| UX DEFINITION IFN591 591 ASSESSMENT TASK 2 |
ABSTRACT Research into the User Experience of building eco friendly habits. Analysis of the motivations and obstacles that users face when reaching their sustainability goals and development of design objectives for environmental coaching technology. |
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CONTENTS
Academic Honesty Statement……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Methods…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Aim …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Participants………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Say, Do, Make methods……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7
Limitations …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
Findings……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
Sustainable Actions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8
Difficulties Faced ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11
Personal Motivation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12
Social Influence…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13
Forming Habits …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 15
UX Definition…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
Persona……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
Rich Picture Scenario …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17
Design Brief ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
References ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 19
Appendicies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20
Appendix A: Ethics Documents……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20
Appendix B: Methods Used ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Appendix C: Anonymized Study Data……………………………………………………………………………………………. 34
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ACADEMIC HONESTY STATEMENT
1. I declare that all of the work submitted for this assignment is my own original work except for material
that is explicitly referenced and for which we have permission, or which is freely available (and also
referenced).
2. I agree that QUT may archive this assignment for an indefinite period of time, and use it in the future
for educational purposes including, but not limited to: as an example of previous work; as the basis for
assignments, lectures or tutorials; for comparison when scanning for plagiarism, etc.
3. I agree to indemnify QUT and hold it blameless if copyright infringements are found in this work and
the copyright owner takes action against QUT that is not covered by the normal terms of Educational
Use.
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INTRODUCTION
Eco-guide is a company that aims to create a mobile application that supports users in cultivating
environmentally sustainable actions through various stages of habit building (Fox, 2020). This platform aims to
create a tool that can help communities counteract the urgent effects of climate change on Earth occurring due
to industrialisation (Mgbemene, 2011). The increasing rate of climate change the planet is experiencing has
been well researched. Evidence of the effects of climate change show negative impacts to human health,
biodiversity, ocean ecosystems, agriculture, and the economy (McNutt, 2013). These wide-reaching impacts
cover a range of domains and more individuals are prioritising the need to address their role in creating a
sustainable planet regardless of what motivations they have.
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of
difference you want to make.” -Dr. Jane Goodall, Scientist & Activist.
The key problem the Eco-guide app aims to address is the challenges an individual may face when
integrating sustainability into their lives. There are many obstacles to environmentally friendly living, including
but not limited to informational barriers, social barriers, competing interests and accessibility:
• Information may not always be easily accessible, can be difficult to understand or may simply
not brought to awareness. On the other end of the spectrum, we are currently experiencing
the age of information where there is an absolute abundance of information. There are
countless methods and ideas to live sustainably out there, as it is a multi-faceted topic, and it
is easy to become overloaded when inundated with millions of options. Simultaneously
overcoming these informational problems requires a balance.
• Social networks take longer to influence than the individuals that they are made of. Introducing
infrastructure and policies for sustainable living require majority support of the community
whether it be a social circle, workplace or municipality.
• Competing interests: People have to rearrange their priorities often and sustainability may
come up against other aspects of life in the time they have available. There are many variables
as to how people manage their priorities and sometimes finances, convenience or personal
luxuries may not always align with sustainable options.
• Accessibility to facilities to support eco-friendly choices are typically provided at the business,
council or governmental level (Spaargaren & Van Vliet, 2000). For example, simply recycling a
plastic bottle would require a landlord to provide a recycling bin and the council to provide
waste collection, transport and recycling facilities. Sometimes these facilities are not available
to everyone and alternative options may be the best solution for the time being.
In Australia and other first world countries lifestyles, businesses and industries are predominantly
oriented around fast paced convenience where choosing an environmentally sustainable option is not always
the most cost effective or efficient option.
Trying to overcome these barriers and facilitating the slow but steady process of changing personal
habits (Lally et al., 2009) can be reinforced by analysing the unique user experience and the personal obstacles
they have experienced. The eco-guide app utilises elements of positive feedback loops, social engagement, and
accessible, digestible information in the application design. These elements have been historically used to
increase the efficacy of forming long-term habits related to sustainability. During the South East Queensland
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drought of 2006-2007, effective marketing strategies involving social factors, incentives and education
managed to achieve positive long-term changes to consumer behaviour and attitudes towards water
conservation. (Walton & Hume, 2011).
These elements provide the scope of the investigation and the design of the study aims to gather data that
could be applied to improve these application features. Realistic and lived experiences of users with
sustainability values are elicited from users then analysed to develop a deep understanding of their needs.
These needs provide a basis to better aide a user’s journey to creating and building sustainable habits.
Motivations and goals can be used to tune positive feedback loops to maximise their effect by providing
encouragement where it is most rewarding. How users interact with their peers and community can provide
ideas on how to improve social engagement on the app. Participants who already have eco-friendly habits can
provide ideas into what works best for long-term habit forming. A participant’s gaps in knowledge of a particular
aspect of sustainability demonstrates areas where information accessibility can be improved. The topics users
are most interested in and means of accessing information can enhance the digestibility and engagement of
the application and provide a way for individuals to overcome informational barriers.
The goal is to provide a platform that cultivates sustainable habits in an individual and bring together a
larger supportive community. One of the central dogmas of environmentalism is “small changes create large
impacts”. By creating a way to make it more feasible, convenient, and rewarding to live sustainably for
individuals, Eco-guide can then create influence in larger communities where the impact will really add up. The
communities on the platform and the small changes and impacts each user makes can then be visualised in a
meaningful way. Users can bring their sustainability goals to reality using technology. Optimising support and
information are just a few ways Eco-guide can support the fight against climate change.
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METHODS
AIM
The research project aim is to elicit real world experiences from participants and generate an in-depth
understanding of their sustainability actions, underlying motivations, goals and frustrations. Review of the
current Eco-guide app and the technical aspects to optimise the UX design is included in the research methods.
It is important to collect real world data for technology applications to create a human-centred design that
caters for the specific goals of the target users rather than a general audience.
PARTICIPANTS
The participants recruited for this research based on criteria that suited Eco-guides target user audience.
Young adults who are generally in one of the busiest phases of life who utilise technology to make their lives
easier. These participants are frequent device users as part of the habit building aspect of the application
requires consistent use. The participants have an interest in sustainability and have incorporated some ecofriendly habits into their daily lives.
• Participant 1: A 27 year old female who is currently working as a barista in the hospitality industry. They
live with a housemate in a townhouse with two dogs. Their lifestyle is very active, and a lot of time is
spent exercising or taking the dogs walking. They eat a predominantly vegan diet and consider
themselves a “conscious consumer”, looking to purchase local food or re-usable products as much as
possible. With an extroverted personality, a large portion of their week is spent on social activities with
friends or family. Although they do not use a laptop or computer, they are very technically savvy with
their iPhone and Apple watch and use these devices often every day.
• Participant 2: A 24 year old male who is working in hospitality while studying a degree in engineering.
They live alone in a studio apartment in a smaller sized apartment complex. They enjoy social activities
and going out with friends often. They eat a completely vegan diet at home but make exceptions when
dining out with friends. Leading a busy lifestyle, it is important that eco-friendly actions they take are
convenient. Many eco-friendly alternative products are used in their home and they are happy to invest
in these products. They use a laptop and desktop PC often for studies and use their phone and smart
watch daily.
