I've grown up on the East Coast and have seen the effects of climate change on our oceans and communities first hand. I am very passionate about finding ways to help the environment become more sustainable. My goal is to see how technology can be used to help the environment.

 It would make me very upset as I drove around my community and saw perfectly good things put out on the street to be thrown away. Possible members of the community could utilize and recycle these goods, but instead they will end up in the landfills and in turn cause environmental harm. This experience led me try to understand how American families consume goods and what we as a community can do about it.  

“How Might We…”

After seeing this research I believe that to help solve this overconsumption problem we need community resource sharing which includes sharing of physical resources, services, and skills. This will help decrease the aggressive level of consumption that many countries are facing.

How might we help suburban families combat overconsumption through community sharing in order to help fight against climate change.

Affinity Mapping

After I conducted my interviews I sorted all of my feedback into an affinity map. This helped me organize all of the insights that I discovered from the interview by grouping based on similar feedback.

From these interviews I chose to focus on 5 key Insights:

1. People do not like looking for items at a thrift store.

2. People like to know who they are donating to.

3. People try to donate often and some rather give than sell.

4. People do not have a lot of communication with neighbors and do not desire close relationships.

5. People feel like inventory at thrift stores is less than ideal.

 User Experience Map

Using Hanna, I created an experience map that helps me understand the end-to-end experience one might have while trying to replace a house hold item. When I put myself in the shoes of the Hanna I was able to see the opportunities for improvement that I highlighted in red. For my experience map I chose to focus on what Hanna would go through trying to replace her broken vacuum.

Opportunitys

The process of buying something new causes many pain points for Hanna as she is actively trying to reduce her carbon footprint. I found that there was opportunity for improvement all along the way. Once Hanna decided that she was going to buy second hand, there were problems she encountered. One problem being the thrift store as it did not have what she needed and was not organized well. Shed ended up going to multiple to try and get the vacuum that she was looking for. From this experience I saw an opportunity to help her directly connect to someone who is giving away an item that she is looking for, so she doesn't have to hunt for it. Concluding a need for a second hand sharing platform in her community that is well organized and easy to find.

User Stories

To help me better understand the functionality and features that my digital solution will need, I created 30 user stories from the perspective of Hanna I clearly saw that there were two main users, a Giver and Receiver. I decided to focus on the receiver, because my user interviews showed that there is a greater challenge finding used items than giving items away. I then broke the Receiver into four Separate Epics - Finding Items, Matching/Favoriting, and Communication/Information as they are all important aspects to create a listing marketplace application. Therefore I decided to combine essential features from all my epics for my application and the task at hand. 

 Sketching

After seeing all of my research and gathering all of my inspiration, I now have a better understanding of the problem. I then started to create sketches in the ideation phase. These sketches help illustrate the task flow and help me figure out what UI elements work for my problem. I want to make the listing process similar to what users would have experienced before but also extremely simple so they are not discouraged from listing an item. 

I first looked to other apps and UI components to gather inspiration. I considered apps where people list their own items for sale, such as Mercari, Facebook MarketPlace, Kijiji, and Tradesy. I also looked to dating apps as I wanted to take inspiration from their matching notifications.

Lo-Fi Wireframe

Using elements for my sketch I came up with my first iteration of my prototype. Below is the Low-Fi flow of a user of creating a new need for a dog crate in the community share app.

As a part of my design process, I conducted two rounds of usability testing with five participants each round. These were all first time users with no experience using the app. I first asked the users to explain to me how they interpret the home screen without any context given to what the app is supposed to do. I wanted to truly understand how the user understands and interprets the home page. This will help me gain real time feedback that can help improve my design and allow me to make a more user friendly experience. The users were then asked to complete a set of 4 tasks throughout the process of creating a new need for pet supplies.

