Applying Human Values to design an Eco-feedback system for recycling

Researching how human values can be used during the design process to develop digital systems that support urban waste recycling and sustainability

  • Personal Project | MSc. Dissertation
  • Role: UX Researcher

Context

Dealing with user experience and sustainability involves many subjective aspects. One of them is human values, as they represent things we consider important in life and help to guide actions. This research focuses on the ideation stage of the design of an eco-feedback system for urban waste recycling. It took place in Rio de Janeiro city between 2016-2017.

My goal was to contribute to a better understanding of the recycling of urban waste through an eco-feedback system in digital devices.

I interviewed citizens to understand better their knowledge and habits towards recycling, applied a questionnaire to find out what human values related to recycling those people prioritize most, and conducted a workshop with designers and other stakeholders to observe how they work with these human values when designing a system aiming recycling and sustainability.

Constraints

  • Money: Very limited budget
  • Samples: Limited access to some stakeholders

Exploratory Research

This study started with a literature review: first, about interaction design, sustainability, human values, and eco-feedback system. I read and analyzed papers and thesis on these topics.

I also applied semi-structured interviews to explore people's concerns and interests about some sustainability-related themes, like carbon footprints, water consumption, and littering disposal. I decided to focus on littering disposing because the data revealed a lack of knowledge about what can be done regarding this.

Then, I read the official documentation about Rio's urban waste scenario and accessed sites about the theme, from NGOs and the Government.

Many people in Rio don't know about the city's official urban waste recycling services and what happens to this material after being collected. There is a lack of information.

The literature review and the exploratory interviews helped me to define better the problem I should address.

Problem

How to present and transmit information about urban waste recycling in digital devices aiming to create attention and engagement in citizens?

Assumption

When the Design Team incorporates subjective elements, like Human Values associated with sustainability, at the beginning of interactive design projects (ideation stage), they can better design systems that encourage and inform people about urban waste recycling.

Interviews

To investigate what people know about recycling and what kind of information they consider important for understanding this subject, I conducted 17 semi-structured in-person interviews with stakeholders.

I mapped these stakeholders using a diagram with layers showing the level of involvement: from most involved (center) to least involved (edge).

Circle diagram mapping the stakeholders involvement in a project across five levels. These levels are represented by position, size and color. The circles are positioned one inside the other aligned to the left in an ascendent line from left to right. Each one has a color, making a red to orange gradient. The first one represents the first level. It is the smallest circle in the red color and is called Operation. The second one is called contribution; the third is called source; the fourth is called market; and the fifth, in the orange color, is called community. Below the diagram is an arrow representing the level of involvement in the project: the further to the left of the circle, the higher the level of involvement. At last, next to the diagram is a description of each level.

The respondents were male and female residents from Rio de Janeiro city, with different ages and levels of knowledge about recycling. I contacted them by e-mail, social media, phone, and personally.

Pictograms representing the 17 interviewees. On the first line, seven female pictogram in green color. Next to this line, the text: 7 women. The second and third lines are composed by male pictograms in blue color. The second line has seven pictograms and the third line has three. Next to these two lines, there is the text: 10 men.

The analysis of the data collected was made using the content analysis method.

I chose this method because it allows making qualitative inferences by analyzing the meaning behind the content. It was 72 units of meaning counted, organized into 5 categories.

I organized and summarized the findings in a table, highlighting the points that could be explored when designing the eco-feedback system.

Compositon of 3 pages with content analysis spreadsheets.

Questionnaires

To discover what human values were prioritized by the citizens, I applied a first questionnaire called PVQ-21. This tool was proposed by the social psychologist Shalom H. Schwartz , based in his Theory of Basic Human Values. I made some adaptations for this research.

A laptop with the online version of PVQ-21 page.

The PVQ-21 measures human values through 21 statements in which the participant completes a 6-point rating scale of how much he/she identifies with such statement.

In addition, a second questionnaire was applied, called the Ecological Behavior Scale, also with 6 points to measure behavior related to recycling.

Both questionnaires were applied to the 17 interviewees. To expand the investigation regarding the values of citizens, I applied an online version, which obtained 84 responses.

Screens from questionnaire online version. The pictograms appeared according to the gender the participants declared to have.

After organizing and analyzing all the data collected, I came up with 2 types of values to be focused in the project: self-determination (in blue) and universalism (in green). Each one has a set of values associated with it. I put them in a table.

Circle adapted from the model proposed ny Shalom H. Schwartz. There are two areas highlighted: in green, the value universalism, belonging to Self-Transcendence field; and in blue the value self-direction, belonging to Openness to Change field.
Representations of the personas and the briefing generated: one page for the briefing; and two pages containing each one a picture, name, description and the values from each persona.

The findings obtained through the analysis of questionnaires and interviews were used to prepare a briefing and 4 personas to be delivered to the Design team.

Workshop: Applying Human Values in the Design Process

To encourage the Design Team to think about human values and incorporate them in the eco-feedback system during the ideation stage of the design, I ran a workshop session with 5 participants (4 interaction designers and 1 non-designer).

I wanted to know how designers could work consciously with so abstract aspects related to user experience. My expectation for this workshop was that the designers would arrive at some initial draft of the echo-feedback system, materializing the chosen values in interface objects and functionalities.

The session included activities proposed from a tool called Envisioning Cards. I picked 2 cards to help compose the activities. These cards were related to Human Values described in the briefing.

The team chose and discussed the values (positive and negative points) proposed in the briefing, and what kind of device they would focus on. Then, they started to sketch in the paper ideas for an initial prototype of the eco-feedback system.

They chose 2 devices to work integrated: an interactive display placed in some points of the city where the citizens could deposit the recyclables and a smartphone app.

Due to workshop duration, they decided to start from the interactive device and created a flowchart of the system for this device, pointing out the values they wanted to emphasize.

Takeaways

The incorporation of values in the initial design stage was positive, especially in themes related to sustainability, such as recycling. This approach showed that at a first moment working with values may be difficult due to their abstract essence. However, during the workshop, they revealed to be important elements to help Designers to glimpse issues that might not emerge spontaneously.

Next steps could be to continue the solution proposed by the research, arriving at a high-fidelity prototype.

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