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SAY, DO, MAKE METHODS
The methods chosen for this study aim to triangulate the user’s
experience with sustainability, habit building and technology. They combine
aspects of “say, do, make” to elicit information using questions based on
the UX honeycomb framework. (Morville, 2004)
DIARY TEMPLATE
The diary method is a combination of a “make” and “do” methods
where participants express their actions and their feelings about those
actions in writing while it is a fresh memory. The Diary template instruct
participants to note down conscious sustainability actions or decisions they
made over two days. A timespan of 2 days was chosen as people do not do
the same thing every day. It was estimated that 2 days would appropriate to cover most sustainable actions
people may take while not making the diary study too lengthy for participants. As the participants are writing
down these actions from fresh and recent memories, they tend to be more accurate than one recalled during
an interview. The diary also furnishes the interview as it provides notes for the participants to refer to while
being interviewed to support recall and allow more in-depth exploration of these memories.
INTERVIEW
An interview is one of the most commonly used methods on research and allows participants to “say”
and express their thoughts. The Interview Guide follows a semi-structured format that allows participants to
elaborate on any topics they choose. Three topics were chosen to be included as follows:
1. Sustainable habits: Starting off with easier questions about actions they have taken. This provides easier
memory recall as it is associated with a physical action. This is also the topic that is supported using the
Diary study as participants are able to reference their diary directly during the interview.
2. Living Sustainably: Moving forward in the interview, this topic segues from the previous one and goes
into more detail about motivations and external actions experienced by the interviewee.
3. Habit building and Technology: The last topic of the interview is specific to technical aspects of the
application. This topic aims to elicit how the interviewee forms habits and seeks information and their
experience in using technology. This topic focuses on the honeycomb framework facets of usability,
findability and credibility.
An interview, especially in a face-to-face context, can provide more information than just the participants
words as personality and emotions can be conveyed through voice. The semi-structured format also provides
dynamic prompts to what the participant is saying and can generate unexpected and interesting responses if
used correctly.
COLLAGE
The collage along with a presentation combine “say” and “make” aspects in the methodology.
Participants were asked to reflect on unconscious and external factors throughout their day and create a collage
using the Collage Materials provided. This delves into the aspects of sustainability that an individual may not be
directly aware of and provide a deeper understanding of what goals, motivations and frustrations come along
with their actions. The visual medium used can provide valuable information and allows the participants to
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express themselves creatively. Looking at ideas from a create perspective also provides a different way to
express their thoughts.
USABILITY TEST
The more technical aspects of the prototype Eco-Guide app were assessed using a Usability Test. This
provides valuable information on what works well or what could be improved for the user when using the app.
Part of designing a good app deals with the interface itself and assessing how users interact with it. This test
focuses on the usability and desirability of the app by exploring what emotions the users feel when using it and
what features pique their interest. This information can be directly applied to design iterations of the user
interface.
ANALYSIS
Data was analysed through a series of distinct phases. After the data was collected from all participants
the first step was to transcribe the audio, this was done by processing audio recordings using Descript software
and manual editing. Filler words, such as “um” or “like”, and some grammatical inconsistencies were corrected
during this phase for a more readable Interview transcript: Participant 1.
Following transcriptions, the texts and all other data were collated and interpreted through a thematic
analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Researchers familiarised themselves with the data via thorough rereadings and note-taking. These notes provided a good basis to generate codes and common themes
throughout the qualitative data from both participants. The Four-Pleasures UX framework (Jordan, 2002) was
applied to the themes generated from the information to provide a deeper understanding of each participants
experiences.
LIMITATIONS
One of the key limiting factors of the results produced in this study is that they are based on a
population size of 2. Although the takeaways from this report can be useful, they would lean towards anecdotal
evidence rather than significant findings. As there are only 2 participants, the scope of the experience is very
narrow and covers only a very specific demographic of the possible target users.
Limitations in the methodology must also be considered. The interview setting can affect the types of
answers that people provide, memories may not be recalled 100% correctly by the interviewee or things may
be missed. The usability test was conducted using the Eco-Guide prototype app on Adobe-XD and does not have
full functionality which participants may have some difficulty with as it is in the early stages of development.
The prototype was also provided to participants on a laptop with touch-screen and was not accurate to the size
and shape of the mobile device it was designed for.
FINDINGS
SUSTAINABLE ACTIONS
The sustainable actions that our users have already incorporated into their daily lives focus on reducing
personal impact. These actions happen throughout the day either consciously or unconsciously whether the
user is at home, shopping, socialising or at work. It was found that the key areas for sustainability that
participants had in mind were recycling and eating plant-based diets. Home was where participants had the
most control over their resources and some of the typical actions taken included reduction in water usage,
electricity usage, plastic waste and transportation use was easily achievable. In the following images the
highlighted shows that most actions were considered “easy” by participants.
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“We recycle, we have soft plastics, then we have our regular bins. So we sort our rubbish, which is pretty good.
. . We don’t use a lot of water, we’re pretty water conscious. I think for a household of two we’re always under
the threshold and the same goes with power as well. So we don’t use a lot of power. We always make sure we
turn off the lights if we’re not using the space ” – Participant 1, Interview
“I just prefer to use my Nespresso machine’s hot water function as it minimizes any wasted energy using to heat
water that I’m not going to use” -Participant 2, Interview
These actions were found to be associated with a positive feeling or rewarding feeling. The psycho-pleasure
derived from these conscious actions is evident in sections of the participant collages:
Participant 1 Participant 2
In each collage we can see a common visual representation tool by comparing good vs. bad. Using plantbased diet as an example, the good category was associated with “Do’s” and “positive” and contains an image
of vegetables. Inversely, on the left, participant 1 has associated meat with their “Daily don’t” category, and
participant 2 has associated meat with a large downward pointing arrow indicating “negativity”. Users have a
clear association between the types of emotions they feel and the actions they take and this attributes to the
psycho-pleasure gained from eco-conscious actions.
“So I’d like to be promoting a positive, such as like recycling instead of putting everything into the garbage.
Eating a plant-based diet over eating a meat-based diet. Using reusable bags as opposed to using plastic bags.”
– Participant 2, Collage Presentation
Another common action taken is to use eco-friendly alternatives. There were many examples
alternative eco-friendly products including alternate milk, earth-friendly cleaning products and re-usable
products.
“…
wanting to use cleaning products that were grey water safe” – Participant 1, Interview.
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“I do take my keep cup to one of my jobs, because I always get a takeaway coffee from there. I also use
alternative milk. I take my own water bottle day to day everywhere I go” – Participant 1, Collage Presentation.
The diary entries show examples of some of the products used for sustainable actions. Products like
these are designed to enhance the convenience of an eco-friendly option.
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DIFFICULTIES FACED
Achieving these sustainable actions daily came with some difficulties and frustrations as participants
describe direct experiences they’ve had with barriers to individual sustainability. The ideo-pleasure that can be
achieved is limited by not having the ability to align with core beliefs or values, either personally or with others.
FINANCIAL BARRIER
A challenge to living sustainably is the financial barrier. Eco-friendly products come at a steeper price
and users may need to prioritise a financial budget over a sustainable alternative. Products mentioned by the
participants such as vegan alternative meat, eco-friendly cleaning products, re-usable bottles/cups or silicone
wrappers can have a higher upfront cost than their standard alternatives which had to be considered and
assessed in their priorities.
“I had this book where you can make all of your home products, but to do so is so expensive and it like, even the
healthier options, all the eco options are more expensive. So I guess it’s challenging when you have a budget to
be eco-conscious” – Participant 1, Interview
AVAILABILITY BARRIER
Recycling seems like a simple task for an individual to sort plastic bottles out from general rubbish, but
it involves cooperation up to a council level to be achievable. Facilities need to be provided, and proper waste
processing or education is not always available.
