UXDI Project 1: Green Bin
My Role: UX Researcher | Duration: 1 Week| Project Status: Completed
Project 1 Overview
After being assigned the project of developing a research-driven solution for the category of Food, I decided to create a mobile app prototype that helped users recycle called Green Bin. I chose recycling as it’s something I’m already interested in and was excited to do some research to come up with a great app proposal that could potentially be used as a jumping off point for a future portfolio project.
Green Bin Overview
I designed a recycling app that allows users to have an abundance of recycling information and resources at their fingertips to help them recycle easily. Green Bin would help users find the nearest recycling bin location (for on the go accessibility), provide useful material information for sorting recyclables, and additional features such as scheduling alerts for neighborhood recycling truck pickups or ways to connect with local recycling communities.
Limitations, Parameters, Resources, and Materials
The parameters centered around key concepts studied in my UX Design Immersive class about research, synthesizing data into insights and creating initial sketches or ideas to test with users. The initial sketches and first two prototypes were made very scrappy out of pen and paper, and eventually incorporated into a clickable prototype.
Initial Problem Statement: How can we help New Yorkers?
New Yorkers by law are required to recycle on a daily basis, but with the plethora of food containers and strict NYC recycling regulations it can get overwhelming to know how to recycle or dispose of something correctly.
My initial problem statement was how might we help New Yorkers obtain the resources they need in order to more easily recycle? I made some general assumptions about what I would find out from my research. I thought in general that New Yorkers want to recycle, but that they don’t due to lack of convenience, not because they don’t want to.
My revised problem statement (below) after my research ended up becoming more specific to address the fact that New Yorkers may need more than just item search or location features in their recycling app.
How might we help New Yorkers obtain the resources they need in order to more easily recycle?
Refining my Initial Assumptions
While the research I found was specifically about what I learned from only five people per each round of interviews, I learned that the majority of New Yorkers care about recycling in some capacity. They will make the effort to hold on to certain items if they can’t easily recycle them at the moment, and a lack of information prevents them from recycling an item. This helped to confirm the previous assumptions I had made and guide the direction of my project.
User Interviews
I conducted a total of ten interviews with New Yorkers (a total of two rounds and five interviews each) and asked them about their experiences with recycling, knowledge of recycling and habits. Round 1 questions were left very open and general as I was still fleshing out what I wanted my focus to be. Round 2 questions became more specific as I narrowed down questions to be about preferences in recycling and app features.
Insights provided in Round 1 gave me the direction needed to develop the most important functions of Green Bin. Through additional usability testing and more user interviews in Round 2, I was able to incorporate additional features that would give Green Bin a more comprehensive function.
Introducing Green Bin
After initial interviewing, I created a lo-fidelity paper prototype of Green Bin through Invision based on all of the insights I learned. This prototype was clickable and created through Invision, so while it didn’t have actual functions, it could mimic clicks and open up pages if the user clicked on a button or icon (very cool!). I asked a total of ten users (two rounds each of five usability tests each round) to test out and try my prototype and provide any feedback or opinions.
Sketches
Usability Tests and Resulting Iterations
In the insights found after testing my Green Bin app, there was a pendulum swing of functionality that users noticed from both versions (Round 1 and Round 2). While Round 1 was simple and easy to use, it was too basic and could have included more functions. Round 2’s prototype ended up a little too complicated with the added features and future iterations will need to perfect the balance between an easy interface and robust features. These would then be tested again with the goal to make the recycling process as simple, easy and enjoyable for the user as possible.
Prototype https://invis.io/ZRSB8CIST2G
Reflection
One thing I’ve learned is that drafting well thought out user interview questions is a really important aspect of the entire UX process. Since this was my first time learning and executing these concepts in any real life UX project, I struggled with drafting the right questions that would draw out engaging discussions from users. In a future iteration of this project, I would probably go back and try to spend more time focusing on what types of questions to ask my target users. I felt most confident towards the end of the project when it came to creating a concise and compelling presentation to present to “stakeholders” as I felt I had more time to work on this portion (practice, practice practice!). Through peer and instructor feedback, I believe I have the tools to further refine Green Bin and who knows, maybe one day actually turn it into a real working app!
