Project details
Overview
Together, we can always find a way
It was late April in Lagos Nigeria and I noticed we had barely had any rain. This time of the year is the rainy season and yet we only got 2 days of rain in about 60 days. I asked myself why and immediately knew it had to be one thing. Climate change of course.
The low rainfall led to an increase in our already irregular power supply, food insecurity, and so on. These changes in my environment prompted me to focus on the problem which gave rise to my first design for good project. I call it Zero.
BE A PART lets people join different communities and teams with each one having a different green activity and goal
MAP FINDER lets people find different sustainable activity options closest to them by entering their postcode or borough”
IMPACT quantifies, measures, and provides a breakdown of how their sustainable activities have helped and impacted the environment
Research.
The topic of Climate Change is overwhelming and frightening and doesn’t make most people feel like they can play a part in solving this problem
While researching, I sought to understand the current landscape and solutions we have. This gave rise to me performing a competitive audit of the current non-profits and organizations and know their approach towards climate-related matters.
I noticed most non-profits and organizations, were more focused on the problems and negative effects of climate change itself without offering practical and creative solutions people can take to help solve this problem.
With Zero, I didn’t want to get stuck focusing on the negative effects of Climate Change but instead on the solutions we could offer people and build around that
Competitive analysis
Competitive analysis findings offered a first assessment and better understanding of the current industry resulting in the following insights
Lack of creative solutions
Lack of creativity in the solutions provided to inspire people to live more sustainably
Offers only monetary donations
Monetary donations are most times the only way for people to help and participate
Overwhelming and Frightening.
Emphasis on the negative effects of climate change without solutions overwhelms and frightens people making them feel like they can’t help out
User Interviews
After the competitive audit, my next aim was to speak with users to better understand what keeps them from participating in greener activities and living more sustainably.
I was intentional about picking interview participants who fell within our target audience and had a past and present of participating in greener activities and living more sustainably.
We made sure interview participants were diverse enough to form a representative sample in order to create a great experience for all our users.
Insights gotten from our interviews conveyed the point that our users prioritised community, flexibility with activities, more creative solutions, and measurements of their personal impacts
Target user
For Zero, our target user group includes late teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 35
Persona building
Through the insights gotten from our user interviews, I built a persona that would guide my design decisions throughout the project
Ideate
Based on the insights from our research phase, we understood we had to prioritise the lifestyle and current circumstances of people at different points in time, give them a sense of belonging and like-mindedness, and let them be able to know that their activities do have an impact and make a difference on the environment.
How might we make it fun to prioritise the lifestyle and circumstances of people, give them a sense of belonging and like-mindedness and let them know their activities do make a difference?
Suggested features
After having a good understanding of the problem, I suggested the following features:
‘Map Finder’ which gives people different options of sustainable activities they can partake in and are closest to them by entering their postcode or borough
Reasoning: From our interview insights, users said having just one sustainable activity to pick from doesn’t always work with their current circumstances. Map Finder gives them more flexibility by providing different sustainable activity options to pick from. For example, it might be inconvenient for Alice to join a tree planting exercise while at work but she can easily order a plant-based burger once it’s time for lunch in the office.
‘Be a Part’ gives people the option to join 3 different types of groups or communities. Jade, Elsa & Ceil with each of them having a different kind of sustainable activity.
Reasoning: Finding like-minded people who share the same goals and partake in the same activities as them was a common response we got in our interviews. By allowing users to join different sustainable groups based on their style, it fosters community and gives people a sense of belonging
‘Impact’ provides a breakdown of how their sustainable activities have helped and impacted the environment.
Reasoning: With users being frustrated by having no means to tell how well their activities have been beneficial or if it even makes any difference, Impact provides a breakdown and measures how much carbon has been offset by a person from their activities.
Information Architecture
With the features and content already laid out, I started planning the structure of the site
I then went ahead to create the user flow for one of the primary features of Zero, the map finder
Design
I started my design process with paper sketches to help me move through my ideas faster
Annotated high fidelity designs
Screen 1 - Be a Part
Screen 2 - Impact
Screen 3 - Map Finder
Usability Tests
I was unable to conduct a thorough usability test with the initial prototype due to time restrictions. However, I have drafted a plan for usability testing in case further work is required.
A glimpse of the full picture
Prototype
An interactive prototype built with Figma is hosted here
Style guide
To myself: a few words
Design for good
Design for good holds a special place within me because it has an infinite potential in making the world a better place. Working on Zero made me feel and realise this much more . I came to understand that good design gives careful thought to accessibility, user environment, and their needs in addition to visual charm.
That’s why I won’t stop here. As time goes on, Zero is a project I would continue to improve as I do more research and better understand the problem. Zero made me remember why I love doing what I do and for that, I’m grateful.
What I’ve learnt
Let the user lead
The greatest tool any designer can have are users. Being able to prioritize their goals is the first and most important step to a winning and successful design.
Next steps
Ranking system: For users who are within the same borough or who are in the same zero community and group, a ranking system will display users and the amount of their individual carbon offsets. With this, I am using status as a motivation so users can compare and measure their actions with others to incite more competition which will help to promote participation in more personal activities.