“I’m really poor at recycling because I don’t have that option in my house” – Participant 2, Collage Presentation
In an atypical scenario, participant 2 elaborated with more information in the Usability test preinterview that their landlord has not provided a recycling bin in their apartment block. This frustration stems
from the user assigning recycling as one of their values, as seen in the collage they created, and not having the
means to achieve this ideo-pleasure due to lack of facilities.
DEGREE OF CONVENIENCE
The most common difficulty faced with achieving actions was degree of inconvenience. In the user’s
experience making an alternate eco-friendly decision was based on weighing the factors of how convenient it
was to how large the impact would be.
“a lot of my habits are used to minimize my impact on the environment, come from convenience. They’re just
convenient little swap-ins that I could do around the house to avoid making a bigger impact . . . . if it’s
inconvenient, it’s obviously less likely to get done” – Participant 2, Interview.
“While I did use my backpack often for groceries, it wasn’t really until plastic bags were banned that I would
actually stop using them” – Participant 2, Interview
“It’d be really hard to avoid like the plastic stickers on fruit or, you know, I’d have to go out of my way to go to
bulk stores, to purchase like nuts and stuff in bulk to avoid this packaging that they come in” – Participant 2,
Interview.
Not only was the level of convenience a significant consideration for sustainable actions, but habit
building technology as well. Users are typically looking for ease of use in their habit tracking apps and having
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too much involvement may prevent them from using the application long term. A negative experience with a
calorie tracking app, My Fitness Pal, was due to the frequent involved logging that was required.
“ Not sustainable long term as it was too interactive to be convenient “ – Participant 2, Usability Test regarding
the diet tracking app.
PERSONAL MOTIVATION
These barriers that the users have experienced can become the exact same factors used in motivation
in the participants experience. By turning them into incentives, ideo-pleasure to be achieved by aligning
incentives with the users’ values. Providing financial incentive or creating eco-friendly options that are more
convenient can be seen as an effective way to gain support of sustainability practices and products.
“I think at my workplace in particular, I would like there to be a bit more of an incentive for people to bring in
their reusable cups. At this stage people can bring them in, but we don’t give them a discount for their reusable
cup. And I think that is such a great incentive.” – Participant 1, Interview
“…ride [bicycle] to work and have facilities. So, that’s an incentive that they could encourage. I know, like in the
city they’ve added more bike lanes, so it’s making that easier” – Participant 1, Interview
Interestingly, self-prioritised goals were a leading motivator for plant based diets as it was healthier for
the individual, but they also gained the secondary ideo-pleasure from this dietary choice being lower in plastic
too. When participants were asked about their decision to eat predominantly vegan food they responded as
follows.
“…dietary reasons and like, I wanted to do it just to be eco-friendly cause I noticed how much waste. Like it was
me getting annoyed about like how much waste we were producing each day and how much rubbish, like how
often I was going to the bin. And then, you know, I had wanted to cut some stuff out of my diet. So I thought,
Oh, let’s do a plant-based diet.” – Participant 1, Interview
“Eating a majorly vegan diet just came down to there’s obviously less packaging cause you don’t have to contend
with as much plastic or single use plastic as like packaging. As well as the fact that it just does not contribute as
much to animal agriculture, which is a big contributor to methane gasses.” – Participant 2, Interview
“I didn’t start eating plant-based necessarily for the sustainability or environmental impact. Had much more, a
selfish reason more to just eating more nutritionally.” – Participant 2, Interview
That is not to say the core values and beliefs relied on self-prioritisation, significant motivation was
found in concerns for the environment as well. There was an understanding that climate change impacts had a
far reaching effects from animal welfare to carbon emissions. These concerns stemmed from what the future
would look like in a world that did not address the sustainability crisis.
“I guess, you know, we’re aware that the water does eventually go out to sea and you know. Protect the ocean,
the fish, the wildlife animals drinking from streams, us drinking that water “ – Participant 1, Interview
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“It’s just a little bit of a reminder you know what we do day-to-day does affect what happens to our future” –
Participant 1, Collage Presentation
“As well as the fact that it just does not contribute as much to animal agriculture, which is a big contributor to
methane gasses” – Participant 2, Interview
“As well as the fact that time is running out. And that we are just at accelerating rates in causing environmental
harm. And that is harming to the water as well as the environment” – Participant 2, Collage Presentation
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
It was found that a supportive social circle, co-workers or general community can provide significant
socio-pleasure when individuals share ideals with a group. Certain actions can also be achieved only with the
support of others. In a workplace it is up to the manager of the business to implement eco-friendly alternatives
and changes such as recycling bins or paper straws. The support from co-workers and managers in the
workplace creates a larger impact as a community as businesses use far more resources than individuals.
“We actually got our boss to bring in a big dumpster that is purely for recycle-able bottles. Which was really
great.” – Participant 1, Interview
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Practicing sustainable habits in a household requires team effort and it was found that it was beneficial
to live with another person who shares ideals.
“I think it is a bit of a team effort. Like we’ve both consciously decided we’re both going to do this, so it’s all
putting in that effort to make sure that we do our part in our household” – Participant 1, Interview
However, it could be problematic aspect if this was not the case. A person living with someone who
was not supportive in sustainable living habits could have more obstacles to overcome as well as a social barrier.
“Once I moved out Into a home by myself, where it was easy to implement changes without having to consult
other people I was living with. . . . I don’t have to think about it like when I was living with other people, I wouldn’t
have control over it if they use the dryer necessarily. Or if I did try to implement control over that, then you’re
risking like social obligation where you’re like irritating someone else if you’re critiquing how they live their life”
– Participant 2, Interview
Users can also get social pleasure from influencing others as well as is one of the key elements of a
social media platform. It was found that both participants enjoyed the social media aspect of the Eco-guide app
during the Usability Test bolstering it’s desirability in the application.
Participant 2, Usability Test
Participant 1, Usability Test
“I think that’s really important and that if you live in a more sustainable way, I think that rubs off on other people”
– Participant 2, Interview
Interestingly, as a way to overcome the informational barrier, users found the most reliable source of
recommendations for products or information to be their peers. This method of sourcing information about
sustainability is valuable as it integrates socio-pleasure as well as relevant and digestible information.
“It’s like peer to peer where recommendations or word of mouth. You know things are going to be good if your
friends are recommending these products” – Participant 2, Interview
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FORMING HABITS
It was found that users have had previous experiences with habit-tracking apps leading to positive
outcomes for their habit building specifically related to health and fitness. Users found that the apps kept them
accountable and resulted in more consistent in exercise and wellness through the use of prompts. In regard to
the use of a smart-watch device users listed factors including ease of use, frequent use and summarised
statistics. Prompts and notifications provide positive feedback to users when they have met the goals as a means
of psycho-pleasure.
