Overview

How might we help educate users to make informed decisions about unsustainable practices and reduce environmental impact?

Problem

Time consuming: Users need to actively research company and/or product sustainability efforts because information is sourced everywhere.

Lack of transparency: environmentally conscious consumers struggle to find sustainable information because information is unclear and vague.

Solution

Information in one place: Provide information to users in one location to allow them to make informed sustainable choices easily and quickly.

Verification: Information tool sourced by third party data companies to help users on the go access verified information.

Key Findings

Technology is at our fingertips but users struggle to find information in one place that is trustworthy. They need to do their own research and this is time consuming. When users lack time, spending time researching is not always feasible.

User statements

"Perception of being sustainable doesn't feel great. Put off on the immediacy by the unknown, unverified and not enough information to make an informed decision."

"Dislike the lack of transparency and hidden information that is difficult to find and decipher. Mix of different information that is vague and unclear."

User insights

Users want to be able to access trustworthy information in one place to find reliable information quickly and easily.

Very concerned about impact

Unsustainable choices in consumption and living affects the environment.

Importance of climate contribution

Humans contribution to the environment has huge impact to climate change.

Choices affect everyday life

Users believe that environmental issues affect their everyday lives.

Actively research company efforts

Users look up company's sustainability efforts and product information to gain knowledge.

Synthesizing user research

Chelsea Turner

Occupation: Podcast Editor
Location: Boston, MA
Age: 28

"Learning about sustainable company practices and the products they product makes a difference because my choices and actions affect the environment we live in."

Pain points:
Finding sustainable information can be time consuming. There is a lack of awareness and education surrounded sustainable practices. As a result there is a culture of waste and unsustainable practices continue to occur.

Goals:
‍I want to normalize sustainable practices and eco-friendly actions. I want to be able to share awareness and educate others about taking care of the world while still being able to meet human needs. ‍

Understanding the competitors

I was surprised to find a lot of weaknesses and room for improvement when analyzing competitors. The main issues that stood out were limited focus areas, inability to verify source of truth and financial costs associated.

How Good

Verification Difficulty

No source of truth to determine where the information is gathered.

Good on You

Limited Focus Area

Focus on fashion retail only. Limited information about other industries.

Ethical Consumer

Requires Payment

Payment and subscription is required. Information is not free or easily accessible.

User task flow

Users want a tool that is reliable, quick and easy to use. Through the research, it became clear that having too many visual elements would be disruptive to the content and impact the ability to navigate information with ease.

Fidelity ideations and design

Combining the user task flow with low fidelity sketches helped communicate the way users could use the information. As a result high fidelity sketches were fleshed out quickly.

Sketches for introducing the application.
Before jumping straight into the application, I wanted to introduce users to the application with Welcome screens. The goal was to help users understand how to use the apps main feature. During the research process, participants wanted to find sustainable information quickly and easily without searching through multiple sites.

This is where I thought about a camera feature that scanned barcodes. The feature would allow smartphone users with a functioning camera the ability to find information quickly and easily.

With this in mind, I moved forward with iteration 2 because it was a simplified appearance allowing users to clearly understand without any clutter.

Sketches for application screens
After the welcome screen, users can jump straight into using the application. The main UI is the camera feature making it accessible and convenient to use.

When a barcode is unavailable, users can use the search bar located underneath on the same screen to find information.

Search options are tailored to what is typed into the search bar and the filter options allows users to narrow down searches.

Design

Visual elements are kept to a minimum to allow users to focus on the content but that doesn't mean the UI can't be impactful. I wanted to go with elements that would compliment a natural look by using colors that resembled the earth's environment.

Measuring success

During the first round of testing, users were confused whether or not their filters had been saved because there was no indication filters were applied. To improve the user experience, I iterated the filter button to show active and inactive and also included a save button. This communicate more clearly to users and they were able to understand easier.

After iterations, users navigated the app better. Users stated that they became better informed about company practices and sustainability efforts because they were able to half the time they spent finding information.

Sustainable