UX/UI case study: app for recycling

Graphic Design, UX/UI, Illustration

2018

Politecnico di Milano

Our aim was to promote the recycling culture, and make the separate waste collection easier for everybody.

RESEARCH
In order to study the correlation between the consumption behaviour and the waste production, we asked a group of people (families and students around the north of Italy) to track for a couple of weeks what they threw away and in what quantities. After that we interviewed them about the difficulties they had with the separate waste collection and asked them about their overall experience.
Analysing these insights, we defined some “users’ archetypes” based on their approach to the differentiated waste collection, and then proceeded with the flow design, trying to be as inclusive as possible.

USER EXPERIENCE
From the interviews it emerged that the main difficulties about doing the differentiated waste collection were the lack of knowledge and motivation. We decided then to design a system made of smart bins with weight-sensors and an app connected to the bins via Bluetooth.
This system would help and encourage users to recycle, managing correctly their waste thanks to useful tips and keeping track of how much they consume with automatically generated statistics of their consumptions.To make the smart bin we have used Raspberry and the Wii Remote Bluetooth protocol (balance board).