Erase E-Waste App
UI/ UX Design
Erase E-Waste is a one-stop mobile application designed with the aim of informing university students on the methods to manage e-waste as the current process lacks sufficient information and is not intuitive.
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Task: A university module individual project with the task of redesigning an entire mobile application to focus on mobile interactions that will enhance user experience.
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Methods: Contextual Inquiry, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Heuristic Evaluation
Team: Sole UI/ UX Designer
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Duration: 2 months
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Tools: Figma
Overview
According to the National Environment Agency (NEA) in Singapore, e-waste has been rising significantly with about 11kg of e-waste being disposed of per person every year. 60% of consumers are unsure about how they can recycle their e-waste.

Graphic taken from a 'The Straits Times' article
Problems and Solutions
Problems from the existing application were investigated and solutions were proposed to solve these issues.


Existing App


Proposed App
Target Audience
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University students in Singapore
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Large consumption of electronic devices - average university student owns about 7 electronic devices
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Known to be tech-savvy - the group with the greatest amount of mobile phone usage
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Contextual Inquiry
In-situ observation of 4 participants
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Contextual inquiry with a think-aloud protocol to observe users' step-by-step actions when using the existing application for e-waste recycling was conducted and questions about participants’ thought processes, motivations and emotions were asked throughout to gain a better understanding of how they felt about the mobile application
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​Some of the significant responses gathered include:

Low-fi Wireframes
Based on the initial research and investigation, low-fi wireframes were designed to test out the design solutions.
Usability Testing
The Wizard of Oz user-research method was used to conduct usability testing in-person with the low-fi wireframes on a mobile. From the usability testing, 3 significant pain points were brought up:

Mid-fi Prototype
With the feedback gathered, the wireframes were refined to develop a mid-fi prototype.
Some of the key redesigns include:

Heuristic Evaluation
From the mid-fi prototype, a heuristic evaluation was conducted to gain further insight into how the prototype can be improved.

High-fi Prototype
Following the heuristic evaluation, the mid-fi prototype was refined to develop a high-fi prototype.
Constraints
Due to limited time, an in-depth competitors’ research could not be conducted to understand the current gaps in user experience. Furthermore, personas and user journey maps could not be formulated to have a better understanding on the habits and behaviors of our target audience. Further insights would have helped to better tackle pain points.
Future Directions
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Have a ‘Scan’ icon on the ‘Map’ page for users to scan the QR codes at the e-waste bins, allowing users to understand what types of e-waste should go into that bin with ease
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Include another function to teach users how they can dispose of unconventional e-waste
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Include a disclaimer to teach users about certain e-waste parts that are not recyclable
