PROBLEM
Parents fail to accomplish a balance between a kid’s never-ending demand for toys and their responsibility towards a sustainable system even if they wish to due to reasons like spending a lot of money for so-called greener brands or simply because of unawareness.
THE SOLUTION
A platform for users to buy, sell, exchange or give-away pre-loved toys leading to a sustainable practice towards our planet with the ease of an app. It will also let parents avoid stacking up unused toys by putting them to use and bringing home the required ones. This will enable them to follow a circular economy with the help of simple design and an easy system to put their toys online and get others' toys. It also comes with a one-on-one interaction for users.
1
Buy . Exchange . Get
Pre-loved toys
​Raising children doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Children don’t care if the toy is brand-new or used.
A child loses interest in a toy within just 36 days. A fifth of parents said their child lost interest after 11 hours of play, while 8 percent said their children became bored in less than an hour. *
*according to parenting.com
2
Sell . Exchange . Give-away
Pre-loved toys
52% parents described their children as being “passionate” about protecting the environment. *
Why Not help them?
They pick up one toy, drop it, and move on. They can’t focus on using any of their toys to the fullest.
If they’re not played with anymore, just pass on, save or make money.
*according to hipp organic
3
Engage for
Exchanges or Give-away
Of Pre-loved toys
Send or Receive more images or a toy if require.
Discuss for more details of the toy and how to get it.
Talk to the parent for a common meeting ground to lock in the action.
4
Manage Orders
of Pre-loved toys
Track or Manage all your orders.
​
5
Rewards
Encourage action from engaged, motivated users by rewarding them with each order they place.
Point based reward system for users to redeem when making the next purchase to result in inclining towards making the purchase..
First, before touching anything on design, I wanted to dive into the psychology of people towards their responsibility of sustainable living. I went through statistics from
Consumer’s towards sustainability
₹
82%
When people shop their mind is on saving money and not on sustainability at all.
₹
75%
They think sustainable products are always expensive.
70%
They think they don’t have enough information on sustainable ways of life.
51%
They wish to be mindful about sustainability but do not have enough time.
Competitive Analysis
Since the space of sustainability and environment are saturated, I wanted to explore the current successful and what could be improved to bridge the gap.
The competition has little to NO sustainability aspect.
YOUNG PLANET
Popular Platform
Only give-away available
Concentrated in limited area
TOY AROUND
Purpose not served
Selling new toys
Not at all popular
Keeping the above stats in mind, after analyzing these platforms in this space, I found that almost none of them had complete sustainability aspect to enable users to save, get or make money. This then became my opportunity for the solution.
USER INTERVIEWS
My interviewees were more likely to achieve sustainability with toys if they had an easy way.
Although I saw from research what was important, I’ve conducted interviews with 9 parents and 5 children who failed to achieve sustainability with toys. I’ve asked them questions below to find trends on why they failed at it then organized my data.
Questions:
Do you wish to lead a sustainable life?
How often do you buy your child a new toy?
Do you know the number of toys your child actually play with?
Do you feel bad about how quickly the toys get discarded?
Do you feel the need to declutter your home with toys?
What do you do with the discarded toys?
Do you feel like raising a child doesn’t have to cost earth?
Would you be okay with second-hand toys for your child or anyone who needs it?
Do you waste too much money on the toys?
Do you wish to save money on that?
INSIGHT
None of the previous apps my interviewees used or knew about .
THEMES
Theme 1 : Community
If provided an easy system to lead a sustainable life, they’re more likely to it.
Parents are concerned about the planet and have intentions to raise their children responsibly.
Parents at times feel bad for not being able to be sustainable.
Theme 2 : Motivation
Parents do wish to do eco-parenting but are running away due to complex tasks.
When prompted with a reminder, about the ill effects of clutter, the sense of urgency makes them feel to giveaway or sell things for a purpose.
They would rather spend more money on buying eco-friendly stuff than reducing stuff. They follow a linear economy.
Theme 3 : Awareness
The interviewees were aware but didn’t know how to exactly use the old toys for a purpose.
The interviewees spend a lot of money for their child’s toy demands.
They had no problem using or giving away pre-owned toys, provided it had a system.
