During the research phase, my primary focus was on sustainable digital products that address issues such as recycling, littering, fly-tipping, and air pollution. I familiarised myself with current platforms that provide a broad spectrum of options for disposing of hard-to-recycle, unwanted items. These platforms guide users to appropriate local recycling centers and assist in identifying difficult-to-recycle materials, along with instructions on handling them. As previously noted, some of these products no longer provide their full range of features due to various reasons. A common issue I’ve observed is the lack of maintenance or updates. Additionally, some were restricted to specific geographical locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The applications that captured my interest included Bower, which has an innovative concept of rewarding users for proper recycling; Recycle Coach, which assists users in keeping track of bin collection days; and Trash Out, which combines hiking adventures with cleanup events. Considering all this, I spent a large amount of time brainstorming a future concept. My initial idea was to develop a product that helps combat fly-tipping. This was inspired by my personal experiences during city walks, commutes to work, or school. I noticed the need for public bins and the difficulties people face in finding the nearest bin while walking their pets. However, I found myself fixated on this idea for weeks, which held me back to delve deeper into the issue, simplify it, and advance in my design process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I attempted user interviews with very general questions about the littering problem, but it was a disaster. I lacked structure and a clear vision of what I wanted to learn. In retrospect, I think I was just “testing the microphone.” I couldn’t find my foot and felt as though I was extensively exploring the problem from various angles. After several attempts at sketching ideas and discussing with peers and tutors, I realized there was something missing, an obstacle preventing me from progressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I needed to swiftly evaluate the situation I was in and begin anew. Having completed a competitor analysis, I gained significant insights into existing products, acquiring a clear understanding of what was already out there, what elements I could adopt, modify, and enhance to create something valuable. Additionally, shifting the focus from littering to recycling seemed like a secure yet significant starting point. The next step was to genuinely understand people’s perceptions of recycling and their habits, while I kept my other product ideas on hold. For the user research, I used Google Forms, which enabled me to quickly conduct interviews with 14 participants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the research phase, my primary focus was on sustainable digital products that address issues such as recycling, littering, fly-tipping, and air pollution. I familiarised myself with current platforms that provide a broad spectrum of options for disposing of hard-to-recycle, unwanted items. These platforms guide users to appropriate local recycling centers and assist in identifying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nua-ux.design\/robert-besala\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}