InformalPrototype:Waste Management

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Contents 1 Roles 2 Introduction 3 Mission Statement 4 Prototype 5 Method 5.1 Participant: College seniors living in apartments and houses 5.2 Environment: Upper levels of houses and apartments 5.3 Tasks to Accomplish with Each Participant 5.4 Procedure 5.5 Test Measures 6 Results 6.1 Comments: Approval 6.2 Comments: Concerns 7 Discussion/Insights From Testing

[edit] Roles

• Connie Ko: Prototype Builder, photographer
• Anar Joshi: Prototype Builder, photographer
• Minhaaj Khan: Interviewer-Greeter/Observer/Facilitator^
• Rey Doctora: Interviewer- Greeter/Observer/Facilitator^
• David AuBuchon: Interviewer- Greeter/Observer/Facilitator^

^In each interview, we alternated roles.

[edit] Introduction

We are trying to evaluate a prototype of our indoor recycling bin that is targeted towards college students living in apartments and houses near campus. We plan to have the city issue this to individuals, just like how they issue recycling bins for the complex itself. The problem that we see is that there are many people who do no recycle simply because it is a hassle to bring down the trash and recyclables. The purpose of our project is to encourage recycling within the household/apartment for college students by making it more convenient to recycle. The experiment we are conducting will allow us to get feedback from actual users so that we can make further adjustments if needed. We expect that our improved model will be even more convenient for our target users to utilize.

[edit] Mission Statement

We want to introduce an indoor recycling bin to college students residing in apartments and houses near campus. We expect that the convenience and accessibility of this device will encourage recycling in the household. Ultimately, we hope that this product will condition users to no longer see recyclables as something you throw in a trash can and will be more likely to recycle inside and outside of their homes.

[edit] Prototype

In order to conduct preliminary testing we built a low-fidelity prototype of our recycling container. The materials used to build the prototype include: poster board, masking tape, large brown paper bags, and plastic bags.

Below is the initial sketch that we based our prototype off of:

The actual prototype itself consisted of the lid and modular bins for the separate recyclable materials. However, the prototype did not have full functionality in terms of the retractable handle and wheels. The prototype also did not have a strap, since we were never testing its use during the interviews.

The following are a set of pictures showing the various parts of the prototype:

[edit] Method

[edit] Participant: College seniors living in apartments and houses

Participants were all college students living near campus. They all lived above ground floor in either apartments or houses. One was a roommate of a person we found during contextual inquiry who was curious about what we were doing and volunteered for any future research. The other two were people who we stopped in the halls of the apartment complex of one of our group members. They did not feel entirely uncomfortable because they had at least seen one of our group members once or twice walking in the halls before.

[edit] Environment: Upper levels of houses and apartments

In our three tests, we first located where the user’s current recyclables were stored. Two had a paper bag beside the trashcan. One had bottles accumulated on the floor. We then replaced their current recycling spot with our prototype. We would demonstrate the liners in the bins, and put the bins inside the prototype. Then we would close the lid. Every participant had to go to lower floors to get to their dumpster area. Two had to go downstairs and one had the option of an elevator.

[edit] Tasks to Accomplish with Each Participant

Easy Difficulty

• - Task: Place a plastic bottle into the correct bin.
• - Instructions:

Hand the participant a plastic bottle and simply ask him/her to place it into the recycle bin. Make sure the bin lid is closed. Watch the user carefully and note any special details, comments, or complaints. Ask the user what they liked/disliked.

Medium Difficulty

• - Task: Given a standard plastic bag with only recyclable material, the user separates the recyclables into the respective bins.
• - Instructions:

Hand the user a bag filled with random recyclable material, including at least one aluminum can, one plastic bottle, some paper, and a glass bottle. Instruct the user to separate this bag and to place all the contents into the compartments. Watch the user carefully and note any special details, comments, or complaints. Ask the user what they liked/disliked.

Hard Difficulty

• -Task: Take trash out using the bin.
• -Instructions:

Instruct the user to move the entire bin out using the handle. Make sure each compartment within the bin has recyclable material. If available, have the user walk down a set of stairs and take note of anything peculiar. Have the user empty the contents from the bin outside into another compartment. Watch the user carefully and note any special details, comments, or complaints. Ask the user what they liked/disliked.

[edit] Procedure

The following procedures were used to test each participant for each task. The key individuals required to lead the tasks were the facilitator, observer, and note taker.

Prior to conducting each test, it was ensured that the compartments within the prototype were lined with plastic bags. If they were not, the user was asked to line the compartments to obtain data on this aspect of the prototype.

Easy Task

• - The user was asked to place a plastic bottle into the correct bin.
• - Prior to the test, the task team made sure that the bin lid was closed.
• - The user was handed a plastic bottle and instructed her to walk the distance of the kitchen (or whatever environment the prototype was located in) to the recycle bin.
• - The user’s actions were monitored and noted by the task team. If the user had questions, the task team clarified.
• - Detailed notes of the actions were taken on the user.

