Slavi Kaloferov

Helping People Live Sustainably

Helping People to Live Sustainably

Task

Design a tool that will spark conversation about Portsmouth’s local issue

Duration

Sept 2022 | 1 Week Design Sprint

Team project

Two colleagues from Architecture and Interior Design

Role

UX Research, supporting design

Context

Our research pointed out that people do not correctly dispose of their undegradable products. In turn, a noticeable amount of rubbish ends up on the beaches of Portsmouth and then the sea.

Development

Team Facilitation

I created a collaborative environment by:

  • active listening
  • encouraging participants to openly share their lived experiences in relation to the topic.

Research methods such as “From Global to Local” and “Dark Side” helped achieve shared understanding within the team.

Journey Mapping

I synthesized the gathered qualitative data into a journey map of a product within the life of a person.

This helped us identify and develop the following hypothesis:

People rarely think about the packaging coming with the product when they shop.

Recentring on Real-World People

On the third day of the design sprint, one of my teammates started creating a solution (infographic) not informed by any research.

I successfully persuaded my team to speak to actual people by pointing to the benefits:

  • preventing us from coming up with generic ideas
  • helping us tailor our solution to an existent need thus having an impact.

Guerilla Interviews

We prepared questions to uncover people’s attitudes towards recycling and their experiences with it in Portsmouth.

I and another teammate of mine visited the city square and interviewed 10 people falling in the age group 25 – 34.

Synthesizing the Collected Data Using Affinity Mapping

I mitigated bias by carefully considering each data point and deriving a meaningful summary.

Visual Analysis

Portsmouth, other disciplines, app designs

Usability Testing

4 participants | 2 short tasks

To elicit richer data we could have created an environment that would resemble the actual setting where a person would use our app (shop/ home).

Final Outcome

At the final presentation, our app received very high interest. Several people expressed that they would see it becoming a useful part of their life.

Reflection

Also, towards the end of the sprint, we should have conducted remote usability tests to gather quantitative data to understand and prove the usefulness of our solution on a bigger scale.

See my Other Projects

eCommerce expansion

Doing research to validate the eCommerce version of a bookshop website.

Exhibition UX

Improving the User Experience of a Braille exhibition in Aspex gallery, Portsmouth.

Self-led Research

Researching the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Art and Design Higher Education.