Next

Redesigning how New York residents donate clothes.

New York City may be the city that never sleeps, but it is also the city that produces 1.4 billion pounds of textile waste each year. Next was designed to create an easier experience for NYC residents to donate clothes, thus helping eliminate textile waste.

Tools used: Sketch, InVision, Miro

USER RESEARCH

Secondary research

  • On average, NYC residents throw away 46lbs of textile waste each year.

  • There are over 1,000 textile donation and recycling drop-off centers in NYC.

  • Currently, one in every 125 people in New York is homeless. Meaning there is a large population of people who could benefit from clothing donations.

I identified five potential users through a screener survey to interview, to gain a better understanding of their experience, pain points, wants/needs and goals when it comes to donating clothes.

Key research takeaways: Users need convenience, speed, and a mobile friendly solution.

DEVELOPING USER PERSONA AND JOURNEY

From my user interviews, I learned that people are most likely to donate clothes when they are moving and then created a user persona and journey map. I was able to pinpoint key areas that I wanted to improve upon and developed my How Might We? Questions.

How Might We? Questions (Presented in MVP order)

The below numbers are correlated with the numbers on Mark’s journey map.

  1. How might we make it easier for people to find a place to donate clothes?

  2. How might we make the journey of getting the clothes to a donation center easier? and faster?

  3. How might we make them feel better about the process after doing something good?

USER FLOW

BUILD THE SOLUTION

After receiving feedback on my sketches, the next step was to create wireframes and focus on creating the best interface for my users. Once my wireframes were finalized, I created a wireflow to show what the users would interact with when scheduling a pick-up. This also was a great place for me to identify my edge cases and design for when things do not go as planned.

I did various tests on my high-fidelity prototype to ensure it was user friendly, including; color tests, to make sure it was accessible for all. After running a design critique, I was able to receive great feedback on areas where the UI could be improved. Throughout this process, my design system was updated accordingly.

USER TESTING

I conducted five virtually moderated usability tests on both male and female residents of NYC. My goal was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of both the user flow and the design of the app. From the sessions, I identified three concerns that users voiced.

Where is the celebration? The Thank You page does not equate to the level of celebration and gratitude that I want the users to feel after donating their clothes.

Make transitions easier and give key indicators. The overall flow made sense, but there were moments where users expected things to happen automatically.

Be more transparent. Users had more questions on what would happen with the information they entered.

ITERATE ON DESIGN

Celebrate the user.

I incorporated animation and various graphics to make the user feel more excited about using the Next app. I also added a social feature.

Make transitions easier.

I removed unnecessary buttons that led to more confusion and provided users with more key indicators.

Be more transparent.

I answered the question “what happens after you donate". I added in various elements throughout the design to be more transparent and make the users feel secure.

PROJECT TAKEAWAYS & NEXT STEPS

The importance of an organized project scope. Creating my design MVPs allowed me to stay organized throughout the process and keep to my four month timeline.

The importance of good user testing. Through a round of user testing, I was able to define that users did not understand what would happen after they submitted their pick-up order, I was able to quickly iterate and provide a new solution. After testing the solution, I found that all users found the modal solution to be helpful and felt that their questions were answered.

While I am done with this project for now, I do have high hopes for it in the future. I would love to partner with a company like Uber or Lyft, where when contract drivers are not taking people places they are taking donations (beyond clothing) to different donation centers.