“I’ve got Google fit, which tells me, and prompts me if I reached my movement goal for the day or like my heart
points, which is like another form of like currency, I guess Google uses too, like for high intensity work. it makes
the distinction between just like regular walking and more like deliberate exercise, or more intense exercise. It’s
more useful, I suppose, in raising your heart rate for a weight loss goal or whatnot, or for a stamina goal.” –
Participant 2, Interview
“Absolutely. Yeah. I’ve definitely been a lot more consistent with exercising and even just breath work. Like I do
notice that if I didn’t have that I probably wouldn’t do it as much as I do” – Participant 1, Interview regarding the
Apple Smart Watch
UX DEFINITION
PERSONA
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RICH PICTURE SCENARIO
DESIGN BRIEF
The impact of climate change is a major cause of concern for the globe and has had far reaching effects
on the population. Young adults who lead busy lives who have difficulty prioritising their sustainability goals and
ideals may seek ways to incorporate technology and devices to assist them. These individuals want to make a
difference and continue to improve their eco-friendly habits or learn more about sustainability but face many
obstacles in doing so. These obstacles may include financial considerations, lack of information, social barriers
and competing interests. On top of that, habit building in itself is a long process that requires frequent and
consistent work.
Design objectives for the next stage in the iterative design process aim to support individuals in
overcoming these problems. One objective is to create a platform that presents relevant, engaging and
digestible information about sustainability in an accessible way. Another objective is to improve positive
feedback loops based on real-world motivations and social interactions as a way to efficiently create long-term
environmental habits.
The project scope will cover three key areas. Firstly, the integration of the most prominent areas of
environmental concern individuals of the target group may have in their homes such as reducing plastic waste,
energy usage, water usage and eating a plant based-diet into the design. Secondly, reworking the features of
social and community interaction to model a more effective positive feedback loop. Finally, some of the
technical aspects such as graphical information, visualisations and navigation of the application aim to be
improved based on feedback and the UX honeycomb framework.
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REFERENCES
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Fox, M. (2020). Eco Guide. Medium. Retrieved 25 March 2021, from https://medium.com/@teachermarv/eco-guidedd826dde1c13.
House, C. P. A. (2017, May 11). Climate change—reducing Australia’s emissions. Parliament of Australia.
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook45p/E
missionsReduction
Jordan, P. W. (2002). Designing Pleasurable Products (1st ed.). CRC Press.
McNutt, M. (2013). Climate Change Impacts. Science, 341(6145), 435. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1243256
Mgbemene, C. A. (2011, September). The effects of industrialization on climate change. In Fulbright Alumni Association
of Nigeria 10th Anniversary Conference Development, Environment and Climate Change: Challenges for Nigeria,
University of Ibadan (pp. 12-15).
Morville, P. (2004). User Experience Design. Semantic Studios. Retrieved 31 March 2021, from
https://semanticstudios.com/user_experience_design/.
Spaargaren, G., & Van Vliet, B. (2000). Lifestyles, consumption and the environment: The ecological modernization of
domestic consumption. Environmental Politics, 9(1), 50–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644010008414512
Walton, A., & Hume, M. (2011). Creating positive habits in water conservation: the case of the Queensland Water
Commission and the Target 140 campaign. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 16(3),
215–224. https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.421
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APPENDICIES
APPENDIX A: ETHICS DOCUMENTS
CONSENT FORM
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INFORMATION SHEET
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RECRUITMENT E-MAIL
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APPENDIX B: METHODS USED
INTERVIEW GUIDE
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DIARY TEMPLATE
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USABILITY TEST
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COLLAGE MATERIALS
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AFFINITY DIAGRAM
APPENDIX C: ANONYMIZED STUDY DATA
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: PARTICIPANT 1
| Interviewer | So we have our diaries available, Let’s start simply by having you describe how you live sustainably on a day to day basis. What are some of the most important things that you do. |
| P-1 | Well, there was a good point about having like a plant-based diet [plant-based diet]. So that’s pretty big one [major importance]. |
| Interviewer | So you tend to eat more plant-based foods at home. How often do you eat meat or non plant-based foods? |
| P-1 | I think I only eat meat outside of the house [home], actually. So, at home it’s fully plant based[plant-based diet at home]. Occasionally there’ll be cheese there [exception to diet], but other things. Probably we recycle, we have soft plastics, then we have our regular bins. So we sort our rubbish [recycling actions], which is pretty good. I think, you know, we don’t use a lot of water, we’re pretty water conscious [reduce water usage]. I think for a household of two we’re always under the threshold and the same goes with power as well [meet sustainability goals]. So we don’t use a lot of power. We always make sure we turn off the lights if we’re not using the space [reduce electricity usage]. |
| Interviewer | Are you concerned about a particular area of sustainability? So agriculture is a big one, or plastic recycling or reducing your soft plastic waste. What’s the goal there. |
| P-1 | I think just like me as a person feeling like I’m making some sort of an impact with my recycling and my food choices and my shopping [conscious eco-friendly choice reduces individual impact]. You know, using produce bags as shopping bags instead of getting the plastic bags when you’re there [eco-friendly alternative]. So just trying to do like my part, I guess that’s my goal [personal goal intersects with sustainability goal]. |
| Interviewer | Do you find that there are any challenges to living sustainably? |
| P-1 | Yeah, I think it’s really expensive to do it [negative connection to financial consideration]. Like I had this book where you can make all of your home products, but to do so is so expensive and it like, even the healthier options, all the eco options are more expensive. So I guess it’s challenging when you have a budget to be like, eco-conscious [financial consideration is a barrier to sustainability goals]. |
| Interviewer | And when you’re trying to incorporate these things into your home. Do you actively make the decision to, or you find that you have to force yourself to do it a couple of times? How do you manage to incorporate it into your day-to-day life? Or did you just start doing it one day and then never stopped? |
| P-1 | I think when my housemate and I moved in, we both had a chat about what our goals were for our household [cooperation with household]. And we were on the same page in regard to wanting to use cleaning products that were grey water, safe and earth friendly, and also weren’t tested on animals [environmental concerns as motivators]. So pretty much all of our cleaning supplies, all of it is earth friendly and we both use dish washing liquid, the that’s earth friendly [alternate eco-friendly products used]. |
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| Interviewer | Why is that important to have your whole household cleaner safe for grey water? What’s the end goal there? |
| P-1 | I guess, you know, we’re aware that the water does eventually go out to sea and you know. Protect the ocean, the fish, the wildlife animals drinking from streams, us drinking that water [animal welfare concern]. |
| Interviewer | So you and your housemate live together. When you’re performing these tasks at home, do you tend to do them individually or is it a team effort? Do you prefer to do it together or do you prefer to take these actions by yourself? |
| P-1 | I think it is a bit of a team effort [cooperation with household]. Like we’ve both consciously decided we’re both going to do this, so it’s all putting in that effort to make sure that we do our part in our household [sustainability decisions]. |
| Interviewer | What about a different relationship? Say your co-workers. Do you incorporate any of these sustainable habits outside of your home? |
| P-1 | We started doing like making sure that we recycle our milk bottles, so any type of glassware or bottles at work [recycling action]. So, we actually got our boss to bring in a big dumpster that is purely for recycle-able bottles [cooperation with manager to cater to recycling action]. Which was really great. We noticed that there was a lot just going into the trash [excess waste as a major concern]. |
| Interviewer | How many milk bottles would you say you throw out in a day? |
| P-1 | Gosh, I reckon we would have done like at least 12 a day. And that’s not including like bottles from soft drinks and juices and all sorts of stuff. |
