Axiom
Group project * Fall 2021
︎Context︎
Americans represent 5% of the world's population, but generate 30% of the world's garbage. On average, a typical middle class American family wastes over 4M lbs of materials in a year to keep up with their lifestyle. A majority of that is what they throw away or recycle on a daily basis. From our user research and personal experiences, most of us are not aware of what we throw away and how much trash we produce each day. Axiom is an app that works with a garbage disposal hardware system to help people manage their waste disposal and be more conscious about our environment.
By conducting one-on-one interviews with 14 participants, there are serval pain points:
︎Not knowing whether an item is recyclable
︎No one else in my surroundings recycles, why should I?
︎Too lazy to track waste production
︎Doesn’t know why should we track waste production
To target these pain points, here are the jobs to be done:
︎Find an easier way for people to differentiate different categories of trash
︎Increase awareness of how inappropriate trash disposal influence our environment
︎Make it more straightforward for people to manage and visualize their waste production
︎Educate people on the life cycle of a waste material
︎Not knowing whether an item is recyclable
︎No one else in my surroundings recycles, why should I?
︎Too lazy to track waste production
︎Doesn’t know why should we track waste production
To target these pain points, here are the jobs to be done:
︎Find an easier way for people to differentiate different categories of trash
︎Increase awareness of how inappropriate trash disposal influence our environment
︎Make it more straightforward for people to manage and visualize their waste production
︎Educate people on the life cycle of a waste material
︎Interview & Research︎
︎Competitive Analysis︎
Company names
Waste Tracker
iRecycle
AI Rubbish Bin
Rubicon Global Analytics
Target
Enterprise
Enterprise that need to recycle large quantities of certain material
Small Businesses
Global enterprise, independent businesses, city, or hauler operation
Main Function
Track accumulation points and containers; Trend and analyze waste volumes and cost
Search for recycle center for input materials
Records everything that throw into the bin
Analyze trash content, financial report on trash-related expenditure
Physical Components
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︎ Persona ︎
︎ User Flows ︎
︎Journey Map ︎
︎Prototype︎
Flow 1 - connect to the physical device
Automatic connection with the physical device that stays on until running out of the battery
The physical device uses its bottom part for weight sensing, the middle support bar can be shortened or lengthed depending on the height of the trash can, the top part is a material detection sensor that can analyze its trash category when the user throws in pieces of trash.
The initialization of this physical device and the App will include pairing devices with different trash categories. So when users categorize wrongly when throwing a piece of trash, this physical device will make a sound indication.
Flow 2 - account page
Swipe right to go to the account page, where account information and physical device status are shown. If users live in the area where trash is picked up by a truck, not on daily basis, there will be the garbage truck schedule for the neighborhood and settings to schedule a reminder to take out the trash. If users live in an apartment where they can throw out trash anytime, the schedule is customizable and remind the user to take out the trash before it smells.
Flow 3 - data visualization of trash disposal
After weighting and detecting different categories of trash, the rings will help users make sense of the data produced.
The main page will show the total trash weight produced this week and the percentage constituted from different categories.
The click on the wheel will lead the user to the rings that compare the current week’s data with the previous week’s data. The complete circle is last week’s trash weight in a certain category, and if the ring of landfill goes over last week’s data, a warning message will appear. It won’t have any feedback if compost weight exceeds or is less than last week’s. Confetti will appear if the user successfully recycles more.
One more click on the wheel will lead the user to the third ring graph, which compares the user’s data with average American household data. The whole circle represents the US household average on that certain trash category. The same feedback will appear as on the previous page.
The main page will show the total trash weight produced this week and the percentage constituted from different categories.
The click on the wheel will lead the user to the rings that compare the current week’s data with the previous week’s data. The complete circle is last week’s trash weight in a certain category, and if the ring of landfill goes over last week’s data, a warning message will appear. It won’t have any feedback if compost weight exceeds or is less than last week’s. Confetti will appear if the user successfully recycles more.
One more click on the wheel will lead the user to the third ring graph, which compares the user’s data with average American household data. The whole circle represents the US household average on that certain trash category. The same feedback will appear as on the previous page.
Flow 4 - set week’s goal
By swiping to the left, the users can access to the page where they set their weekly goals. They can use the up and down arrows on right to adjust the total trash weight goal. There will be a suggested overall weight with a mechanic vibration from the mobile device when user scroll. To adjust the weight composition percentage, user can move the bar in a position representing the percentage of a particular category of trash. The suggested percentage, which is based on previous user data, will also show on the chart. To activate the goal, simply press the lock to lock. Once the goal is locked, it will be a pop up making sure user think twice before changing the goal. The second bar represents the current week’s data.
︎Future possible improvements︎
We did not conduct user testing after prototyping. The data visualization could be hard to understand for the users, especially the page in which users set weekly goals.
We also didn't achieve the fourth job-to-be-done "educate the user on the life cycle of a waste material". We originally thought it would be interesting if we could spray a coded substance that could track a particular piece of trash. Even after it gets recycled, the information will be accumulatively presented to the user who threw out the trash and the user who use the recycled trash. But based on current technology and privacy reasons, we decided not to have this feature.