I spent this weeks workshop finalising all of my concept visualisation. I have created the logo which would be used on the products, and recycling bins using Adobe Dimensions to create a 3D render of what they may look like in real life. This helped me to properly ‘visualise’ my idea, and see if the logo works on products, which in my opinion it turns out it works nicely. As well as this, I made an infographic detailing how the system works, and some facts about waste on a worldwide scale. I just have to put the logo I’ve created today onto it now and that too will be completed. Lastly I have created a style guide briefly explaining what my design choices are, and why I chose them specifically.

Logo:

Style Guide:

Cup Mockups:

I have completed the primary research which I needed. Although I only got 26 responses, there was a very clear pattern in the responses, even in the open ended questions which makes analysing the data very easy for me. It’s clear that there’s a problem, and it’s clear that it’s to do with people either not being able to recycle due to poor facilities, especially at Courts. Or because they don’t care enough to recycle which was another interesting thing I found when analysing my research. This research backs up what I expected to find through what I’ve seen previously through first hand experiences of living in student accommodation.

I have also completed two personas through using the data from this research. The two personas I’ve created are opposite ends of the students’ views on recycling. One who cares about recycling and puts effort in to do it, and one who doesn’t care. I was able to create these quite easily through using the research as a lot of the answers I’d need were contained within it.

Through looking at the research as a whole, it’s more than clear that there’s a problem with recycling, especially with students. There’s two key components to the problem, awareness and incentive. And the product needs both to be able to work, because people will usually not go out of their way to recycle unless they have a reason to.

In the workshop Graham briefly mentioned ‘Gamification’. Which is where you apply aspects of a game into the real world. An example of this would be collecting Tesco clubcard points. So perhaps applying gamification to a system encouraging people to recycle would work.

My idea is this, install numerous recycling bins around campus and courts, which accept different items such as tin cans, water bottles, etc. If you feed it an item, you receive tickets which you can collect and transfer into tokens which you can use to exchange for goods. That is the incentive, rewarding students for recycling. The awareness side would come from infographics printed onto the sides of these machines, which will also explain exactly how the system works, why it’s good to use it and how it helps the environment.

I’m yet to create the branding, that is one of my tasks for this week, although I have some ideas for it already.

Context – What it is, what it does

Pledge – How much are you asking for, and the perks you receive for pledging different amounts (if applicable), and what the total goal needed would be.

Media – Some form of images or video which provide some graphical detail to what it is in action.

Why – Why is it needed?

Future- Future plans

For my visual presentation I will be creating mock images of my idea in scenarios where I would expect to see them in real life. I have sketched up some ideas in the workshop, and will transfer these ideas to a digital format perhaps creating some 3D images in Adobe Dimensions and then applying them from there. There will also be an infographic explaining how the system works, and the benefits of using the system.

In Norway a company has developed a system where consumers pay extra money for a bottle of water for instance, but can then go back and recycle it, and get the money back to make the difference and save a small portion of money. Companies can get involved with this if they want to, however if they do the company will end up paying less money through taxes, so it’s a win win situation for everyone involved.

This is very interesting as I independently came up with an idea that works similarly to this, so to find out that there is a large company that is having great success with this provides evidence to me that there’s potential for this to work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42953038