Sustainable Behaviours Research
While on placement at Tata Consultancy Services, I was given a brief to learn about all the steps involved in UX/UI design, and mentored by senior designers through this process.
Brief
An increasing number of Britons are becoming aware of sustainability and want to do more to help the environment. However, many people find themselves unsure about where to begin and what steps may have the greatest impact.
Design a solution that encourages people to change their behaviour through simple nudges and reduce their impact.
Time Span- 6 months working flexibly up to 4 hours per week
Team Size and Role- Individual Project, end to end delivery
Secondary Research
Understanding who is adopting sustainable behaviours, what ways they choose to be sustainable as well as trends. I decided to focus on plant based diets as diet is entirely under one's personal control and is not affected by government policies and availability of resources (like energy, fashion, seasonal food). This makes it a sensible and feasible behavioural change that can nudged.
Primary Research
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General Interviews- An overview of why people eat or do not eat meat, the influence of culture, connotations that come attached with the diet and best practices when reducing intake.
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Focussed on Plant Based Diets- Structured interviews for people who left meat for their health to understand the changes to the bodies.
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Quantative Survey and Business Owners- Visited a vegan market and spoke to people there about their motivations and methods. Also interviewed business owners about their inspiration, demographics buying from them.
General Interviews
10 interviews were conducted. This included those-
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Who had reduced significantly their meat intake or gone vegan
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Who eat meat but have consciously reduced intake by a small amount
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Who eat meat everyday, want to reduce their intake but have been unable to
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Who have grown up vegetarian
From these insights, affinity maps, empathy maps, diary studies and user journeys were built.
Research Question- What is causing people to take up or stray away from a vegan diet?
Click the image for detailed PDF of the affinity map
Focussed on Plant Based Diets
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6 interviews were conducted with people who had successfully switched from meat to veggie/vegan, based on the findings on the previous sessions.
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76 responses were collected through forums, group chats and surveys.
From these insights an affinity map was made- this gave direction to quantitive research, which was used to verify these results.
Research Question- What is the effect of a plant-based diet on mental and physical health
Click the image for detailed PDF of the affinity map
Quantitive Survey and Business Owners
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Visited a vegan market and spoke to people there about their motivations, methods, etc.
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Interviewed business owners about their inspiration, demographics buying from them.
Case Studies- Successful Switch
Following the primary research, I developed a series of case studies to understand the user personas that I might design for.
Below are 3 cases, who had successfully made the swap from meat to plant.
User Personas
Following the primary research, I developed case studies to understand the user persona that I would design for.
Below are 3 cases, who want to swap but haven't been able to. These are the potential users.
Research Conclusion
Analysing the various sources of information, both primary and secondary, the following conclusions were drawn-
Ideation
A short 1 hour ideation workshop was created and 7 designers from the TCS studio participated.
User Persona
A persona was created keeping in mind the various case studies uncovered during the discovery phase. This persona was presented in the ideation session.
Ideation Workshop
Exercises as part of the workshop-
-> Idea brain dumping
-> Affinity Mapping
-> Dot Voting
-> Brain Writing Cards
Storyboarding
Following the session, I did some quick storyboarding of the ideas to gather feedback from those that attended the ideation.
Design
The concept selected is to offer sustainable swaps as part of the weekly online shopping. The idea is nudge the consumer to swap items with higher carbon footprint for items that are better for the planet while offering monetary and point incentives. By offering carbon receipts and showing the effect if their swap at the checkout, the nudge is designed to be Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely.
I decided to make this product an add on to a current supermarket shopping experience, and not a stand- alone product. This is so that every single person buying grocery online can be targeted and encouraged to make better choices. If this was a stand alone product, the marketing and customer conversion would be far more difficult. Hence, I believe that this approach is best of high impact and low effort.
Here is the working prototype-
https://xd.adobe.com/view/60d7f949-d1cd-4686-b126-c125954bded8-3584/
User Testing
The prototype was tested with 7 participants.
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7/7 participants made at least 2 swap depending on personal dietary preferences, and also based on past experience of the suggested swaps.
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7/7 participants appreciated the concept and said they would use it in online checkout.
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4/7 participants asked for more variety in the swaps- for example, more brands in Oat Milk, or Vegan Sausages
Reflection
This project formed the very bases of my understanding of UX Design- it was through this that I learnt working methods and applied them straight away.
Having read multiple books, articles and watched conceptual videos during the research phase, my knowledge was enriched.
It was through this project that I acknowledged my deep interest in design research and user behaviour- which is my career aspiration from this point forward. While I enjoy thinking about design solutions and problem solving, wireframing and UI output is my secondary interest.
If I re-took this assignment, I would give myself more time for design, and therefore for usability testing. I was able to learn analysis methods like rainbow testing and UMUX but did not get the chance to apply them.