| Interviewer | So I’d like to move on to topic 2 and find out more about your motivations to do things sustainably at home. How important is it to you? |
| P-1 | I don’t actually think about it. I just do it [subconscious actions]. And that’s because it’s normal. But like, if I were to like, sit down and think about it, I would say it’s very important, but it’s, not something I’m constantly thinking about and putting that weight on it. |
| Interviewer | When did you start though? You know, at some point you would have had to change how you were living to adapt the sustainability aspects. When do you think it started? Like what age or? |
| P-1 | Well, I know my plant-based diet started about three years ago. |
| Interviewer | And what inspired you to? |
| P-1 | Oh, like dietary reasons and like, I wanted to do it just to be eco-friendly cause I noticed how much waste. Like it was me getting annoyed about like how much waste we were producing each day and how much rubbish, like how often I was going to the bin [d frustration about excessive waste]. And then, you know, I had wanted to cut some stuff out of my diet. So I thought, Oh, let’s do like a plant-based diet. And it’s so easy now, like when I go to the shops, like it was very hard at the start and trying to think of how to cook things, but now it’s just like, I don’t have to think about it anymore, but it was mainly waste and diet about three years ago [plant-based diet more convenient]. |
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| I will say saying that like, It’s a lot cheaper in some instances having a veggie based diet, because like, if you’re not buying excessive ingredients. Like, are you just getting tofu, veg, and then you’re using spices and whatnot It’s very affordable[positive connection to financial consideration]. It’s only costly when you’re buying those niche products[negative connection to financial consideration]. I think nowadays there’s more variety and more options for vegans, whereas back in say 2015 It was a lot harder and it was a lot more expensive [alternative product variety]. Yeah, because it just like burst out into the scene, I guess. |
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| Interviewer | So, we’re talking about communities now outside of the actions you take yourself. What kind of eco-friendly changes would you like to see in your community? So that could be a workplace or your social circles, moving from like what we’re doing in the present to what changes you would like to see in the future. Do you have any specific examples? |
| P-1 | I think at my workplace in particular, I would like there to be a bit more of an incentive[incentive] for people to bring in their reusable cups [alternate product choice]. At this stage people can bring them in, but we don’t give them a discount for their reusable cup. And I think that is such a great incentive. You know, people are more likely to take in their reusable cup if that coffee is going to be 40 or 50 cents cheaper [financial incentive]. So it does make a big difference. So moving forward, I would love to discuss that with my boss and, you know, make some changes [future actions]. |
| Interviewer | These are all changes you could adapt to other scenarios. So for example, using keep cups, could you think of ways to apply this to any other industries or any other future improvements for other communities not directly related to you? |
| P-1 | Well I think in a lot of industries say encourage, you to like ride to work and have facilities. So, that’s an incentive that they could encourage. I know, like in the city they’ve added more bike lanes, so it’s making that easier [feasibility incentive]. And I think I’m like, I know my mom worked at a company where they gave you an extra break or you could start a little bit later if you like rode to work, or you went to the gym during your break. Kind of adjusting the Workday so you can do something like that [reduced effort as incentive]. |
| Interviewer | For topic number three, we’re talking about habit building and technology. I want to ask you if you use any habit tracking apps in your day-to-day life what devices they’re on, how often you use it, what is it tracking? |
| P-1 | So, I use an Apple watch. It tracks my exercise and movement and standing hours every day [health tracking]. It also asks me to take a few minutes throughout the day where I focus on my breath work and just re-centre myself. And I think that’s really great. But yeah, it also, I definitely think it keeps me accountable to work out and to get my movement in for the day [health tracking creates accountability]. Like I do take note of it. |
| Interviewer | So it sounds like you find it pretty useful. |
| P-1 | It’s fantastic. I would highly recommend it to everybody. I think it adds a lot to your life [health tracking positive connection]. |
| Interviewer | Do you use it very consistently? |
| P-1 | Every Day [frequent use of health tracking app]. |
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| Interviewer | How often would you say you’re looking at it? |
| P-1 | It does send notifications from my phone as well, so it does vibrate when that happens, but I don’t always check it. I would say I check it at least 20 times a day [frequent use at discretion]. |
| Interviewer | And do you find it easy to check it to check? |
| P-1 | Oh, absolutely. It lights up and then when you turn it away, it disappears. So it is private still. |
| Interviewer | Do you have to do a lot of interaction when you’re using the app? Do you have to type or do you have to press buttons? |
| P-1 | It’s very easy sometimes if there’s something particular that I want to reply to, they’re all like replied short reply that it comes up with for you and you can quickly click that and we’ll send it to the person. Otherwise, if you just want to get rid of it, you just swipe up and it goes away. Yeah. But it also allows access to have a look at any notifications you want to have a quick look [frequent use minimal effort]. |
| Interviewer | Yeah. And so would you say that this helped you build your positive habits that created a good outcome by using your health tracking app? |
| P-1 | Absolutely. Yeah. I’ve definitely been a lot more consistent with exercising and even just breath work. Like I do notice that if I didn’t have that I probably wouldn’t do it as much as I do [frequent use lead to positive outcomes]. |
| Interviewer | We’re going to do a little swing back to sustainability. An important part of using technology is information. In terms of finding a trustworthy resource or engaging content where would you go to seek information about sustainability? |
| P-1 | I sometimes go to YouTube because it’s a visual and you can see it in action. So sometimes that clarifies it for me. If I could see it [visual information]. |
| Interviewer | Can you give me an example of one YouTube video that you’ve watched recently that useful or engaging? |
| P-1 | There’s a channel that I like to watch called pickup lines. So she has a lot of like different things on that. Not really like reviews or anything, but it’s just good seeing it, like in action [engagement increased for visual information]. I can’t think of anything in particular. There’s also a really good Facebook page called 1 million women. Yeah. And they often put up some pretty fantastic articles in regard to waste, just living a little bit more ecofriendly, and they do also put up like recipes to make your own products at home, which is really fantastic. But I think like the most impactful thing for me has been what my friends have recommended to me. [cooperation to share information] |
| Interviewer | So we have our diaries available, Let’s start simply by having you describe how you live sustainably on a day to day basis. What are some of the most important things that you do. |
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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: PARTICIPANT 2
| Interviewer | So what do you do at home for sustainability? |
| P-2 | I think a lot of my minimizing for sustainability, or lessening my impact [personal impact], I should say, comes from like in the kitchen minimizing single use plastic waste, and that comes in the form of like storing leftovers in Pyrex dishes with like with a lid, whether it’s the fitted lid or with a Silicone reusable wrapper [alternative product choices to reduce plastic]. I also try to avoid using like a kettle to boil any water that I need purely, because if I’m only using a small amount like if I’m making a long black coffee or something, boiling the minimum water line is a lot of water for what I would need otherwise. And so, I just prefer to use my Nespresso machine’s hot water function as it minimizes any wasted energy using to heat water that I’m not going to use [reduce energy usage]. Yeah, and I sort of catch public transport to lessen the impact of singular mode of transport, a car for one person driving somewhere [reduce transport usage]. |
| Interviewer | What about eating vegan? I think you’ve mentioned that you do that. |
| P-2 | Oh yeah eating plant-based [plant based diet], eating a majorly vegan diet just came down to there’s obviously less packaging cause you don’t have to contend with as much plastic or single use plastic as like packaging [reduced plastic incentive for plant based diet]. As well as the fact that it just does not contribute as much to animal agriculture, which is a big contributor to methane gasses [reduce footprint]. |