Tasks

• See all gifts in Community

• Create a Need for Pet accessory

• Change Need to Pet Crate and Bedding

• Edit Previous Need Post

Home Page

Problem 

Users found this home page to be overwhelming and it was difficult to understand what the app would do. Users were confused as they could not tell where they were in the app based on the title or the nav bar. The cards and titles were very small and hard for the user to read. Overall the page felt very overwhelming to the user. 

Solution

1. Provided the user with more context into what Gifts and Needs are so a new user is less lost 

2. Made the cards larger to help readability for the users 

3. Add the location so the users know where they are looking for items 

4. Made the title correlate with where the user is located in the app

5. Streamline the Nav Bar icons so they are more cohesive 

6. Created more breathing room with in the whole page

Community Needs Page

Problem 

Users were confused by the create new need button located at the top of the screen. They found the wording confusing with irregular patterns. Similar to the home page the users felt like the titles were too hard to read. The users were also concerned that they did not have the ability to filter threw postings as this seamed like a feature that they would expect the app to have. 

Solution  

1. Removed Create a New Need button at the top of the screen to eliminate confusion and match industry standards

2. Added filter and relevance feature to help ease of use 

3. Made the cards larger to improve readability

4. Added request for ease of use

 Mid-Fi Wire Frame

After the user testing this is the final Mid-Fi Wire frame

Creating New Need

Problem 

Users were confused when the flow automatically took them to a page where they would upload a reference photo for the posting. It felt unnecessary as they believed they would not always like to upload a photo. Users felt like the photo section felt detached from the rest of the form field, and some users even forgot that it was a part of the flow. Some users found the form field to be confusing as it was difficult to tell sections apart. 

Solution

1. Moved the bread crumbs to the top of the page so the photo sections feel apart of the form field

2. Added copy so the users know that it is optional for the user to upload a photo

3. Created boxes for the  form field so it is easier for the users to read and tell sections apart

Mood Board

I then searched for images and inspiration using these keywords. With the images that I found I created a mood board that reflected the aesthetic and ambiance that I want to create. I wanted to find images that felt eclectic and antique. As this app will encourage users to use things the are not perfect and new.

Find exactly what you have been looking for, for free!

Community Share allows users to Ask for things that they are in need of so they can easily be matched with someone who is giving it away. The user does not have to spend time searching the internet or resale store looking for the things that they need as they will be directly matched.  

Give unused items a new home 

You can easily create a post giving away something you think others could use, making sure your item is put to good use and does not end up in a land fill. Consume Less, Reduce Waste, and Help Each Other. Community Share’s goal is to help combat overconsumption by sharing with your neighbor. This cuts down on trash in landfills, reduces carbon dioxide emissions, and creates a community that helps each other and the environment.

 Next Steps

Build additional flows:

I would like to create the onboarding flow and allow users to make a profile. I think it would be interesting  for users to create a profile of clothing sizes and food preferences so they can automatically be matched with listing based off their profile 

Explore new features:

I would like to explore the idea of sharing physical products.  Is this something users would be open to and  what would be the best way to implement this feature?

I would like to see if then we could expand the app with barter services. 

Do more user testing:

I would like to do more user testing to help refine my current prototype. 

Key Learnings

Design is not and will not be perfect: 

I have a tendency to over think things and become obsessive with making what I create perfect. Going through this process I realized that you often just have to jump in and explore ideas. If I worked on project until they were perfect nothing would have gotten done. Every design is not going to be perfect but each design help you learn and grow. 

Always ask and think about “Why”:

To truly understand a user you need to ask the “Why”.  During interviews asking this simple question helps to reveal the honest answer to the users actions. If you do not dig deep with your users and try your best to understand them you might miss key areas of improvement.  It is important to also think about the “Why” in your own process of design to help you know if what you are working on is truly benefiting your end goal.  

Stay organized: 

When working on a large project like this it is important to stay organized. Things can get overwhelming and lost if you are not on top of your files. Its is important to save and label all iteration of your work so you can go back and compare design changes. 

Do not come in with an idea in mind: 

It is extremely important to not go into a design with an idea already in mind as you might design for the wrong problem.