ZeroWaste SG
Zero Waste SG is dedicated towards helping Singapore eliminate waste and to accelerate the shift towards the zero waste and circular economy. Zero Waste SG aims to promote education and engagement on the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) among individuals, households, businesses and organisations.
OVERVIEW
Durations: 2 weeks | Roles: UX/UI Designer | Platform: Desktop & Mobile
The Project Plan
A group project of four team members, working on improving the existing Zero Waste SG Website (link to web). Our objective was to understand why are Singaporean unaware of Zero Waste SG and how can the website help to accelerate the shift towards the zero waste and circular economy. This includes the process of user research, online research, heuristic evaluation, information architecture, synthesising findings, ideation, usability testing, rapid prototyping and presenting of ideas.
Deliverables
User Research Report, Personas, Customer Journey Map and/or Service Blueprint,
Sketches & Wireframes, Prototypes
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Optimal Workshop (for Tree Test & Card Sort), Gloomap (for Sitemap), Flowmapp (for User Flow), Voice Recorder, Quicktime Screen Recorder, Pen and Paper, Post-it Notes, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Google Slide (for Presentation slides)
Challenges
As Zero Waste is a concept that challenges the old way of thinking about waste as something that has no value and to be thrown away. It is a whole system approach that changes the way materials flow through society and ultimately results in no waste. Hence, the hardest part is to convinced people to change their behaviours and culture. It is not a decision you can force people to make overnight.
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DESIGN PROCESS
Online Research
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Heuristic evaluation
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Site Map
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Content audit / inventory
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Competitive analysis
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Card sorting
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Tree testing
User Research
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Survey
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Interview (8 people)
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Affinity mapping
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Empathy Mapping
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User persona (2 pax)
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Customer Journey Map
Design Solution
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Feature Prioritisation
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Sketch
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Wireframes
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Med-Fi prototype
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Final prototype
Tests & Iteration
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Usability Test Round 1
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Usability Test Round 2
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Iteration Round 1
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ONLINE RESEARCH
Heuristic Evaluation
Using the method of Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles on severity rating scale, with 4 being most severe, and 1 being least problematic area. In our heuristic evaluation, we have the ratings of 3 which is important to fix and given high priority.
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We found out that the most severe problems of the existing website are “aesthetic and minimalist design” and “flexibility and efficiency of use”.
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Links to the same content are found above the fold as well as on the right hand side of the home page, taking up unnecessary real estate on home page
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Content on Programmes page is text heavy and unappealing to read
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Content on Zero Waste is text heavy and unappealing to read
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Content on the site is currently taking up unnecessary real estate i.e. the columns on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Insights
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Contact Us is only found on Partners and Volunteers pages, and also the footer. Contact Us should be more accessible for other website visitors.
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No search bar on the site
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Scroll length of pages are long, due to long comments section. Poor user experience for mobile users. Also makes it inefficient to leave a comment.
Competitor Analysis
Content Audit
To better understand the existing site of Zero Waste SG, we conducted content audit to have an overview of the site. We found that there were no secondary level on the global navigation which makes it hard for users to navigate and find information. With content audit, it also helps to remind us what are the important contents that should be better presented on our proposed prototype.
USER RESEARCH
Research Methodology
Quantitative Survey
Interviews
SUS
Research Objectives
Programme
Organizers
1.
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Understand what information they would need on the Zero Waste SG website to spearhead 3Rs initiatives in their schools or companies.
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Discover the challenges they face for their present initiatives.
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Find out their perceptions of the current website.
Individuals
2.
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Understand their current habits and motivations towards reducing, reusing and recycling.
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Discover what information they would value on the Zero Waste SG website.
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Learn what zero waste initiatives would interest them.
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Find out their perceptions of the current website.
Quantitative Survey
38 Interviews
18 individuals, 20 institution reps | age 25 - 45
67% of our respondents had not heard of Zero Waste SG
78% of respondents would throw plastic away after consumption
User Interviews
8 Interviews
Individuals and institution reps | age 25 - 45
We interviewed 8 individuals and institution reps to understand their motivations, concerns and behaviours towards zero waste initiatives. The sections are recorded for transcription after. Below are some examples of the interview questions:
Interview Questions
Tell us about a time that you were involved in an initiative to reduce, reuse or recycle.
How do you feel after being part of this movement?
What motivates you to reduce, reuse
or recycle? Why?
What informations did you look for before deciding to be a volunteer?
Affinity Mapp
With the affinity mapping method, we found that most students have not cultivated the habit of reducing, reusing and recycling. Even though the schools often have campaigns and implementations, the students are not self-motivated and are often influenced by their peers to take action. They are concerned about being judge by their peers for doing something different.