| Interviewer | Do you find that there are any challenges to living sustainably? |
| P-2 | Absolutely. I think it also varies. It depends on how stringent you are with how you are minimizing your impact as well. In my opinion, the things that I’m doing are quite easy to be actionable [convenience]. However, if I was really going to focus on like single use plastics, it’d be really hard to avoid like the plastic stickers on fruit or, you know, I’d have to go out of my way to go to bulk stores, to purchase like nuts and stuff in bulk to avoid this packaging that they come in[reduce plastic waste difficulty due to convenience]. So I think it gets progressively harder to put into practice minimizing your impact as you try and like narrow your scope on like the smaller impacts [difficulty and priority change for smaller impacts]. |
| Interviewer | That’s more of a choice about convenience. It’s not always convenient to go out of your way to a bulk food store. They’re not everywhere, like a Woolies or Coles would be. |
| P-2 | Yes, Yeah |
| Interviewer | So you do a few different things every day. Normally it’s just part of the day-to-day life. Do you ever feel not motivated to do these things? |
| P-2 | Not particularly in my case, just because is a lot of once again, a lot of my habits are used to minimize my impact on the environment, come from convenience [convenience]. They’re just convenient little swap-ins that I could do around the house to avoid making a bigger impact [reduce impact overall]. And, so I don’t particularly find anything particularly difficult on certain days I would say. But once again, it just comes down to convenience for me. And that if it’s inconvenient, it’s obviously less likely to get done [convenience as a barrier]. So that’s where, in my case, I just prefer to do these small things that can make a larger impact over time, rather than try and focus on nit-picky details [less priority for smaller impacts]. |
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| Interviewer | Can you give me an example of a nit-picky detail or something that would be inconvenient? |
| P-2 | Inconvenient would definitely be if I was to time my showers, because that’s one area where I’d try to have a shorter shower, but I’m not going to go to the point of timing my showers or like putting too much thought into that because that’s like a personal luxury I would say [ personal priority]. So while it is a conscious thing to try and not always have long showers, I’m not going to go to the point of timing them as an example [reducing water usage to degree of convenience]. |
| Interviewer | Yeah, that’s true. So, we’ve talked about kind of the actions you take day to day all the talk about the motivations behind that a little bit more how important is living sustainably to you personally? Let’s say on a scale of one to 10 and why. |
| P-2 | Personally, I wouldn’t say that it’s a super high priority for me in terms of, if I I’m truly focusing on small actionable actions I can take to minimize the impact out of convenience [small convenient actions to reduce environmental impact]. So while if I was to put her on a ranking of a one to 10, I’d probably say it’s about a 4, so it’s not really consuming my thoughts in a meaningful way, but it’s enough that if there was in the case of like, I do avoid food waste, so there are some things that are more egregious. Like culturally, I think we should put a high emphasis on it, but I think I agree [cultural emphasis on sustainability]. I’d like to think that it shouldn’t be necessarily all the pressure on the consumer end and it should be more on the producing end. While I’m, I’m wanting to do easy, convenient things that I can do, I don’t feel like as a whole, it should be the pressure to less than your environmental impact should be put back on the people producing that waste[accountability for businesses comply to sustainability laws]. Like if I could buy a product, even if it was more expensive[financial concern less priority], but I knew it was packaging was biodegradable. I would do that. But companies don’t necessarily sell that in every category and they don’t always, like for food stickers. Once again, there’s a nit-picky detail. If I was so concerned about reducing my waste in terms of that, it would make it really hard to buy produce and avoid fruit stickers which is plastic [difficulty in inconvenience]. |
| Interviewer | Yeah, you’ve made a good point about how people aren’t always thinking about the effects of every single thing that would get really tiring. When did you start introducing sustainable habits into your life? |
| P-2 | in terms of when I started trying to implement more sustainable and environmental conscious choices in my life, I think that happened a lot more once I moved out Into a home by myself, where it was easy to implement changes without having to consult other people I was living with [individual action at own home]. And so that it’s easier to control that I don’t have to think about like when I was living with other people, I wouldn’t have control over it if they use the dryer necessarily. Or if I did try to implement control over that, then you’re risking like social obligation where you’re like irritating someone else if you’re critiquing how they live their life [difficulties in cooperation]. Yeah. And then also eating, but then that comes back to convenience and like priorities of living sustainably. I didn’t start eating plant-based necessarily for the sustainability or |
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| environmental impact. Had much more, a selfish reason more to just eating more nutritionally [personal goals for plant-based diet]. |
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| Interviewer | Where do you find most of your information? For your veganism for re reducing waste, then any of these other aspects that you have, do you use websites or social media? |
| P-2 | Yeah, I would say websites help a lot. Like, there are certain cases, like, especially involving like the reusable the Silicon wrap is there. I sat down them from a friend. So that was, I guess that was not so much at using a website. It’s like peer to peer where recommendations or word of mouth. You know things are going to be good if your friends are recommending these products [recommendations of alternative products from peers]. But yeah, I think that’s really important and that like, if you live in a more sustainable way, I think that rubs off on other people[eco-friendly influence on peers]. So that’s where if you do eat more plant-based. People who are around you in your social circles are probably going to be more likely to eat plant-based whether that be you’re choosing those friends or people who do eat meat are just reducing their meat intake because you’re cooking for them sometimes, or they’re trying to cater for yourself and that it’s going to cater for themselves too [positive influence of plant-based diet on peers]. |
| Interviewer | And when you see your friends. So, you know, it can be little bit hard to go out, to eat and find someone that’s sustainable, eco-friendly and have all those criteria met. What do, what do you want to see moving forward with your friends? How would you introduce that into that community? |
| P-2 | Well, I’m trying to think it has a sustainability and friends and I think it comes down to like who you choose to be friends with in that regard [cooperation with peers]. So like, there are some people who just like, I guess, would travel and drive a lot and that that’s a big impact on consumption of fossil fuels and stuff. And so we usually do carpool. One person will go around and pick all of us up and we’ll rotate that, also stay within our suburbs. Like quite a lot more than I know. Like definitely when I was living with other people, we would travel to like North side of Brisbane quite frequently and just go anywhere we wanted, just because you had the freedom of the car. But I think it is like, even if it’s not necessarily a conscious decision staying within a suburb or like within your closer like suburbs are what is a more sustainable choice or like less impactful [cooperation with peers to reduce emissions]. |
| Interviewer | Thanks for that information, I’d like to move on to topic 3 and discuss habit tracking and technology. Do you use any habit tracking apps personally? |
| P-2 | I’ve got Google fit, which tells me, and prompts me if I breached my movement goal for the day or like my heart points, which is like another form of like currency, I guess Google uses too, like for high intensity work [fitness tracking incentive]. |
| Interviewer | Would you say that’s a form of gamification? |
| P-2 | Yeah, it does because it, it, it makes the distinction between just like regular walking and more like deliberate exercise, or more intense exercise. It’s more useful, I suppose, in raising your heart rate for a weight loss goal or whatnot, or for a stamina goal. [positive connection fitness tracking for personal goals]. |
| Interviewer | Do you check the app often throughout the day? For example to put inputs or check notifications? |
