UX Researcher
Acerca de
Payment (in)efficiency at a supermarket
self-checkout
This was a university assignment where I was tasked to document a human factors-related issue that we had come across ourselves, perform a human factors analysis, and to suggest a solution.
Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer
Methodology: Human factors analysis, User story, Wireframing
Time: 2 weeks
I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE
I’m a paragraph. Double click here or click Edit Text to add some text of your own or to change the font. This is the place for you to tell your site visitors a little bit about you and your services.
The self-service checkout which prompted me to begin this case study, as I noticed customers using the traditional checkouts were checking-out faster than I did.
The Problem
The designers of the team needed evidence from research to determine the key focus of the product, informing the design of a prototype. After the prototype was created, further research was required to test the usability of the product.
Generative Research Goal
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Understand which factors affect people's engagement in waste reduction effort and recycling behaviour
Design Research Goals
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Evaluate the effectiveness and discoverability of user interactions:
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Finding locations to recycle specific materials
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Adding items in in-app inventory
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Ticking off challenges
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Checking statistics on how much waste produced
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Reviewing the literature
People’s participation in recycling behaviour is influenced by many complex variables. According to a meta-analysis, which collected data between 1990-2010 and spanning 15 countries, and these can be grouped into three distinct categories: socio-demographic, technical-organisational, and socio-psychological (Miafodzyeva & Brandt, 2013). Out of these categories, convenience, information, environmental concern, and moral norms were found to be the strongest predictors for whether people recycle.
And so, in order to facilitate recycling behaviour, the individual should experience minimal inconvenience, be motivated to recycle for moral and environmental reasons, and be accurately and concisely informed about what can and cannot be recycled, as well as where to recycle.
Self-tracking can increase people's awareness of a particular behaviour, making them more conscious of their actions. Therefore, creating a product or experience which tracks how much people throw away may prompt them to shop or engage in waste reduction more consciously.
Process
Setting up the interviews
Myself and my team member chose to conduct interviews as this method is suitable for exploratory research, and they offer rich, first hand accounts.
We recruited 4 participants (the pandemic and the nature of our course meant we couldn't exceed this number). With reference to previous literature, the sample size ideally would be 7-12. This means our results may not be as reliable.
The interview consisted of 4 sections related to general recycling, food waste, reducing waste, and any existing self-tracking methods that participants have used before.
What were the results?
Three main themes were revealed:
Thematic map revealing the three main themes which influenced participants' recycling behaviour.
Convenience: All of the participants mentioned a variety of factors which made sorting their recycling an inconvenient activity, including not knowing which items can be recycled (especially when composed of different materials), having to search online for accurate information about whether items can be recycled, and having to clean packaging before sorting them.
Availability of information: When participants were unsure of whether certain items could be recycled, they said that they would either search for information online, seek advice from those they lived with, or rely on their own intuition. Participants often mentioned not believing any of these sources to be entirely accurate.
Moral norms: Participants mentioned feeling guilty when they did not recycle due to environmental concern. They also noted that even when they felt guilt, sometimes the confusion of not knowing what to recycle would outweigh the guilt, and they would therefore throw the waste into landfill.
Usability testing
To test the app prototype, I helped conduct the Think-Aloud Protocol and System Usability Scale (SUS). The Think-Aloud sessions reveal the aspects of the interface which delight, confuse, and frustrate. The SUS gives a general impression of the usability and complexity of the interface.
What were the results?
The outcome of the SUS was the highest band, and participants were also able to complete the user scenarios without assistance, indicating no major issues with navigation. However, common feedback was given on how efficiency of certain tasks could be improved.
"Adding items one by one can be tedious"
An example of a design change our team made based on usability testing was providing the user with alternative ways to add items to their inventory.
For example, a common insight was that adding items one by one to their in-app inventory was tedious and laborious. After communicating this finding to the designers, an alternative design was produced, which allows users to link their purchased items at the checkout of a shop directly to the app.
A Lesson Learned
When conducting research, it's important to have a clear value proposition. This is to ensure that as a researcher, you can more accurately and appropriately address a single user problem. This is perhaps especially true for a small project group such as ours.
As our team was excited by all of our findings, we used many of them to inform of multiple features in the prototype. In hindsight, quality is more important than quantity, and every decision taken needs to consider if it will compromise the rigor of the research.
If you'd like to hear about my projects in more detail, including other findings and learnings, please reach out to me at chloelok4@gmail.com.