ekko.world
Ekko Score App
Background
Ekko.world is Australia’s biggest community of sustainable businesses - from micro to global - and an information and news site for all things sustainable.
Along with RMIT computer scientists, ekko.world developed the first Ekko Score - product greenwash evaluation tool that scores the true sustainability of any product.
The Ekko Score algorithm can also be adapted to create a Citizen Score. To help Citizens be more responsible - to score their personal sustainability and to give them tools to be greener.
I redesigned an exisiting Ekko Score App prototype to better engage people to make more sustainable choices in their daily lives.
Role
UX Designer
Contribution
Responsible for testing, discovery, ideation and interaction design.
Timeline
April - May 2022
The Brief
Ekko.world wants users to engage more frequently and share their experience with their personal ekko score app.
Research
I started by conducting a stakeholder interview. Answers were recorded and categorised by theme on an affinity map. Followed by moderated usability tests of the current Citizen Ekko Score App prototype. User's responses and body language was recording during these sessions.
Affinity mapping
click image to see zoomable version with interview guide
Insights
User testing of the current Ekko Score App, stakeholder and user interviews revealed three main insights:
Keep it simple
Sustainability is a mine field. There are numerous approaches towards a more sustainable lifestyle, ranging from simple to complex. Repeatedly, users do not know where to start and feel overwhelmed by choices. Is there a straight forward routine activity that most users have in common that will help build sustainable habits and confidence to then explore the more intricate aspects of sustainability?
Satisfyingly sustainable
Making sustainable choices feels good! One sustainable choice can lead to another. It's a matter of getting users over that first hurdle, helping them understand the impact of their choices and keeping the momentum. Paired with social media, there is the potential to create a movement!
Ain't got time for that
Convenience can often be the adversary of sustainability. Modern life is exceedingly demanding of users' time and cognitive load. How might we incentivise sustainable habit forming and make it part of leisure or a routine task.
Problem
The research highlighted several opportunities. Those which aligned with client goals could be addresses with the following statement:
Development
Ideation
A collaborative brainstorm produced a series of ideas that were consolidated into four possible starting points.
Although gamification or community based ideas could potentially have the most impact, they are complex solutions to convincingly develop within the project timeframe. Also, these solutions require a significant time investment from the user.
In using the ekko score algorithm to help shoppers budget more sustainable choices into their groceries, we are incorporating an exisiting tool into a routine task. Not only would this encourage the formation of a sustainable habit, it lays the foundation for a movement that puts retailers and producers in competition to provide higher ekko scores at lower prices.
Low fidelity prototype
Low fidelity prototypes allowed for usability testing, where tasks focused on allowing the user to increase the basket's ekko score at various stages in their flow by adding, replacing and removing products. Contextual observations and user feedback contributed to the refining of the introduction to the ekko score and checkout flows.
Prototype
The final prototype is a progressive web-app (PWA) for people who want to make more sustainable choices and keep track of their budget when shopping for their usual groceries.
Next steps
Citizen Ekko Score - When users Shopping Ekko Score starts to plateau, they will be encouraged through notifications to explore to the personal or "Citizen" ekko score. Where they are coached on the choices that influence their Citizen Ekko Score.
Product Filters - Users could filter out products from their search that do not fit their values. For example, if they contain palm oil, plastics or are not Fairtrade certified.
Compare Retailers - Users could compare their basket amongst nearby retailers, to achieve the highest ekko score at the lowest price. Pushing retailers and producers to compete for more sustainable products at better prices.
Following - Users could follow each other and share advice on sustainable choices. Creating ekko communities.
Developer Handover
click image to see zoomable version
