Individual Consultations

Met with Professor Gomes today to follow up on prototype. Explained how I was led to my solution through observations, research, and talk with panel of experts.

Feedback: To put together stages of research process that led to solutions + conclusion.

Sketches refined

Panel Expert Meetings

Meeting with Michelle G and Professor Singer was done today for further feedback. Bold is what the researcher says/asks.

Notes transcribed from quick discussion with Michelle:

What is working? 

• Waste bin signs
• "From what I've seen, the waste bin signs work. However, three bins alone don't solve the problem, there needs to be a good education system around it; good signs.
• "What works the best when it comes to sorting trash are monitors. Having that person to person connection is the greatest educational tool. Unfortunately its not economical."

Notes transcribed from meeting with Professor Singer in regards to various solutions:

• Trademark issue with pop culture. 
• What's the age gap? 
• Be specific!
• Look at advertising, how do they break it up?
• Do they become aware of it (zero waste) to change their behavior to do something specific?
• (What's the) call for action?  

For kids to know what goes in what bin and be inspired to do it. Usually (children) influence   

their parents to do something or think its a good thing and think its normal. I know an early childhood specialist to discuss this with. 

• So the goal for San Francisco is for Zero Waste in 2020, that's 7 and a half years from  now. Ideally, you want to think about young adults to practice this. 
• For your solution with children, check who the target audience is, the message, to know what to do and be inspired to do it. 
• Jingle works, re-craft it. 
• Go right away to making it. 

Reply received from Psychology Panel Expert

Ms. Lan,

The push for zero waste in San Francisco is certainly a great goal for the city to work towards, and hopefully with the implementation of ideas such as yours, this goal will get closer to becoming a reality in the not so distant future. Perhaps the integration of several of your ideas would be a more cohesive sort of city-wide program. Several of your ideas could compliment each other and bring attention to the movement in a variety of ways, undoubtedly reaching several different demographics within the city’s population.

Considering the size and diversity of a large city like San Francisco, I would absolutely agree that the use of a color-coded sorting system would be one of the most fundamental steps towards a more proactive city-wide stance on zero waste. With color-coded bins mandated by the city, I think a more repetitive acknowledgement of “green = recycling”, “red = compost”, “blue = disposable garbage” would become second nature to individuals. And if color-coding were adopted by the city, it could be enforced by city waste workers only picking up the correctly color coded bins. 

As for the confusion of certain materials being inappropriately sorted, maybe you can bring some of those elements into your other ideas (i.e. make a segment of the animation focus on commonly incorrectly sorted materials)?

Your idea on pop-culture reference posters is also something that would definitely grab the attention of those within younger demographics. Similar to the Celebrity READ campaign developed by the American Library Association, the city or state-wide campaign would be eye-catching, conversational, topical, and would reinforce the larger picture of the movement. Perhaps a way around the potential copyright issues would be for city or state officials to contact those who own the rights to said products or trademarks, and if they are not cooperative then find other endorsements? Maybe celebrity endorsements like those in the READ campaign that allude to what the celebrity is known for without outright portraying it (like the READ campaign’s Twilight references?)

I think the idea for a stop-motion animation would be very effective, especially if more alternative versions could be condensed to for commercials. The full-length animation could be shown as part of educational programming on local stations, could be used within the school system at the appropriate grade levels, and would be a great educational tool that may make kids more invested in doing their part in appropriate waste management. 

The issue with a smart phone game may be the issue of development, which has to go through a rigorous procedure before being put in the Apple AppStore. The length and time that would have to go into development might not be worth the fleeting interest users may potentially have with the sorting game, but it could nonetheless be another tool in the larger scope of the proposed zero waste program. A positive thing to note about the app is that it would be the only proposed “interactive” type of marketing where users could test their knowledge about the intricacies of sorting waste (like the type of issues that you brought up in your first point).

All in all, I think your ideas are something that should definitely be considered in a city or state-wide program that would undoubtedly make the step towards zero-waste that much more achievable. Please email me if you have any more questions and best of luck with your thesis.

Meghan H.

Another meeting with Cathy

Another discussion setting with the researcher's marketing panel expert in regards to various design solutions. 

Notes transcribed: 

1. Maybe a mandate or incentive for companies to produce the them like a tax break. Good solution in itself. May be difficult/expensive to print. Needs to be more accessible.
2. (Would need) permission.  
3. Audience is limited to (those with) smartphone/internet access. (If you were to go with this idea, maybe a) QR code (that would give you more information). 
4. Limited access to reaching a certain amount of folks. 

Lyrics (Second Draft)

If it was once alive,

In the compost it will thrive

Paper, plastic, and a soda can

In the blue that's the plan

But a plastic bag,

That goes to landfill what a drag

Received feedback from Cathy that it would be better to encourage reusing a plastic bag. 

Ideation and sketches

Here are concept sketches of the four proposed solutions for this study:

A user followed up on my survey telling me how difficult they find sorting their used materials and if only there was some kind of color communication between it and the color of the bins or bags even. I thought it would be incredibly helpful if all the materials were simply color coded with a simple symbol shown as such. 

Some materials already properly label their materials (ex. greenstripe) and normally materials that can be composted are labeled as such. On the other hand, just one simple symbol to look out for can simplify the process more. There is the issue of other colors accompanying the item but can be easily resolved by putting it on the bottom. 

Pop culture referenced posters. Many consumers can easily recognize an well known icon when they see one and while these posters may not be comprehensive in educating users in zero waste, it will certainly grab their attention and stick in their minds. 

A lot of (laughs) positive feedback from users was given for this idea. Laughter is a very useful tool to use when wanting to associate things positively to something. Some issues that may arise out of this is simply the issue of copyright. 

A smartphone game called "Sort It!" It would be a free, fun video game that could appeal to all ages and the levels would consist of being presented an item and having a time limit to figure out which bin it would go to. For example, an eaten apple would appear and the user would have only five seconds to figure out it goes in compost. If a user is presented a paper cup and plastic lid, they would have only seven seconds to figure out the lid goes in recycle and the cup into compost. 

The game can be extended onto facebook for further viral marketing and competition amongst friends. 

For the purposes of this blog post, only key sketches will be shown for this solution. 

Last and not least, one other idea would be a stop motion clay animation, also entitled "Sort It!". This video would serve as both semi-educational and creating awareness for zero waste. Much inspired by School House Rock's "Conjunction Junction", a catchy jingle would be played throughout the video. 

The only limitation thus far given this solution is the time limited to create even a prototype so a motion block of it may be used instead. 

Some things I took note of from today: 

• Make sure to include elements (such as color scheme, typeface, etc) 
• Format it to go in your chapter 3
• Make sure to scan