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| P-2 | Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn’t say I necessarily consciously use the app just in terms of, it’s just kind of built into my phone and it does give me an alert at the end of the day as to what my Roundup was [summary statistics display]. And obviously I could opt out of that. But yeah, other than that, I don’t have apps. I believe that I particularly use to track habits. On the topic of the inputs and whatnot into using this habit apps. I think one habit app I was using in terms of like calorie counting or like food diary logging was my fitness pal [diet tracking app]. And I’ve found, I used it much less because it does take a lot of inputs I found to use it effectively [degree of interaction negative connotation]. And that was working against it in terms of, I didn’t like using the app because it was so hard to use or not so hard to use, but it used so much more or deliberate time to do the actions I wanted to compared to the Google fit app where I don’t, I don’t mind opening the app, having a look at it because the information is there and displayed easily [easy visualisation]. And then if I wanted, if I was inclined to look at the information in more detail, it had those a few steps away from finding that detail myself. |
| Interviewer | Do you think that there’s a minimum amount of times that you’ve been needing to use the app during the week for it to be effective to build your habits? Like say, if you’re using an app only once a week, instead of every single day. |
| P-2 | I think it comes down to like the prompts from the app as well. That’ll help use it because I feel like if you like with the Google app, at least I kind of get a daily Roundup, which is tolerable, I should say, because if it was giving an update or a notification, every time I detected an activity, I’d find that quite frustrating because I’m not particularly using it deliberately, It’s just like a happy bonus to have on my phone [high degree of interaction negative connotation]. And that’s where there are instances such as, I guess the app, like Duolingo, where it’s trying to form a habit out of language, learning that it tries to force a routine onto a consumer. And it’s really frustrating getting a notification at random seemingly random times [frustration of notifications]. Especially when you know that it’s for something that I wasn’t as interested in [little personal interest]. So I wanted to do in those cases, language learning on my time and not necessarily forming it as part of a routine. And so that’s where it’s notifications to me, notifications to try and form a routine we’re working against it. |
| Interviewer | That makes a lot of sense. A lot of people like get overloaded by the notifications. If you’re looking for trustworthy information on sustainability where would you find it? Do you use any platforms like Instagram or YouTube to find engaging content? |
| P-2 | There’s those videos by Buzzfeed where they were having the people where they would interview people who logged all their single use plastic, or like their waste for like years. And you could see where it all fit into one jar [visual information]. And so I think those videos were good to watch because they’ve showed you like what you could, like, what impact you were having in regular days in comparison to someone who was doing these somewhat more drastic changes to their lifestyle. But as a result were having a much less impact to my lifestyle. Yeah. And so I think once again, seeing it on YouTube and seeing it as another person had made it more personable and it seemed more valid than just reading a website or reading an article or yeah. That was talking about more generic terms or of like waste and where your waste is coming from your life. |
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| Interviewer | Would you say that those resources are much more trustworthy or seem trustworthy? |
| P-2 | Yeah, I would say that it seemed more trustworthy or, yeah. It seemed easier to verify cause you can see it [visual information more trustworthy]. |
| Interviewer | Yeah, that’s really important. I’ll be ending the interview on that note, is there anything else you’d like to add or anything I’ve missed? Thank you for your time, I’ll be stopping the recording now. |
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DIARY ENTRIES: PARTICIPANT 1
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DIARY ENTRIES: P2
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COLLAGE: PARTICIPANT 1
COLLAGE PRESENTATION TRANSCRIPT: PARTICIPANT 1
| Interviewer | Can you please walk us through your day and how sustainability affects your day in ways that you may or may not be aware of? |
| P-1 | My day is chaotic. There’s a lot happening. So, my daily “Do’s”. Goal friendly [set personal goals]. I’m trying to recycle anything that I use at home, if I’m making dinner or lunch or breakfast or whatever, and if I’m using soft plastic, I always wash them and then put them in the designated recycling bin that we have for soft plastics [recycling actions]. Take my shopping bag If I’m going shopping. Obviously, coffee cups if I’m getting a coffee. Kind of depends on whether people are accepting them at this stage or not[barrier to using eco-friendly product]. I do take my keep cup to one of my jobs, because I always get a takeaway coffee from there. I also use alternative milk [eco-friendly alternative]. I take my own water bottle day to day everywhere I go [reduce plastic waste]. I have a very good and plant-based diet and exercise and walk my dogs [plant-based diet]. Usually, I do drive to the gym, but it is very close. So I could potentially walk [barrier of convenience]. Daily Ideas I might have whether their own talking to somebody about something that I can potentially implement into my day-to-day life. Being water safe as well, eating plant-based diet, and just thinking about the recycling [conscious eco-friendly choices]. And money is underneath that because that goes hand in hand. You have to be conscious of where you’re spending your money as well [financial consideration aligns with sustainability goals]. |
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| Daily “Don’ts”. I try to stay away from things like plastic. I refuse to buy take away bottles, bottles of water, especially. I always make sure that I don’t do that. And then just making sure that I am being conservative, friendly, thinking about our future and our environment and animals and pollution that I put into the air[conservation of earth]. |
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| Interviewer | Awesome. So you put conservation there and looks like you’re thinking about nature a lot. Is that very important to you? |
| P-1 | It is, I care about the animals [animal welfare major concern]. I mean, I’m thinking about methane gasses when I’m thinking about cows [reduce carbon footprint]. It’s just a little bit of a reminder you know what we do day-to-day does affect what happens to our future [concerns for the future]. |
| Interviewer | So why do you care about the corals? |
| P-1 | I went to the great barrier reef and it was a little bit disappointing to say like how much of the coral had actually died there [personal experience provided visual information]. It’s really sad. Apparently the great barrier reef was actually a second reef. There was an original reef before it. And what happens is it died off and then another reef was created in a bit further inland and they think that may potentially also happen in the future. This might also be the way of life. I don’t know. We are heating up the world, so I don’t know, maybe if we weren’t here, that would happen. |
| Interviewer | For your “Do’s” during your day, what specific way does recycling affect your footprint? How does it reduce the footprint? |
| P-1 | I guess whatever you’re throwing into the bin, if you’re doing it mindlessly that will end up in landfill or potentially eaten by animals thinking it’s food [animal welfare motivates conscious efforts]. So that can kill animals end up in the oceans or in water streams and pollute water. Just making sure that we’re recycling responsibly and effectively so we’re getting the most out of our recyclable things. |
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COLLAGE: PARTICIPANT 2
COLLAGE PRESENTATION TRANSCRIPT: PARTICIPANT 2
| Interviewer | Okay, please tell us about your day and how sustainability affects you, whether you’re thinking about it or not. |
| P-2 | I don’t know about you, but I’m illiterate. So, I avoided a lot of words to make it a more universal vision board of my day. So, my day starts and typically I’m thinking about socializing [socialisation]. To be specific, I’m at work [workplace]. So I’m thinking about probably a typical weekend. I’m at work where we use sustainable paper straws, which are less impactful on the environment, they’re not creating microplastics [alternative eco friendly product]. As my day goes across, I’m looking at how I make positive changes throughout the day. For these positives I could be doing as opposed to mirrored negatives. So in an inverse life, we can be using plastic straws [negative connotation to creating plastic waste]. I catch public transport, the opposite would be I’m a jet-setting influencer who doesn’t care about the environment at all [negative social connotation to apathy about environment]. So in terms of this indicates transport, so I walk to work, so it’s less impact. Now this is like the bulk of my day. So this isn’t any specific timeframe, but more about the thinking in that this is indicative of trying to improve my impacts on lessening CO2 [ reducing carbon footprint]. So increase the decreasing. Now then at the bottom we have human, water, time and money. This is all part of a bigger overarching theme of the negatives being that humans probably don’t have a lot of time |
