Time frame — 12 weeks, Role — UX designer, researcher, illustrator, reporter

Reducing Excessive Move-In Waste

a Proposed Digital Marketplace for DIS Copenhagen Students

Project Synopsis: How can we streamline the process of exchanging second-hand furniture and goods among study abroad students to reduce excessive move-in waste?

Skills: Design thinking, ideation, paper prototyping, Figma, storyboarding, user testing, feedback integration

The Problem

Study abroad students often face the challenge of acquiring new furniture and goods for temporary housing, which leads to significant waste at the end of their stay. At the Danish study abroad program DIS, how might we reduce a student’s initial move-in waste while ensuring students' optimal study abroad environment?

User Group

Our target group is college students who study abroad in the DIS Copenhagen program.

50% of DIS students surveyed had purchased more than 8 household items moving in

86.7% believe that certain household items can be reused from previous students

Empathy map after conducting in depth contextual interviews

Contextual Interviews

Key Takeaways

  • While users claimed their recycling habits have gotten better at DIS, their carbon footprints also increased since going abroad

  • Many users agreed on how they would use pre-owned items instead of buying new ones, but many didn’t know where they could find this

  • The largest contributor to their consumption habits stemmed from moving in:

    • Accessibility to needed items

    • Pressure to conform to Danish styles

    • Limitations in packing space and quantity

    • Changes in lifestyles

Ideation

Based on synthesizing user research, contextual interviews, and a group ideation session, we focused on solutions that addressed:

  • A lack of access to public donation rooms

  • Limited public knowledge on the existence of public donation rooms

  • Varying comfort levels in what can be reused

We categorized each type of solution into relevant areas such as incentives, education, and eliminations.

We brought in guests relevant to the user group to engage in an ideation brain dump.

Creating a Low Fidelity Paper Prototype

  • A marketplace would be available in the pre-existing home page of the DIS navigate app that all students have

  • Students would post household items that are available based on location

  • Students can access information about the item and ask the owner information via DM

  • Picking up the item is streamlined via a form

Storyboarding

We created a chronological scene of events to tell a story of a user’s journey. It helped us display the way we ideally envision a user’s interacting with the proposed digital marketplace.

The storyboard I illustrated for the process of a user engaging with the digital market

The marketplace feature I designed in Figma

High Fidelity Prototype

Visualizing a user’s interaction in Figma

I used Figma to bring our prototype to life. This allowed me to replicate how a user interacts with the product in an accurate and detailed manner, as many aspects were filtered out in the paper prototype.

Result & Takeaways

  • Implementation

    The final product was presented to a sustainability professor who expressed interest in implementing the marketplace feature after we left Denmark.

  • Designing for Sustainability

    I learned how to incorporate sustainable practices into digital solutions, helping reduce waste through a streamlined process that promotes the reuse of goods.

  • Collaboration in Cross Cultural Contexts

    I designed in an international context where I learned to collaborate effectively with a diverse team, considering different perspectives and user behaviors.

  • User-Centered Ideation

    Through ideation and feedback with our user group, I learned the value of working directly with users to cater a solution to them.