Process
I broke this project down into 4 phases:
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Strategy and Preparation
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Discovery
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Design
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Prototyping
Discovery took the longest as I wanted to create a tool rooted in realism. This way it’s something people
could realistically use.
Interviews
Based on my interviews, I had a few main points crop up. The Composting SME felt that educating people on how
to deal with food before it goes rotten was the most important topic to cover as it prevents waste, and cuts
down on spending, which then is answered by the farmers who’ll need to make less produce. Both farmers said
they needed external sources of compost. One of them got to the point where they went dumpster diving behind
a grocery store. One of the consumers preferred if it was a communal pick-up, this way they have a drop-off
point in their apartment complex so that they don’t have to worry about scheduling a pick-up. The other
consumer, who had previous composting experience, mentioned people would need different sized bags for
composting as different household sizes have different needs. They also explained a ticket system that some
states have with farmers' markets to give produce to seniors and low-income individuals/households.
Lean Canvas
Based on initial research, secondary research, and interviews I set up a canvas so I could see what ideas
came to me and could guide me through the rest of the project.
Affinity Map
I used Miro to make an Affinity Map to log all the interview responses and to help look for patterns
amongst my participants. The Farmers’ patterns were that they:
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Do their best to create as little waste as possible
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Use compost for both crops and animal bedding
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Don’t want to do anything that could put their Certified Organic status at risk
Consumers’ patterns were that they:
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Do their best to eat and/or prepare everything they purchase, but some things do end up falling
through the
cracks
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Would like to learn what they can and cannot compost
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Would also like to learn what else to do with their food before it goes bad as long as it is
low-effort
Competitive Analysis
Based on my interviews, I looked into companies that were mentioned to gain an understanding of their
successes and faults. Here are the Top 3 that I learned and gleaned from:
Community Compost Company
They collect specifically food scraps from residential and commercial spaces for compost. What I liked
about
them was that they have communal drop spots for composting. This led to my idea for working with
community
gardens to help supply them with compost and potentially act as a drop-off/pick-up point for larger
farmers.
Atlas Organics
Atlas Organics is a membership based compost pickup service that collects compost from residential and
commercial spaces. Their educational section on their website inspired me to add the Recipes section of
the tool so that people can share their recipes and knowledge with the larger Second Life Composting
community.
Food Rescue Us
Food Rescue Us is entirely volunteer based. They pick up food donations from local donors (grocers,
restaurants, caterers, etc.). They seemed very decentralized since they are volunteer based and work in
food “rescue” this way the food is given a purpose before being turned into “waste.”
User Journey Map
Due to time constraints, I focused on Corrina’s Journey through Second Life Composting.
Her journey follows a procedure for when she has ingredients to cook but doesn’t know what to do with them.
She ends up looking stuff up hoping someone’s been in a similar situation and has already solved her
problem. And finally, she’s confident with what she can do with her scraps so that they don’t end up as
“waste.”
Information Architecture
I broke all the Information Architecture down into three separate pages:
Compost
Which hosts everything related to your composters you’re following, what you can/cannot compost, and
scheduling a pick up for your compost.
Recipes
This section is dedicated to user-created recipes for food, crafts, booze, or anything else related to
food scraps that one can conceive of.
Profile
Lastly, you have your profile where you can see the posts you’ve created, posts you liked/saved, and
tickets you’ve earned based on how much you have composted.
