SWAPPED
Design schools generate a significant amount of waste, much of which consists of reusable materials and art supplies. This project introduces an app that enables students to exchange art supplies within their college community, promoting sustainability by reducing unnecessary waste.
Overview
According to data collected in SWIMS (Solid Waste Information Management System), residents and businesses in Los Angeles County disposed of about 9 million tons of solid waste.
Part of that mass is materials and art supplies that could have been reused. Design schools in particular produce significant amounts of waste. An app that allows students to exchange art supplies within their college community. The goal of this project is to reduce the waste of materials that are not ready to be disposed of.
Project
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College Project (Junior Year)
tools
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Figma
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Miro
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Google Forms
The Problem
As a student designer, I use a lot of different art supplies. However, the majority of these materials come in large quantities such as paint cans, wood stains, and clay.
To avoid wasting good, usable art supplies and having them end up in landfills, this app allows students to easily exchange art supplies within their small communities.
USER RESEARCH
Survey
Demographic
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Ages 18-21
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Male and female
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American and Asian
Departments
Participants
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Product Design
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Fine Arts
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Architecture
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20 students
Insights
1. Students do face problems surrounding material waste
2. If students have materials left over that they do not plan to use, they resort to disposal instead of recycling
3. Sharing materials with their college community is something they are interested in
4. Art supplies that people need are power tools, pottery wheels, easels, sculpting tools, sandpaper, and more.
USER STORIES
User Flows
Why User flows?
User flows helped me visually layout all the displays that needed to be designed as well as the actions the user would need to take in order to do three of the main tasks; upload an art supply to the app and see/purchase other people's supplies and find suppliers location.
What I learned from the user flows
These three user flows were a major part of my planning stage. I knew exactly what interfaces were most important to have a functioning app as well as the tasks that users need to take to accomplish those two user stories. It is a step I now realize, I cannot skip.
As a user, I want to be able to upload my art supplies to the app
This user flow identifies how a user would upload their unwanted materials and art supplies to the app.
In doing this user flow I realized the most important displays I needed to design are the home page/feed, fill out the details of the item, and overview of the post.
As a user, I want to see what art supplies other people can offer
This user flow identifies how a user would see what materials and art supplies are available for them to look into and possibly use in their projects.
In doing this user flow I realized the most important displays I needed to design are the list of categories, details page of item and payment (which I ended up removing)
As a user, i want to be able to get to the supplier's location
This user flow identifies how a user would find the supplier's location in case they want to get the art supply. The user would either be able to pick up the material or in certain situations, have it delivered.
In doing this user flow I realized the most important displays I needed to design are the location page and a page to set up your maximum radius for the distance you are willing to travel to get the material.
WIREFRAMES
Mid Fidelity
Small changes
Suggesting payments between college students didn't seem casual; It sounded like a transaction. I decided to remove the prices and add the department/major of the student instead making it more casual and easy going.
The profile page was too confusing. I was trying to add too many features which the students most likely wouldn't use. I narrowed down the three most important which were Supplies, to see what they have previously bought or saved, other people's posts and Location, to manage their location settings.
Since I realized price was not important, I changed that out for the student's major. This way, it's easier to connect when you have information on what they are studying as well as what year they are in.
To make the app have more of my college represented, I decided to make small aesthetic changes like replacing the location pin for on owl since an owl is our mascot. Since all Otis students are considered Otis Owls, this map plays on the words "owl to owl."
I changed the bottom bar from four icons to three to make it simpler and cleaner. I realized it was unlikely that users would want to look at their saved items from the menu bar but it was still necessary so instead, I moved it to the profile page.
An important outcome I wanted this app to have was to allow students from different departments to connect as well as always have people to ask questions to, design-related or not. Without a community chat feature, that would be difficult.
What I Learned
1. The emotions/feelings evoked by an app heavily rely on content and layout
2. Don't try to add too many features, that will most likely make your app confusing and not user friendly
3. Since this app was for Otis College of Art and Design, small changes like making it represent the school mascot made it more well rounded
4. I initially thought the home page would be different from the feed but I combined them instead. The less pages the better, the user shouldn't have to click too many buttons to get to where they want to.
Displays
APP STARTUP PAGE IDEAS
I designed a few start-up pages that will set the tone for the app. The page shows the logo which represents the exchange or swaps of materials and supplies. Along with that, I use the main color theme as an introduction to the app.
Although this page can be seen for a few seconds, I decided to make it have an interesting flow portraying the movement of materials from student to student.
Overview
This app encourages students to exchange material and art supplies when they no longer find a use for them. It promotes reusing materials and reducing waste.
Students can connect to other students and use the community chat feature to communicate with students in other departments. All student's profiles are visible to allow further connection and networking.
This app hopes to make a change, little by little as more schools adopt this system of sharing materials within their community and get maximum use out of all supplies.