Theme 4 : Performance
The parents underestimate their ability to maintain eco-parenting due to busyness and other factors.
The interviewees said starting would be a bit hard but maintaining a rhythm would be easier with a system.
The interviewees seemed to wanting to the least amount of work to be considered done.
KEY INSIGHTS
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Reduce unused toys at home and give to someone’s use.
Sustainable lifestyle a responsibility not choice.
An easy system can be motivating and convenient to follow.
Circular economy a must.
Give / Get
pre- loved toys.
Urgent need to adopt sustainable ways of living.
6
1
2
3
4
5
PARENT PERSONA
Ritu / 34 Pilot , Mother of 2 kids
Frustrations
Frustrations
-
Unable to manage too many toys and has clutter some domestic disorder.
-
Spends a lot of money to buy the kids toys when they demand.
-
Unable to follow eco-parenting.
-
Is environmentally conscious but being a busy parent, ends up paying higher price for so called ‘greener’ brands.
EMPATHY MAP
Think
Feel
-
Toys are too expensive, more when branded as greener.
-
Eco-parenting is important.
-
Keeping less toys as most of them are not played with anymore.
-
Spending more money on toys is easy but not a sustainable practice.
-
Guilt of being unable to have only the useful toys while being sustainable.
-
I should start any which ways.
-
There should be an easy system for eco-parenting.
-
I’m environmentally conscious but unable to contribute.
-
Starts being sustainable with toys.
-
Spends a lot of money.
-
Realizes of not being able to save any money and again starts to buy cheaper toys.
Say
Does
USER SCENARIO
Wants to follow sustainable living and wishes to do responsible eco-parenting but fails to do so.
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Starting
Quitting
Trying
Conflicting
-
Stops buying greener brands to save money.
-
Eventually, starts buying lots of toys at lower price.
​
-
Unable to maintain a decluttered home, continues to throw away the unused toys.
-
Decides to live sustainably and start eco-parenting.
-
Decides to declutter the home with toys.
-
Starts to pay higher price for greener brand toys.
-
Starts to throw away unused toys.
-
Realizes spending a lot of money.
-
Being environmentally conscious , realizes that she’s harming the environment as the toys end up in landfills and are of no more of use to anyone.
I'll do it this time.
I give up !
I’m motivated, it’s going well.
I don’t think I can do this anymore.
DESIGN
An effective solution can achieved though a simple smart phone app, hence I decided to an app for my final solution platform.
POSSIBLE APP FUNCTIONS
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INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
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TESTING + IMPROVEMENT
3 Major Improvements
Based on feedback from 6 users, I iterated my designs.
1
Removal of Newly Added from the Home Screen
Originally designed Newly Added Section.
Based on feedback, a fact or impactful message on top appears more need of the hour.
Allows instant motivation to encourage use.
2
Making the category
(exchange/give-away)
easy to spot
Originally designed toy card more image focused.
Based on feedback, the main action seemed to be a bit difficult to spot.
Allows instant spotting of the user’s purpose.
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3
Onboarding Experience
Previously added more childish looking illustrations during onboarding.
Thought to be more useful to use parent-centered and impactful illustrations.
Allows one to realise the situation better.
ROUGH SKETCHES OF POSSIBLE SECTIONS OF THE APP
WIREFRAMES
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DESIGN SYSTEM
Colors
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Typography
Open Sans - Regular Open Sans - Semibold Open Sans - Bold
Components
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THE FINAL SCREENS
Splash, Log In, Sign Up
Location, Onboarding
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Home, Browse Category, Inside a Category, Filters
Product, Wishlist, My Bag
Checkout and Payment
Exchange a toy - Process
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Create Ad
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Account, My Ads, Rewards
CONCLUSION + WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY
This was my first-ever UX project !🎉. More than the output, however- I’m grateful to have been through an entire UX process so I can see what it’s actually like. A few things I’ve learned:
Working fully on this very first project taught me the importance of iterating as much as possible, thinking about every element and how it could be useful. Though I was more drawn to creating wireframes and prototypes, I found that the most important part of the process was testing. For example, usability testing was crucial in finding errors and seeing things from a different perspective. Also, realized that through iterations I got to know 100 different ways that didn't work.