SCRAP IT
A mobile application that connects scrap collectors and their customers.
Organization: Autonxt Automation Pvt. Ltd. (Startup) Timeline: 12 weeks
Team: Nisha Nair (UX and Visual Designer), Vishal Dubey (Android Developer),
Vinay Hegde (Business Executive)
My Responsibilities: Contextual Inquiry, Wireframing, Prototyping, Visual Design, Usability Testing
Tools: Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Overflow
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
Recycling in Mumbai, India
Recycling is a way of life for most households of Mumbai and
scrap collectors or 'raddiwalas' form the backbone of this system since generations.
These scrap collectors collect recyclable items like newspapers, cardboard, metal artifacts, steel vessels and essentially anything recyclable from households in exchange for money. They then sell them to wholesale recyclers specific to each category at a higher price, thus earning a small margin of profit.
PROJECT GOAL
Our project goal was to incorporate technology such that it empowered scrap collectors to efficiently organize their business and gain customers while serving to be a profitable business model for the startup organization.
KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS
How do the scrap collectors run their business?
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They work from small individual stores where the scrap that they collect is stored temporarily.
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Their primary mode of transport is a bicycle which they use to carry scrap from households to their store.
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They rely on word of mouth and store banners to form their customer base.
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Most of the times they conduct business with clients residing within a 1-3 miles radius.
They own Android smartphones through which they communicate with existing customers
What challenges do scrap collectors face?
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Their customer base is limited to households of nearby vicinity since they rely solely on verbal communication to form relations and expand their business.
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The verbal estimates of the quantity and kind of scrap items to be collected they receive from customers are often vague or highly inaccurate.
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Often, they have to make preliminary trips to customer households only to estimate the quantity and kind of scrap items that have to be collected.
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They also end up making multiple trips to and fro when they underestimate the quantity, kind of scrap and do not carry appropriate tools for the same.
What challenges do their customers face?
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They are unaware of standard rates of scrap items and are forced to trust the scrap collector's word for it.
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They have limited means of finding scrap collectors that include physically searching for their stores in the vicinity or asking around.
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Customers are unaware about the range of items that can be recycled. The only way to find out if the scrap collectors would buy an item is to proactively ask. Thus, customers tend to wrongly assume that certain artifacts will not be accepted.
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Customers struggle to find scrap collectors that would buy specific items for recycling.
USER RESEARCH
We articulated key areas of our opportunity space and identified the challenges mentioned above by performing intensive user and market research. We perceived how scrap collectors conducted their business and interacted with them and their customers through observations and interviews.
FIELD STUDIES
We conducted interviews and observations of scrap collectors and their customers to thoroughly understand their experiences and identify with their values. We also aimed to recognize potential opportunity spaces for technology to be used positively.
Observations - We performed both shadowing and naturalistic observations
of scrap collectors conducting business and interacting with customers.
Interviews - We conducted unstructured user interviews of
5 scrap collectors and 3 of their customers.
Images from Field Studies
PROPOSED DESIGN
An online platform through which scrap collectors can connect with their customers. The platform informs scrap collectors about more explicit estimates of the quantity and kind of scrap items they need to collect. Additionally, it serves as a medium for their clients to find new scrap collectors, thereby helping them
build relations and expand business.
Since most scrap collectors and their customer base own Android smartphones, this platform is implemented as a mobile application for the same.
KEY FEATURES OF THE MOBILE APP
Categorization of scrap items
Customized search results of scrap collectors
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Scheduling scrap collection time and date slots
User-friendly units of measurement to estimate quantity of scrap items
Viewing average purchase rates of scrap items
DESIGN RATIONALE
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The categorization of items and user-friendly units of measurements allows customers to input more explicit estimates of the quantity and kind of scrap items they're selling. This informs scrap collectors of the tools they need to carry, thus optimizing the number of trips they make to households.
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Customers can now be aware of the rates of purchase of scrap items across vendors. This transparency leads to increase in trust and reduces excessive time and effort spent negotiating prices.
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By accessing a complete list of items accepted by different scrap collectors, customers are likely to sell more items, thereby increasing the business for scrap collectors and optimizing the recycling system.
We developed a user flow diagram and a mind map for customers and scrap collectors respectively. Our motive was to understand the cognitive patterns of our users and design an experience that would enable this state of flow.
USER FLOW OF CUSTOMERS
While the mobile application aims to empower scrap collectors and improve their business, their customers would be the primary users of the application. The user flow below follows through a customer performing a task on the app.
Task : Search for scrap collectors to sell your list of scrap items.
MIND MAP OF SCRAP COLLECTOR
We designed a mind map for a scrap collector to organize their needs and wants in an organized manner. We made sure to consider this data further in our design process, while prototyping.
PROTOTYPES
Customers have to choose scrap items that they want to sell from a list of categories.
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Customers have to enter an approximate quantity for each scrap item they select. The unit of measurement varies according to the item and are such that users are able to make an estimate easily without using measuring tools.
Customers need to confirm their pick up
address and the personal details they
want to share with the scrap collectors.
The app shows search results of scrap collectors around that are categorized by the distance between them and the pick up location.
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Customers get to access all scrap items accepted and purchase rates of items specific to scrap collectors when they click on a profile card.
FUTURE SCOPE
The current design solution only targets how technology can be used positively in this opportunity space of informal recycling. While this concept showcased scope of being a profitable business model for the startup organization, the details of how that would be done still had to be addressed. Post this phase of design iteration the startup organization was working towards actualizing this concept as a business model in collaboration with stakeholders and investors.
REFLECTIONS
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The process of understanding user needs and wants must not be hurried. It takes significant time and efforts to form bonds with users, only after which they feel free enough to openly and comfortably share their stories and frustrations.
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A design solution that doesn't truly empower its users has limited scope of being a profitable business model. For design solutions to be sustainable, user satisfaction and profitable business must go hand in hand.
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Having a multi-disciplinary team of developers, business executives and designers is better than just designers tackling a problem or opportunity space. Since every solution is bound to technical and business constraints, it makes sense to involve their representatives from the start and not after a solution is proposed.