Personal waste is confusing to manage. Resources are not always readily available across the country to ensure individuals know exactly how to dispose of certain items. Most importantly, the impact of personal waste on the climate is not common knowledge, and information regarding the climate crisis is often overwhelming.

After a round of user interviews, waste management challenges were presented in many neighborhoods. This motivated me to develop a tool that would provide climate education and create a sense of routine in the context of household waste.

I did primary research on the problem statement. This led me to conduct user interviews to understand my audience. Understanding pain points and frustrations allowed me to create a clear picture of the tool I wanted to design to solve the users’ potential problems. 

Only 32% of the waste from the United States is recycled or composted. 50% ends up in landfills (United States Environmental Protection Agency)

Microplastics the size of sesame seeds can be found in bottled water, food, and the air. (Time)

After sending out a screener survey, I chose 5 participants to conduct user interviews. I had originally constrained my users to be Massachusetts residents as I knew my tool needed to be geographically specific. After my first 3 interviews, I realized I wanted to gather some data about the waste management systems elsewhere, so I chose to interview someone who lived in Canada as they have a very efficient waste management system. 

I took snippets of quotes from the interviews into the following categories: Process + Steps, Pain Points, Sustainability Knowledge, Emotions, Motives, and Comparison to Other Systems. This helped me understand the pain points of my potential users and prioritize what problems I can attempt to solve with my tool.

These personas helped guide my decisions while designing the app. It helped me empathize with the potential user and predict what kinds of tools and interactions would be helpful to them. The main pain points to focus on were having climate information accessible to users and creating a sense of routine for users.

These are the first drafts of the app that I envisioned for the tool. In the early stages of design, I was making decisions that may have been better suited for a desktop rather than a phone such as a horizontal scroll and information that populates with additional interaction.

The focus of my work was the directory flow for users to browse and search for items. During my research, I surveyed other recycling apps and noticed that some included an onboarding process. That was an important aspect to include in Second Life's user flow to ensure users understand its values and features to take full advantage of what it can offer.

To guide my design style, I created a mood board with inspiration for my visual imagery, photography, and colors. I also included some UI inspiration with interactions that I wanted to integrate into my screens.

The fun part… testing! After creating a prototype, I was able to test my product in the real world. I gathered a group of 5 friends and family members to conduct usability testing. I wanted to get insight on the following:

Overall impression of the visual design style (what feelings are evoked when using the tool)

Which area of the tool is most valued by users (Directory, Resources, History)

Uncover usability problems in the Directory red route 

After testing 5 participants, I made edits and did another round of tests with 5 different participants.

The final version of the Second Life prototype included:

a directory that allows users to search or browse items that they would like to dispose of 

a resource hub with climate vocabulary, links to quick articles about the climate crisis, and ways to get involved in climate action 

an item tracker for users to monitor their waste and adjust habits 

customizable preferences and feedback opportunities