Game Design • Sustainability • APP
UpZone:
Creative Eco-Design Game
ROLE
Product Designer
TOOLS
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Google Workspace
YEAR
2022
Project Overview
The purpose of UpZone is to address the barriers parents face when upcycling and to further support their current practices and goals. We applied user-centered design strategies and an evidence-based design process to address the upcycle problem and encourage sustainable behaviors.
Problem
Upcycling conserves more energy, less water expenditure, and produces fewer emissions than recycling. Through research insights, we found that “Family and Children” are the most common group within an online upcycling community. They motivated by extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. However, parents face barriers including lack of materials and supplies, ideas and inspiration, and time.
Design Solutions
UpZone is an upcycling card game with a mobile app that supports families to upcycle household items in a collaborative and creative way.
00/ How to Play
In this game, players work together in 3 rounds to gather materials, brainstorm project ideas, and build new creations using materials found in their own home. Players use the prompt cards provided to inspire creativity and enter the Up Zone before time runs out.
01/ Game Card and Pamphlet
The game contains cards, tokens and pamphlet. Parent and children follow the instructions to play the upcycling game with existing household items.
02/ UpZone App
The app is designed to assist the card game in a family context. The app supports the scanning function as well as getting project inspiration.
I. The game consists of three rounds. Instruction reminders are provided in each round with a timer to facilitate the gameplay.
II. The material cards and extra information after scanning them or navigating to the card through the app.
III. All the action cards to provide additional card deck and potentially for future expansions.
IV. The inspiration page after scanning a build card or navigating to the card through the app.
User Research
This section outlines the research process, covering user research, planning, and analysis during the project.
Literature Research
Rationale: We looked for empirical evidence to support our study. We used literature reviews about upcycling, competitive analysis of products and services to support upcycling.
This helped us to narrow down our project scope, understand people who are upcycling, their personality, beliefs, and motivations, etc, and to identify parental attitudes towards upcycling and user goals.
User Goals
Survey
Rationale
Survey allowed us to efficiently capture data from a large sample size of our target population. It also enabled us to gather contact information from individuals willing to participate in follow up interviews. This survey was an effective research tool that broadly captured the characteristics, practices, motivations, and challenges among parents who upcycle. It also allowed us to validate the user goals and tasks we identified from our literature research and observations of online upcycling communities.
Procedure
We first engaged with our target population using a 17-question survey. Each question was designed with rationale behind. They were transferred to Qualtrics and I distributed them to online groups and communities.
We received 108 responses to our survey within one week. We then screened these responses to focus on our user group and this left us with 40 qualifying responses that we used for analysis.
Semi-structured Interviews
Rationale
Semi-structured interviews allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of our interviewees’ upcycling behaviors as well as their motivations and goals when completing the activity. We were able to dive deeper into how parents upcycle with their children and how their children respond and engage with upcycling.
Procedure
After analyzing the survey responses, we brainstormed our interview questions based on the information we wanted to gain in more detail. I reached out to the 8 individuals who provided their contact information in our survey and conducted 4 semi-structured interview sessions.
