Users can schedule pickups to recycle uncommon or hazardous items such as batteries, car oil, and old electronics.
Users can quickly see if an item is recyclable or not based on their location, as each city may have different recycling standards.
Users can earn rewards and badges for completing monthly challenges, recycling goals, and share achievements on social media.
Figma
Maze
80 Hours
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Designer
Wish-cycling contributes to waste contamination and increased sorting costs. This is an opportunity to help make the recycling process easier.
A mobile app that provides guidance on recycling using gamification techniques and local recycling information.
The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) inspired me to explore waste management issues. Waste has contributed to the ongoing climate crisis and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. "Wish-cycling" specifically can be harmful to the recycling process because additional trash contaminates the waste stream, causing them to be rejected by the recycling facility.
I was curious to learn more about what the current recycling experience was like for others through these questions:
What do people mainly recycle?
How do people recycle?
When does recycling get confusing?
Under the time constraints, I surveyed 25 participants in California about their recent recycling experiences to quickly gather information and identify any themes.
recycled within the kitchen space
were likely to recycle on a daily basis
hesitated recycling certain items
Contaminated Items (e.g. Foods, Liquids)
Different Plastics or Uncommon Materials
Unclear or No Recycling Labels
Although 84% of participants were likely to recycle on a daily basis, 88% yet expressed having felt uncertain before when recycling specific items. This reveals how there is an opportunity to help clarify the uncertainties and increase recycling confidence.
After discovering initial recycling patterns, I wanted to dig deeper and figure out why people felt uncertain in the first place. After talking to 4 participants, I learned that there were 2 main factors that impacted one’s recycling habits.
With increased exposure to recycling resources, one's overall comfort with recycling improved, while decreased exposure led to reduced confidence in recycling specific items.
Depending on the person’s situation and environmental context, recycling habits may increase or decrease.
To begin identifying areas of opportunities to help increase recycling confidence and exposure to recycling resources based on previous findings, I decided to conduct a Co-Creation Workshop, where people are brought into the design process to gather collaborative feedback.
Co-Creation WorkshopDuring this workshop, I wanted to better visualize a person’s journey before and after using the kitchen space since 60% of survey participants placed their recycling bins within the kitchen area.
Participants relied on a map to search for the nearest best resources.
What if we provide users with a map of the nearest recycling centers and local recycling guides based on their location?
Participants felt less excited to go out, use transportation, and interact with people to obtain resources.
What if we provide pickup services for users looking to recycle uncommon items (e.g. batteries, spray cans, etc.)?
Participants enjoyed finishing their mission at the end.
What if we provide users rewards and recognize their achievements for recycling?
With the need to make recycling resources more accessible, optimize convenience, and boost recycling confidence, the mobile app’s MVP features were to include:
Pickup Services
Recycling Guides
Badges & Rewards
After exploring various layouts through sketching and wireframing, I chose the 2x2 grid layout for the mobile device to minimize cognitive load.
Initial SketchesInitial layouts were explored through the use of grids and cards based on the MVP features.
Mid-fidelity WireframesThe mid-fidelity wireframes were created using a 2x2 grid layout.
Through usability testing, my goals were to assess user navigation and ease by asking participants to complete the following tasks below based on the MVP features.
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Moderated
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Unmoderated
Maze
Is it Recyclable?
Schedule a Pickup
View Recycling Badge
Success Rate
Misclick Rate
Duration
"Pretty straightforward. Love the app idea! A very neat way to get more people to recycle and get their questions answered."
"I was expecting more of like examples, otherwise I’d be clicking through all of them which takes a lot of time."
"I like the badge system, it makes me feel accomplished. Especially since I can show it on social media."
"I didn’t know what the symbols mean so I wasn’t sure where to look."
"I like how since the app is simple, it’s easy for older people to navigate through it."
"Since I didn’t have an egg carton in front of me, I would have googled what type of number the egg carton would be in."
After conducting usability tests, I learned that people preferred seeing pictures of items instead of recycling symbols since the plastic number abbreviations were unfamiliar or not commonly used.
Recycling ScreensSince users were not familiar with the plastic material numbering and abbreviations, the recycling symbols were replaced with images of commonly used items for easier recognition.
Home ScreensCompared to the old wireframe, the new wireframe includes a search bar for quicker access to finding recycling information, a map of the user's current location, and expanded details of the scheduled pickups.
The app’s branding was inspired by existing earth tones and nature to represent being eco-friendly, green, and sustainable.
Although this project aims to encourage sustainable habits, I’ve learned that proper recycling has many layers of root issues and further research would be required to truly make this app scalable and useful. However through research and co-creation, I’ve learned how valuable gaining user insights can be along with user collaboration.
After implementing user feedback and conducting another round of usability tests, these refinements increased the app’s usability by 10%.
If I had more time:
If feasible, I would have explored AR technology to help improve the process of identifying whether an item is recyclable or not.
If I had more time, I would have conducted more than one Co-Creation workshop to obtain a larger pool of data.
What I learned:
Involving your users during the ideation and design process can provide valuable insights that lead to creative solutions.
Visualizing information through pictures or visual aids helps increase human perception and understanding.
