App and System Design

2021

Global warming has increasingly caught the attention of many students who find themselves on a changing planet that they will soon inherit. Interest in having a sustainable lifestyle that can decrease the effects of global warming is rising among university students, but many don’t have the resources or information to live zero-waste. Loop is a multifunctioning service that combines a recycling guide and collaborative consumption community to help university students keep their products out of the landfill. A student may have an item that they can recycle, compost, or give back to the community instead of throwing it away. Therefore, it is kept in the loop of community use for as long as possible before it ends up in the landfill. Additionally, students can find previously owned items using the loop service instead of purchasing them new, which reduces mass product production and its environmental impact.

North Carolina State University has an elaborate system for diverting waste, yet many students don’t know about it because it is not advertised. Loop takes the many components of this system, such as the bin mapping and the recycling guide, and integrates them into a convenient resource of information that can be packed in a mobile app. The University system also does not include a collaborative consumption community for students. These types of interactions are usually conducted through Facebook forums where users can post items and services. However, the Facebook forums have no moderator for content and are not directly connected to the university. Loop combines these services into a complete system that uses a mobile app with bin tracking, a recycling guide, and a collaborative consumption community. Additionally, loop provides branding for trash bins on campus and packaging for items in the collaborative consumption community that complete the service’s physical components.

Planning

The task flow clearly shows how the app utilizes the four main hubs to help the user accomplish their goal. The user personas display the different types of college students that would use this product. The goal is to motivate students to use the app to dispose of their items in the best possible way, and one of the leading motivators to use it is efficiency and convenience.

Branding

Above is the stylesheet for the brand, and mockups of the physical touchpoints, which include the trash and community bins, and labels for dropping off items. After mapping out the system and deciding on app features and physical touchpoints, the branding was decided. The color scheme and imagery is meant to give the user a fun "green" feel when they interact with the brand.

App Design

Displayed above is the final user journey with the app. There are five main user task flows, and the app takes them through each one in a clear and efficient way.