Ecotrove

The Challenge

The challenge was to research, design and build an immersive and engaging conceptual application for Greenpeace networks that creates awareness about the impact of users’ consumption lifestyle on the environment and encourages them to explore and purchase sustainable products.....all while creating a quality user experience for the users. 

Understanding the project

Target Demography

24-35 years old which includes a subset of Gen Z and millennial individuals having the highest purchasing power among other factors, are unaware of the impact of their consumption lifestyle on the environment and are not motivated to adopt eco-friendly consumption practices. This target audience has the power to drive positive influence on sustainability if they leverage sustainable products for their consumption. 

Project Goals

What this project intends to achieve in order to be successful are;

• Be highly usable and provide value to all users.

• Provide services that aligns with the mission and values of the Greenpeace.

• Promote the pro-environmental behaviour of sustainable consumption among users.

• Spread awareness on sustainability issues and the impact of individuals consumption decisions.

• Appeal in a distinctive manner to individuals in the age range of 25-34.

• Be inclusive to users of different cultures and background and preferences.

• Be engaging and motivate users to seek more sustainable lifestyles. 

Design Approach 

I started out the project with the 'Discover' stage which is the first divergent thinking stage. Here I conducted research on the clients, competitors and the users. The insights from my research led me to the 'Define' stage which is the first convergent thinking stage where I was able to to define the problem and the proposed solution after which I moved to the 'Develop' stage that is the second divergent thinking stage, to ideate and test out different ideas across different iterations. This eventually led to the 'Deliver' stage which is the second convergent thinking stage, to deliver a high-fidelity prototype. 

Discover

Understanding the demography

The target demography has been stated as 25-34 year old individuals. This group of people fall under the Gen Z and Millennials generation and have grown up in the digital era, considered as digital natives. Millennials have become the economic driving force in the western world.  Research shows that milleanials in this demography especially, are the largest generation, holding the most purchasing power and as millennials age and incomes grow, their purchasing power is only set to increase.

There is also a growing influence of Gen Z in leading consumer behaviour especially the older ones from the age of 24. Research shows that In a little over a decade, Gen Z will be taking over the economy. They currently earn $7 trillion across its 2.5 billion-person cohort, according to Bank of America Research. By 2025, that income will grow to $17 trillion, and by 2030, it will reach $33 trillion, representing 27% of the world's income and surpassing that of millennials the following year.

They can be said to provide a significant declination of the environmental degradation in the world today through a sustainable approach to consumption.

Identified themes

Limited knowledge but openness to learn: 6 out of 8 participants rated their knowledge and initial interest as low (average of 2 out of 5). However, they seemed open to increasing their awareness and understanding after a brief explanation of the discourse. The participants all agreed that sustainable consumption could be important, and they all had their own understanding of what it meant although, some participants had a clearer understanding of the topic than others.

Importance of convenience and ease: 8 out of 8 Participants expressed that they wanted clarity in products providing sustainability factors. Confusing interfaces and lack of visibility within sustainable products and marketplaces were cited as hindrances.

Major barriers to SC: 7 out of 8 participants perceived lack of mindfulness and motivation as major impediments to the adoption of sustainable consumption practices.

Application ideas: Enlightenment of SC roles and platform incentivization were major participants suggestions.

Competitive analysis

I carried out a competitive analysis to help identify market trends, competitor strategies, and potential opportunities, enabling me to make informed decisions, differentiate their offerings, and gain a competitive advantage. Applications analysed were platforms with similar aim of promoting pro-environmental behaviour. 

Researching on the client, demographic and competitiors really helped to provide an insight on the project direction. 

The Client: Through the client research, I was able to understand Greenpeace mission and values including how the application will align with their plans and statement to the society. 

The Demographic: The demographic research gave me insight on their lifestyle, trends, capabilities and their preferences. Factoring these insights when designing the application was useful to this demography. 

The Competitors: From the competitive analysis, it can be seen that several applications in the market today aim to provide ways to promote sustainability. However there are drawbacks existing in the application that provided insights and none of the applications have a focus on tackling sustainability issues through sustainable consumption. 

Define

Empathy mapping and building user personas

As the project entered the design phase, an empathy map was created in Figma software from major insights collected from the literature review and the focus group session in the discovery phase.  While this was not exhaustive of these gathered insights, the empathy map allowed for empathizing with the participants to develop a visual representation of the researcher’s understanding of the users. 

The empathy map was broken down to display who the users are, what they need to do, what they see, what they hear, what they say and do. It also highlights their pain points and what they consider their gains. This helped to ensure that the e-commerce application was tailored to meet the users' expectations and address their concerns effectively which informed the user persona creation 

Two user personas were created, representing different user archetypes to meet the diverse needs, preferences and behaviours of the user group.

The user personas were created with accessibility considerations and reflected the understanding of users derrived from the empathy map and gathered insights. 