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| left if we don’t fix these issues at the bottom [major concern for the future]. If we don’t continue to promote healthier or more environmentally conscious options over the negative ones [health and environmental goals] . And that comes back to the price [financial consideration]. It’s cheaper to do more environmentally damaging things than it is to try and build new infrastructure to impose all the change, to adapt our current infrastructure to be more environmental sustainable [financial consideration is a barrier to convince]. As well as the fact that time is running out. And that we are just at accelerating rates in causing environmental harm. And that is harming to the water as well as the environment [concerns for the future]. And you can see them down here this infographic shows that in damages to the environment the individual is far more impacted than corporate levels, in that industries have much less stake in the game, even though they’re ones to causing the problems in most cases. Once again, the social pressures and research and put back on the individual. So it’s always put back on you to minimize your impact, and it’s never quite as pressured on industries to minimize their impact [industry accountability more important than individual impact]. Going over here, these are more like my end of day activities. So I’d like to be promoting a positive, such as like recycling instead of putting everything into the garbage. Eating a plant-based diet over eating a meat-based diet. Using reusable bags as opposed to using plastic bags. And that’s indicated down here with the negative arrow [c alternative eco friendly products as conscious choices]. Do you have any questions? |
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| Interviewer | So I can see that you’ve divided your time from left to right. Positive to negative, and I like those quadrants. Where do you stand usually on a day to day basis on this positive to negative? |
| P-2 | I’d like to say I’m lawful good. If this was a strict axis, I would say that I tried to implement most of these activities here, but obviously it’s not perfect. It’s a sliding scale over here. So for some cases like using a paper straw over a plastic straw. I don’t really seek out paper straws in specific, obviously that was more of a change that happened on a governmental legal level as happened with the bags as well. While I did use my backpack often for groceries, It wasn’t really until plastic bags were banned that I would actually stop using them [convenience barrier for plastic reduction]. So it’s a sliding scale between all of these analogues here where like, once again, I’m really poor at recycling because I don’t have that option in my house [barrier to recycling due to unavailability]. It’s not convenient for me to recycle, so I don’t recycle. In other areas like eating plant based, I’ll be very close to like, what is “ideal” in my opinion. Just for my for my own goals. Because I’m not really attributing to the animal agriculture in many ways. And when I do, I try to do it in the most ethical and like least impactful way out of it. As far as my morals would go in terms of like eating more local seafood. Or high acreage chicken as opposed to factory chicken or something like that in terms of eggs [ animal welfare]. Any other questions? |
| Interviewer | Maybe the only image you haven’t referred to was the aircon. Can you tell me more about that? |
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| P-2 | I love my aircon. So I think that the opposite is clean free air. I think the icon was added to keep the bottom area of the infographic more bottom heavy. It’s more the case that it’s meant to signify that it’s more tempting, easier to do more harm to the environment. It’s more effort, it’s an uphill battle to get to these less populated areas of trying to be more sustained [key barrier to sustainability is convenience and lack of incentive]. |
| Interviewer | That was very good, there’s a lot of visual interpretation here. Thank you. |
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USABILITY TEST NOTES + FEEDBACK: PARTICIPANT 1
PRE-INTERVIEW
• Recycles daily, most recently at work .
• Recyclables are sorted immediately to compost[recycling action at workplace].
• Uses a health tracking app for fitness.
• Good experience using the health app [positive experience using tracking app].
| TASK | OBSERVATIONS | USER STATEMENTS | INTERVIEW ANSWERS |
| 1 | Didn’t find the information panel useful – difficulty reading. Leaned in close to try and read. Clicked through the screen easily. |
“It would be helpful to scan products and find information on plastic”. “I already knew this” regarding information panel. “It’s important to clean plastic before you recycle”. “I have bins set up already at home” |
Found it very interactive game wise. UI is easy, understood what was happening. |
| 2 | Logged recycle task easily. Enjoyed sharing photo with friends. |
“Great that you can share a photo”. | Was easy to log something on the app. Would use the feature frequently, especially if it displayed footprint per action |
| 3 | Confusion of what the categories represent. Liked the CO2 saved – valuable information. Confusion of the graph |
“What does ‘life, connect, shop’ mean?” “It looks like I didn’t do well mid week”. “I think it would be great to see how much CO2 I personally saved” |
The information on the page was not clear. |
WHAT WORKED WELL?
• Liked sharing the tasks to friends.
• Enjoyed the feature that included sharing a photo on the app.
• Found pages intuitively, app was not complex to use.
• Game aspects of the app were enjoyable.
WHAT PROBLEMS AND QUESTIONS EMERGED?
• Information panels were too small, difficult to read.
• The first task included “adding a bin” but the user already had bins at their home and didn’t need to do
this in the app.
• Confusion of what the categories on the “Personal Progress Panel” referred to.
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• Interpreted the graph on this panel as negative progress.
HOW CAN THE APP BE IMPROVED?
• Focusing on plastic recycling as one of the tasks – more useful information provided about the process.
E.g.,
o How plastics need to be cleaned.
o Find out how plastics are meant to be recycled in your locality.
o Plastic grades and information about grades.
• Clearer explanations of the Progress panel and what the infographics represent.
• User already had the “bins” set up in their home and did not need to do the task, make the task optional
rather than the default greeting.
APP FEEDBACK
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USABILITY TEST NOTES + FEEDBACK: PARTICIPANT 2
PRE-INTERVIEW
• No means to recycle at home. There is no recycle bin available – landlord has not provided [k recycling
facilities unavailable].
• Uses habit tracking apps for eating and exercise, not frequent.
• Not sustainable long term as it was too interactive to be convenient [tracking app degree of interaction
too high negates convenience].
| TASK | OBSERVATIONS | USER STATEMENTS | INTERVIEW ANSWERS |
| 1 | Difficulty navigating the gamified aspect, unsure of where to proceed. Preference for more “digestible” information. Enjoyment of the mascot. |
“Do I follow the prompts?” “The info panel has a lot of writing, dot points might be more useful. The font is quite small but that would be ok on a phone I think” “A ‘learn more’ function would be useful”. “What is the task list? Didn’t know that I added a task and it wasn’t fulfilling” “How do I add another task? Not sure where to find…” |
Did not find the gamification aspects entertaining. Tentatively found the UI easy to use, would prefer to separate the “add task” function to the game aspect. Also would like more explanation of the icons. |
| 2 | Navigated through the prompts to log with some difficulty. Confusion after logging – confirmation that it had been logged. Enjoyed sharing to friends, would like more access to this feature. |
“Found this okay, where do I share?” “It’s just prompts from the task list, how do I share in the future? I’d like to be able to share this whenever I wanted. Why share just when it’s happened?” |
Logging feature was not easy, it was not clear that it had been logged. Would not use this feature frequently (regarding recycling) as recycling is a mindless activity to the user. |
| 3 | Located the profile panel easily. | “I don’t understand what the categories mean, they’re too vague”. “Seeing the CO2 is useful if it’s accurate” |
No, the information was not clear or useful, the categories did not make sense. |
WHAT WORKED WELL?
• Enjoyed the social aspect of the app, sharing tasks and photos.
• Liked the aesthetic of the mascot.
WHAT PROBLEMS AND QUESTIONS EMERGED?
• User found navigating the app complex and difficult, particularly the gamified aspect.
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• App did not always operate as the user was expecting to, i.e., no confirmation after logging a task.
• Did not feel any benefit from logging their recycling activity – they do not have direct access to recycling
means.
• The particular tasks set out for this user involved recycling, the default greeting of the app. This user
was unable to complete the task.
HOW CAN THE APP BE IMPROVED?
• Direct access to features such as logging and sharing from the main screen as opposed to completing
the game to log or logging to share.
• More interaction with the mascot as a gamified aspect.
• Tailor the eco-friendly actions to the user rather than a generalised “recycle” task as the greeting for
the app.
APP FEEDBACK