top of page

E-Turn

Project Overview

As a part of our Interaction Design Practice (IDP) class, we conducted a research study to understand people's opinion on electronic recycling and what is stopping them to do so, while aiming to increase e-recycling literacy.

Our primary task was to find problems in e-recycling and based on that, design a product/prototype to increase electronic recycling efforts.  

Project Type

Course Project for IDP (HCI Fall 22)

Role

UX Researcher and Lead Designer

Duration

September 2022 - October 2022 (6 Weeks)

Teammates

Mandar Bhoyar, Saransh Gupta, Pranav Mirkad

Challenge

Electronic recycling is a major problem in the United States, so much so that people do not consider recycling their obsolete or defunct items, and 70% of total recyclable items just stay in storage. Most of the states don’t even have proper legislation that handle disposal of e-waste.

​

Given the current state of fast paced electronic development with little to no improvement over the last generation, we decided to look into e-waste and recycling as a definitive problem statement.

Solution

With the problem statement defined, we decided that a digital solution like a website, which focuses on showing users where to find recycling centers and spread awareness would be ideal and to the point considering access and awareness were the main constraints that held customers from recycling.

The Process

As we had electronic recycling as our topic, this was our step-by-step process going forward starting off with Data Collection.

1. Data Collection

Our data collection focused on understanding two key areas:

​

Public Perception of E-waste Recycling: We aimed to understand people's awareness, opinions, and motivations regarding recycling electronics. This included identifying:

  • Whether they recycle their electronics?

  • What factors encourage or discourage them from recycling?

  • Their knowledge and concerns about e-waste

E-waste Recycling Landscape: We investigated the current state of electronics recycling, including:

  • Availability and accessibility of recycling programs

  • Public awareness of existing options

  • Potential challenges faced by the recycling industry

1.1 Surveys and Interviews
We conducted semi-structured user interviews with 8 individuals equally split between age groups of 21-26 and 35+ who were Indianapolis residents. This approach allowed us to capture ideological differences between two distinct age groups regarding electronic recycling.

We also surveyed with 76 adult participants from diverse backgrounds, including students and working professionals worldwide to understand e-waste recycling habits across different age groups quantitatively.
1.2 Site Visits

We visited nearby recycling centers  and e-waste collection facilities to get a fair idea on what the recycling process looks like and how e-waste is handled after collection.

1.3 Research Insights

1. Accessibility Gap: 68% of respondents cited a scarcity of nearby recycling centers and 52% found the process inconvenient.

2. Knowledge Deficit: 60% of participants lacked clarity one-recycling, highlighting a need for better education and public awareness campaigns. (2 participants didn't even know that they could recycle electronics)

5. Need for Comprehensive Information: Users crave clear and readily available information. This includes details on

  • Recyclable items

  • Recycling center locations and hours

  • How to prepare electronics for transport

  • The environmental impact of e-waste recycling

  • Integration with existing platforms like Google Maps

3. Unawareness Among Younger Generations: Despite a moderate correlation between age and recycling participation, a significant portion of younger respondents (students) were unaware of e-waste recycling options. This suggests traditional outreach methods might be missing this demographic.

4. Limited Local Options: While some were aware of national programs like Amazon's recycling initiative, participants expressed a desire for convenient local options. Sending electronics away felt like extra effort for many.

2. Analysis

We collected a huge amount of data from our interviews and site visits, it made sense to group the data and divide it into addressable chunks for understanding the core issues.

2.1 Affinity Diagram

We collected a huge amount of data from our interviews and site visits, it made sense to group the data and divide it into addressable chunks for understanding the core issues.

2.2 Thematic Network

By analyzing qualitative data from interviews and observations, we were able to identify key themes that connect directly to the challenges our solution aims to address. This process involved transforming user insights into actionable items. Through thematic analysis, we distilled these items into four core user pain points:

​

  • Limited access to convenient e-waste recycling options

  • Lack of public awareness and knowledge about what electronics can be recycled

  • Inadequate existing e-waste recycling programs

  • Concerns and confusion surrounding the proper handling of electronics for recycling

2.3 Personas

We personified our findings and observations into two unique fictional personas reflecting two different generations of people to guide our design ideation and construction.

3. Ideation

Session 1: Open Discussion and Ideation
Using our thematic analysis to guide ideation, we divided the session into four chunks to focus on each individual element of our analysis and came up with potential design directions and ideas based on those.
Session 2: Bringing in Outside Perspective
By working with a classmate from another team, we further refined our project's focus. Together, we narrowed down the specific problems we'd address and ranked the ten potential solutions we brainstormed earlier, prioritizing the most usable and impactful ones.
Session 3: Finalizing the Ideas
We utilized the Crazy 8s design ideation method to hyper-narrow ideas each taking eight minutes to come up with eight solutions based on a list of design directions generated in Session 1 and Session 2.
Moving on from our ideation sessions we decided to fixate on these three solutions that address the key problems of awareness, accessibility and motivation to recycle.
01
Information Section

People weren't sure how to e-recycle, by creating an information section, we can provide the necessary information to get people started and engaged in electronic recycling.

02
Community Platform

Aiming to boost e-waste recycling awareness and spark conversation about DIY electronics reuse and upcycling to extend their lifespan and reduce landfill waste.

03
Reward System

We discovered that a significant motivator for e-waste recyclers was the environmental benefit associated with responsible disposal.

4. Design

Now that we had our core goals identified, we moved to the design phase with storyboards to convey the problems and to visualize how users will utilize the various features in e-Turn.

4.1 Storyboards

We created six scenarios which highlight the use of our product and conveyed them using storyboards, which would help us better visualize the final product.

4.2 Wireframes

Leading the design process, I created a rough outline of all major screens of the application and labelled them before starting Hi-Fi design and prototyping.

4.3 Prototype

Using XD to prototype our final design, we created a mvp, it contains fewer screens and not all concepts that were highlighted in our brainstorming. Other ideas like rewards and discussion forums were reserved for future scope.​

5. Usability Testing

We did usability testing including think-aloud sessions and cognitive walk-through with 6 participants which helped us identify the user-friendliness of our design and if there are any particular problems with the solution.

Users Feedback

  • Search by City Name: Users requested searching by city name instead of zip code for a more user-friendly experience.

  • Information Overload: The final information page felt overwhelming. Consider ways to simplify the information presentation.

  • More Filters Needed: Users requested additional filters for searching electronics, including size and type.

  • Icon Clarity: The icons used to display GPS coordinates need to be clearer and more easily understood.

  • Wider Search Radius: Users would like the option to set a larger search radius for their searches.

Learning Outcomes

This was a research based project where we spent majority of part analyzing the market and understand what keeps people from recycling old electronics also learning the importance of field research.

​

This was my first in-depth research project and helped me learn research methodologies like thematic network graphs and usability testing methodologies like think alouds and cognitive walk-through to determine usability of our solution.

​

As this was my first collaborative project with a UX team, I encountered situations where we had to prioritize features or make design compromises based on project constraints. This project helped me understand the importance of flexibility and collaboration in achieving a successful outcome.

bottom of page