Point of view (POV) / Problem statements

As a gradual process, the users’ point of view and problem statements were determined after the users’ backgrounds, wants and frustrations were established in the user personas. The POV and problem statement helped to frame the problem (pain points) from the user's perspective. These coined statements acted as a foundation for ideation and decision-making, ensuring that the design solutions are aligned with user needs and goals.

Using "How might we" statements

Upon identification of user challenges from the problem statements, How Might We (HMW) statements were formulated, reframing the problems as questions which stimulated creative thinking that guided the project to understand how the questions could be directly answered with potential solutions. These potential solutions were inspired by the secondary research of the project and user suggestions fromthe focus group session.

Feature prioritisation with KANO + MoSCoW

At this stage of the project, the user problems and potential solutions were evident. In order to identify and rank the most important features and functionalities of the application, the features were prioritized using the KANO and MoSCoW prioritization techniques created in Figjam application. This helped to ensure that emphasis was placed on the feasible high-impact features that aligned with the project's goal.

While these two prioritization techniques are independently effective, they were both combined to create a highly comprehensive, well-informed and balanced approach to the prioritization of the application features. 

Storyboard visualisation

Despite not having the greatest artistic skills, I created storyboards at this stage to visualise specific user stories to understand how the application might address users wants and needs in different scenarios. One of the user stories in a scenario is visualised as such:

Scenario

Samuel is a restaurant owner who want to prioritise usage of eco-friendly products so that he can impact positively on the environment.

Develop

Crazy 8s and sketches

Crazy 8s were utilized to sketch out a wide variety of solutions to the challenges. It sparked innovation and allowed for pushing past the first ideas which were mostly the least creative. Eight ideas were sketched rapidly in a period of 8 minutes for each screen so as to think quickly without being invested in a particular idea. Here are cazy 8s of two screens in the application.

After the crazy 8s exercise, the best parts were merged to create a main sketch for each screen. This allowed for quick extraction of several ideas before getting committed to the digital wireframes. 

Deciding the Information Architecture (IA)

Creating the information architecture involved ensuring a clear and organized structure for the application. Created in Figjam, the layout, navigation, and categorization of information was mapped to enhance user understanding and ease of use. This was done before finalizing on the intended sketches to be designed so that all the screens could accommodate intuitive access to relevant information and features on the application.

The menu bar contains 5 links which are home, categories, hub, cart and profile screens.

The each screen contains link to other features and sub sections in the application.

The settings screen consists of some application settings integrated with some accessibility features like language setting and switching between light and dark mode. 

Due to time constraint, the researcher could not conduct a card sorting exercise to directly understand users’ preference on the organisation of elements as was intended. However, Jakob’s law in user psychology was leveraged which explains that users spend most of their time on other sites and as such, they would prefer sites that work the same way as all the rest. The IA was therefore organised based on an understanding of other e-commerce applications.

User flow

After mapping out the information architecture for components and sub-components, user flows were created to provide perception on how users will interact with the app, therefore guiding the design process to ensure a smooth and intuitive user experience.

The user flow displayed areas where users might get stuck or confused and emphasis was placed in ensuring those areas (such as decision making) were simplified for a seamless user journey.

Low-fidelity wireframes

Transforming the paper sketches to digital wireframes, these are some of the low fidelity screens that I prototyped and used to carry out user testing: 

Modifications

Before moving into high fidelity design and prototyping, the low fidelity wireframes serving as a blueprint of the final design was evaluated with test participants for the purpose of iteration. It was carried out at this stage to avoid sunk cost fallacy bias which is the tendency to continue investing in a project or endeavour even after it has become clear that it is no longer viable. By evaluating the digital wireframes first, the wireframes were revised and iterations were made to reflect on the entire project, addressing potential problems before investing significant time and resources into the high-fidelity designs. 

Some of the insights and iterations carried out before moving to the high-fidelity designs are:

Creating moodboard and style tile for the user interface

A collection of images and colour swatches sparking ideation were created in Adobe photoshop to serve as a visual representation of the intended style and mood of the e-commerce application. The mood board was heavily inspired by nature, sustainability, and a sense of ecology. The logo derived from the mood board, was created in Adobe photoshop and resembles a mountain, reflecting the idea of sustainability, stability, and growth. Mountains are often seen as symbols of endurance, permanence, and natural beauty; aligning perfectly with the platform's goal of promoting sustainable consumption.

The primary colour of the design is green, a colour often associated with growth, renewal, and environmental friendliness. Using green reinforces the application's commitment to sustainability, reminding users of the natural world that they are helping to preserve through their purchasing decisions.

Here is the moodboard I created:

Generating the mood board allowed for an understanding of the visual feel to create a style tile for the user interface design. This includes the following elements:

Logo: The mountain logo, representing sustainability, stability, and growth.

Colour Palette: Dominated by various shades of green, accented with earth tones to create a natural, organic feel.

Typography: San Francisco font family in various weights and styles for hierarchy and emphasis which is also the default apple font that users are already familiar with, providing a sense of comfort and ease of use. This was chosen as this specific prototype is created with an iPhone frame on Figma.

Iconography: Simple and intuitive icons that are considered universal for effective communication.