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We also found that there are individuals who are concerned about the state of our earth. They became aware by reading stories and news and following social media platform on the current situations. They believe that is the right thing to do to save our earth for the future generation and human survivor. However, they are often demoralised when they don’t see enough results of their efforts. They feel that many people who are aware of the need to practice such initiatives but lacks the knowledge on doing so.
Students do not have a habit of reducing, reusing and recycling.
Believe that it is the right thing to do to save the earth.
Students are not self motivated.
Only practices the 3Rs if it is convenient.
Students are influenced by their peers.
lacks knowledge on how to do so
User Persona 1
Problem Statement
The educator needs to generate interest among students towards the cause of zero waste because students are indifferent and they don’t want to be judged by their peers for taking action.
Hypothesis
We believe that by providing the educator with inspiring content on zero waste, with practical ways on how to apply the 3Rs, the educator has the relevant resources to plan engaging initiatives for the students.
We know this to be true when we see an increase in monthly unique visitors to the zero waste website.
User Persona 2
Problem Statement
The environmentalist needs to see greater efforts towards zero waste initiatives because he is concerned about the state of our earth.
Hypothesis
We believe that by featuring the zero waste campaigns and initiatives in a more obvious way and by clearly showing how people can get involved, the environmentalist will become more aware of the ways one can play a part towards sustainability and invite his/her friends as well.
We know this to be true when we see an increase in enquiries on volunteering.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Design Strategy
1.
Informed
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The current situation by showing the situations on the global navigation, What Zero Waste SG do, Statistic of Singapore waste at the home page
2.
Inspire
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By featuring impactful quotes that will instil fear or guilt, the Hall of Awesome to show who have contributed and done their part, news, stories and sustainable business
3.
Encouraged
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To take actions by showing them how to zero waste, how to take part in #livezerowaste 30 days of living the zero waste lifestyle, what are the ongoing campaigns and how to get involved.
Feature Prioritisation
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TEST & ITERATE
Card Sort
This is to determine the synergy between new IA and our target audience’s mental models. We did Card sort on 20pax, to understand our proposed Info architecture and user's mentality.
Primary navigation labels were correctly interpreted but a few secondary navigation labels needed to be revised
User Flow
This is to determine the synergy between new IA and our target audience’s mental models. We did Card sort on 20pax, to understand our proposed Info architecture and user's mentality.
Pamela's User Flow
Paul's User Flow
Low-fi Wireframes
I sketch out a low-fi wireframe to discuss with my teammates on wanted to propose.
The purpose was to determine whether it was feasible to move on to the Hi-Fi wireframes and to make sure all of us are on the same page.
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Usability Test
We tested our first and second prototypes on our personas to iterate on desirability, clarity and functionality.
Tasks:
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Find information on how to reduce and recycle.
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Find information BYO Singapore.
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Find out partnership opportunities with Zero Waste Singapore.
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Find out about the food waste situation.
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Find out where to read about individuals and sustainable business.
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Find out how to volunteer in a zero waste initiative.
Sessions:
First and second prototype.
Results:
Qualitative think-aloud feedback and SUS scoring.
Tree Test
We conducted a tree test to assess if our personas could understand the category labels of The Situation and Stories after our revised name change.
Find "about food waste" under "Society"
Read more about people and business that are practicing Zero Waste
Design Iteration
From the Usability Test of Existing Site, we gathered feedback from users and iterated on the prototype
Look and feel
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To include more images and infographics to better explain the informations.
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“Zero Waste website is very text heavy. I don’t even feel like reading.”
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“I think now the text are clear. The design theme looks really "zero waste" cause very minimalist.”
Global Navigation
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“Font size is a bit too small for top navigation as this is important information / feature on a website. More impact on bigger fonts will be nicer” >>> Bigger fonts, wider leading
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Usability Test shows user unable to get to Hall of Awesome >>> News & Stories changed to News
Print function
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“Good to have functions to print/save so that I can bring to class to show my students”.
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When they see something that they want to print, there will be a message to prompt them to think twice before printing which ties back to the concept of zero waste.
Hall of Awesome
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Moved “Hall of Awesome” to the Home page because we want to address the feedback that users could not interpret the Hall of Awesome just by the name itself. So we change the name of the label to stories and still keep concept of the Hall of Awesome by putting a spotlight on these people
What can be improved?
We were unable to demonstrate some examples of the social media campaigns. It would have been better if we can show some videos or live actions to make our presentation more interesting and engaging.
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We tried reaching out to out stakeholders but only managed to get a reply after the project submission. I think it would have been good to take in considerations the timeline. We must always be ready to include buffer time in case of unforeseen circumstances.
What's Next?
Our next steps will be:
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To elaborate on the content strategy
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To cover more features to enhance the website functionality e.g. Clear display of Social Plugins, Events Calendar
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To encourage partners to link from their website to Zero Waste
