on the environment.
In addition, the app considers the psychological impact on people who feel overwhelmed by the number of changes they need to make, by providing a gradual process along with easily accessible resources for finding alternative products.
What I learned:
Before starting any project, I usually have big ideas and unconventional dreams for the design, and it was not different in this project. However, this project helped strength my understanding of sticking to the core design principles that people are familiar with to facilitate the user eperience, like, the traditional navigation bar and the way sections are divided. Also, I paid a special focus on pycological effects the user might experience while using this app progressive disclosure to help users not get overwhelmed by the amount of tasks they were supposed to complete.