UI Cards: Clear cards reminiscent of nature (such as tree leaves and paper) and distinct communication of elements in the user interface.

Here is the style tile created for the user interface:

Deliver

After establishing the visual language of the application and iterating on the digital wireframes, the project transitioned to the final phase of the design process, focusing on delivering a high-fidelity design and an interactive prototype.

As much as I always love the process, a project outcome is really satisfying. It shows how the entire process comes together to form something meaningful and provide solutions. Some of the screens of the final deliverable (although a UX project is never final) can be seen below: 

Onboarding and Easy Signup 

The onboarding screen greets new users and introduce the application's purpose. Users can choose to sign up using their social media accounts, providing quick and easy registration process as suggested in the conducted focus group. 

Home

The home screen welcomes users with facts on sustainability. Featured and recommended sustainable products and brands are also displayed, enticing users to explore eco-friendly products. The user can tap on any product or brand to see more details, or use the search bar to find what they are looking for with ability to filter the results. The user can also access the menu icons at the bottom of the screen to navigate to other areas, such as categories, hub, cart, and profile. 

Categories

This screen shows a list of product categories, such as home accessories and clothing among others. The products are grouped into distinct categories and subcategories so users can always explore and easily find products that they want even without a specific search. The user can also filter and sort the products. This screen majorly initiates the user flow for a user to add a product to their cart and purchase an item on the application although this can be done from the home screen as well. 

Product and Brand info

When users tap on a product, they will be taken to the product information screen showcasing detailed information like the product photos, materials and environmental impact. It also leads to a dedicated screen discussing the brand’s credibility. Users can also view other customers ratings and reviews for both the product and the brand selling it.

Unique Selling Point (USP): Sustainability Hub

As the focal point of this project, the sustainability hub is the centre of information and inspiration for the user to learn more about sustainable consumption and lifestyle. It is represented by the Ecotrove’s logo and in the middle of the menu bar to stand out. It consists of four sections: Sustainable guide, Eco habits, Eco rewards, and Challenges. 

The Sustainable guide provides tips and articles on sustainability awareness, The Eco habits section helps the user track their habits within the application that have an impact on the environment, The Eco rewards section rewards the user with redeemable points and coupons for their eco-friendly actions and purchases, while Challenges section invites the user to participate in engaging rewarded tasks within the application that encourages them to adopt more sustainable behaviours and practices. 

Cart, Checkout and Payment 

The cart screen displays a summary of the items that users have added for direct purchase or to their Wishlist to buy later. Users can proceed to checkout and purchase items from this screen. They are also presented with sustainability decisions at checkout such as shipping without packaging and collection of parcels at pick up locations to reduce vehicle carbon emission from individual deliveries. Upon checkout, the app presents users with quick and easy payment process. 

Profile and Orders

The profile screen allows users to manage their account, view and share their eco badges earned for sustainable actions. The profile screen also provides access to settings or view their orders among other activities. 

Settings

Including several other options in the settings screen, users can customize their experience regarding accessibility and inclusivity by adjusting font size for better readability, selecting their preferred language or enabling "dark mode" to enhance readability in low-light conditions or reduce device energy consumption.  

Identified themes

Intuitive and friendly interface: 8 out of 8 participants found the prototype intuitive and easy to navigate. Words like "user-friendly" and "easy" were commonly used.

Potential effectiveness: 7 out of 8 Participants expressed new knowledge gained from some of the prototype's elements, noting it's potential in creating sustainable consumption awareness.

Usability ratings: The average satisfaction ratings was 4 out of 5.  The ease of use and likelihood of usage was rated at the highest level among 5 participants.

Positive influence on shopping habits: 7 out of 8 participants felt the prototype would positively influence their future shopping behaviour and make them conscious of their choices.

Impactful features: The habit tracking and educational elements were repeatedly highlighted as major features in driving the effectiveness of the prototype.

Interest in additional features: Features like product comparison and community integration were common recommendations to further enhance the prototype for this application.

View the project demo:

Takeaway

Limitations and next steps 

While the qualitative data provided detailed valuable insights from the participants, larger samples that included additional quantitative methods such as surveys could have produced statistically significant findings which would have enhanced the project's robustness and validity. However, time constraints did not permit this. Also arising from this limitation, the development of iterations of the prototype was minimal. More refined iterations incorporating feedback from tests could have been developed and evaluated with a new set of users to optimize the prototype. Furthermore, the study was limited in its ability to explore all desirable insights due to time and technical constraints. This may have depreciated the application's potential impact.

Future research offers valuable prospects for advancing the project. The expansion of this project may entail longitudinal studies aimed at evaluating the enduring effectiveness of the e-commerce application in promoting sustainable consumption. Also, by tracking participants' behaviours beyond the prototype context, I can ascertain the persistence of sustainable practices in participants real-life shopping experiences.

 Additional design features could also be explored for integration into the platform to improve its effectiveness. Based on participants feedback from the interviews, some of these additional features could include a community or forum, product comparison functionality and a carbon footprint tracker, pending further investigation.

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