EcoKarma Case Study
EcoKarma Case Study
I was inspired to examine the issue of recycling by witnessing the piles of plastic water bottles being discarded at the security checkpoints in airports. It makes me cringe to witness such waste of resources. Travelers have the option of bringing a water bottle from home or they could empty their plastic bottles of water, walk through and refill it on the other side. If there is an app that improves people’s knowledge of recycling, that would be a good thing.
For Whom
I did a qualitative analysis via 11 interviews (male & female, ages 20-40) and synthesized the information into 1 persona. I chose people who already recycle knowing that it is easier to reinforce an already existing behavior rather than introduce a new one.
My Process
I used a combination of tools from Design Thinking and Lean UX
I conducted user interviews, grouped the results into themes and generated a persona. As I was defining the product, I needed to go back and create an empathy map for clarification. I moved to ideation using flows, sitemap, competition analysis and wireframes.
I built a prototype in InVision and did two rounds of testing. Below are two steps that were very helpful in defining the product.
Empathy Map
Synthesis of the interviews needed an empathy map to tease out the underlining emotions of the users. Most of the recycling behaviors were second-nature and not conscious.
User Story Grid
The user story structure helped turn user research into actionable items. As I worked on the user stories, I discovered that I needed to revisit the user interviews and find the underlying emotions behind their behaviors. Without the whys, I couldn’t get a clear picture of which solutions would be the best for the users. I discovered that there are a lot of emotions wrapped up in the whys - and if I could pin point the right ones, it would foster a real connection between the user and EcoKarma
The Solution
EcoKarma is an app that connects recyclers to supplemental recycling programs while providing insight into the complexities of recycling. In later phases, the app will also feature a logging system to measure recycling efforts and a social media component to assist in adoption rates.
Search
Search is the heart of the app so the search experience needed to be easy, fun and informative.
Wireframing - Round 1
First round of wireframes involved a standard category search. It was suggested to remove the category grid and replacing it with a pure text search entry box. I worked on the wireframe and found it a bit too boring.
Wireframing - Round 2
Hunting around Twitter and Medium, I discovered CamFind, an app specializing in visual search. The app is very robust and they have an API called Cloudsight. Did an informal competitive analysis and adapted their flow into EcoKarma. The resulting interface was fun and has the extra benefit of generating an artifact that the user can log.
Recycling detail page
Onboarding
When the onboarding experience was tested, I discovered the need to inform users where they were, for the content gave the false impression that you could take a picture. A Skip Tutorial button was added to inform users they are in a demo plus allowed users to exit demo if they wished. A Get Started button is on the final screen.