Medium Task

• - The user was given a standard plastic bag filled with only recyclable material inside: paper, glass bottles, plastic, aluminum cans, etc.
• - The user was to stand at the opposite end of the kitchen or whatever environment the prototype was located in.
• - The user was handed a plastic bag filled with recyclable material.
• - The user was then instructed to place the contents of the plastic bag into the recycling bin. No instructions were given as to how the user should do so.
• - The user’s actions were monitored and noted by the task team. If the user had questions, the task team clarified..
• - Detailed notes of the actions were taken on the user.

Hard Task

• - The user was instructed to move over to the other side of the kitchen.
• - The user was instructed to move the entire bin outside of the house (either by elevator or stairs) while the prototype was full. This was simulate a typical trash pick-up day in the city of Berkeley.
• - The user’s actions were monitored and noted by the task team. If the user had questions, the task team clarified..
• - Detailed notes of the actions were taken on the user.

[edit] Test Measures

The following test measures were used to analyze each participant for each of the three tasks. The test measures themselves have been divided into two categories. One measure type was qualitative (for example, how easy it was for the user to take the prototype down the stairs) and the other measure was a quantitative (for example, how often the prototype lid was opened or closed).

Qualitative

• • Ease of taking the bin down the stairs (easy, medium, or hard).
• • How much clarification the user needed from the task team.
• • Would the user actually use the product?

Quantitative

• • Number of times lid was opened/closed.
• • Number of times the user bent over.
• • Number of times task was accomplished incorrectly.
• • Final position of the lid (was it closed or left open).

[edit] Results

[edit] Comments: Approval

After the users have performed the tasks asked of them, there were several comments on the features that they approved of. In general:

• 1. The device is very straightforward to use and the user can see it encouraging recycling more often.
• 2. The handle and wheels are definitely useful if it is possible to use it (not so useful for users with only stairs).
• 3. They approved of the capability to take out portions of the recyclables, rather than the whole device.

[edit] Comments: Concerns

The users have also expressed concerns about various aspects of our prototype. Here are the problems we have identified from testing our prototype with users:

• 1. Lid

a. Lid requires bending over-Users did not care for bending over to flip a lid before they are able to place recyclables in the proper containers. This is not a good ergonomic design and will prevent users from utilizing the product. Thus, we feel that it is very important to fix this problem. (Severity= 4)

b. Lid requires extra time to perform tasks-Users also do not approve of having to spend extra time lifting the lid. Although the time is minimal, it is still a hassle. However, we feel that a solution to the lid problem above will make the user less likely to notice this time difference because it will be physically less intensive. (Severity = 3)

• 2. Wheels

a. Wheels are too small and cannot help going down stairs. The user believes that the wheels will not be able to handle the weight of the recyclables and potential trash that will be attached to this device. We feel that it is important to have a good sized wheel for the product. Thankfully, our prototype makes it very easy to adjust this problem. (Severity = 4)

• 3. Too small

a. Design is not large enough for people who dispose of many voluminous items like plastic milk cartons. Though this is a very legitimate claim, the cost of producing a larger recycling bin outweighs the benefits for the following reasons. First, it would be costly to produce a larger product. Second, users may not like a bulky recycling bin in their apartment, nor would they even have the space. Third, not every user will have bulky materials. Our purpose is not to make everyone recycle everything they have. We are merely trying to help improve the existing methods to recycle. (Severity = 3)

b. Some materials accumulate faster than others. Users are concerned that certain bins will be full before others. We do not feel that this is a big problem because our model specifically allows the flexibility of taking the recyclables down individually or as a whole. (Severity = 3)

[edit] Discussion/Insights From Testing

• One user was not immediately aware of all the features that the prototype possesses. From this, we feel we can use additional signage that indicates function of the design. For instance, it is not evident that the design can be tilted then rolled. Nor is it clear that the device can be taken down as a whole, or only sections can be taken down. Though it is not a strong confusion, we would like to make it even more apparent to users of the product’s capabilities by including friendly tips on the sides of the bin.

• We also noted people had to bend over to open the lid and so we have the imperative of making a pedal to afford easier usage. The lid can have a clasp that releases when the pedal is pressed.

• Some users thought it might be better to not have a lid, but were concerned that this would create odor. The implementation of a pedal mitigates the concern the users had about the lid. So we’d like to keep the lid, thereby avoiding odors.

• Users that had an elevator were able to use our design very well, but users that had to go down stairs had difficulty. This can be helped by placing handles (like a paper bag has) to lift the entire design up (as opposed to rolling). This is not at all imperative however, because all users indicated that they would rather just take down individual bins as they filled up.

• Some recyclables accumulate faster than others. This could be helped by making certain bins larger than others, or shrinking less frequently used bins.

• Some recyclables – like milk gallon cartons – are very voluminous. A user expressed interest in being able to compact such things, but we feel this makes our design too complex. As opposed to trying to make this smaller segment of users happier at the expense of the rest of the group, we are consciously shifting our target user group to neglect people who have unusually high consumption rate of one type of recyclable.