Case Study

Rochester Greenovation

Overview

This project was part of a UX competition hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology. It’s a two-week event that brings students in touch with real clients and challenges them to create an app or website that fulfills the user’s needs. All of the design choices and overall approach is left up to the students.

Keywords

UX Research, Information Architecture, Visual Design

Background

I chose to work with the local thrift store Rochester Greenovation because of their unique value proposition to keep waste out of landfills and reuse old items. I worked alongside 3 other teammates who all came from different backgrounds in UI/UX.

Research

  • We talked back and forth with Rochester Greenovation so we could better understand what their biggest issues were and what would and wouldn't work for them.
  • Researched other eCommerce platforms, including more general ones such as Walmart and more thrift store style apps like OfferUp. This gave us a number of useful ideas, such as:
    • Popular eCommerce layouts and features we can use (such as a search feature with filters and a featured items section)
  • Looked at Greenovation’s social media presence and how much they use each platform. Asked about which platforms they preferred to use and which they wanted to continuing using in the future

Goals

After talking with Greeonvation, we laid out the following goals:

  • Give volunteers an easy way to manage and update inventory, including taking pictures of new stock and adding them to the database
  • Create a system where customers can review items and provide feedback
  • Provide a way for Greenovation to communicate store closings and other information with customers and volunteers

Information Architecture

Mockups and Prototypes

Splash screen: We wanted to show off how much Greenovation has helped their local community. When they first log on, users are shown, approximately, how much waste Greenovation has saved from going into landfills.

Login & Sign Up screens: Inventory management was an important feature for the client, so we decided to have an account system that would track purchases. It can be used to validate purchases and make sure reviews are given by the person who actually bought the item.

Storefront & Search By Category

Figma Prototype

Future Improvements

To really show that Greenovation is dedicated to helping the environvment, we had considered making a gamification system that encouraged users to save waste. Shoppers would see a "Green Score" next to every item, which shows them approximately how much waste purchasing the item would save.

There was also room for tiering systems and other traditional gamification elements. Although we had wanted to explore this concept further, it was too close to the competition deadline and just couldn't be prioritized.