ECOCART
PROJECT
BACKGROUND
During the summer of 2020, Viget’s interns developed a web app called EcoCart, an educational experience for eco-conscious consumers who want to reduce their environmental impact. My team included a Data Analyst Intern (Jack), a Design Intern (Mika), and two Developer Interns (Elle and Will). I took on the role of team User Researcher, developing a survey and conducting user interviews to ensure that EcoCart remained a user friendly experience throughout the development process.
PROBLEM
According to Our World in Data, the food industry takes up half the world’s habitable land and accounts for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and 78% of water-way pollution. As thousands of species go extinct, livestock accounts for 94% of mammal biomass. However, corporations aren’t transparent about the negative effects they’re having on the environment. EcoCart was made to mitigate this lack of transparency. Drawing data from a study done by Poore & Nemecek (2018), Viget’s 2020 intern cohort decided to develop an app that helped eco-conscious consumers monitor and minimize their impact.
GOALS
Our goals, which were developed by Jack (Analyst Intern), included the following:
-
Increase transparency of food retailing for the average consumer
-
Educated target demographic (eco-conscious household decision makers) on eco-conscious shopping behavior
-
Provide cross demographic technological accessibility
-
Raise awareness for sustainable food production
METHODS & APPROACH (UXR CONTRIBUTION)
Survey
-
My survey consisted of 22 questions, 2 of which were purely for user test recruitment. The survey was short, taking only 5-10 minutes to complete. It focused on analyzing our target audiences (eco-conscious consumers and household decision makers). 21 out of 33 of our respondents fit into both of these categories, meaning that we were able to gather in full the perspective of 21 people. Participants were asked questions relating to the following…
-
Demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
-
The shopping habits of eco-conscious consumers
-
Competitor usage (what people (dis)liked about the carting and checkout system on apps like grubhub and instacart)
-
Consumer cognitions (the thoughts and feelings associated with sustainable shopping)
-
Respondents were also asked to vote on our product’s name and grading system. If you want to take a look at the full survey, you can check it out by clicking the button below.
*Note: Only eco-conscious household decision makers were able to access the full survey. To move through the screening process select the answer "yes" or "sometimes" for question 4, and select the answer "4" or "5" for question 7.
User Testing
-
Once my teammate Mika (Design Intern) had developed wireframes using the survey data for guidance, we conducted user testing. The data we collected from this method helped us iterate and improve upon the original designs. User tests consisted of moving participants through a series of wireframes (via Figma’s prototype system). I conducted the tests while Mika acted as note taker. We recorded participants as they answered a series of questions regarding the clarity of Mika’s design, as well as their perceptions on the purpose of the site. We conducted these tests on 3 individuals who had completed our survey in full (i.e. eco-conscious household decision makers). These individuals had expressed a desire to continue helping us further our research by providing their email in the recruitment section of the initial survey. Our tests analyze all of the wireframes Mika had developed, including…
-
A Landing page
-
Grocery page
-
Detailed item page
-
2 alternative item selection (cart) systems
-
2 alternative receipt pages
-
Below you'll find a flow chart of how users moved through the wireframes. The structure of the user test was organized in such a way that participants would move through pages as if they were using an actual prototype. Users moved back and forth between some of the same pages as if they were navigating the site. For viewing alternative pages, users would look at each option one by one before comparing them side by side.
FINDINGS
Survey
-
Shopping Habits
-
Most consumers liked the convenience of buying products in stores (i.e. didn't want to have to look online to purchase sustainably). This aligned with our product because all of the items on our site are typical grocery items found in most (if not all) stores.
-
Consumers didn't want to have to break the bank to purchase sustainably. Thankfully our educational tool is 100% free!
-
Consumers preferred products that fit seamlessly into their daily habits. Many of them expressed that they liked to plan ahead for their trip to the store by creating a grocery list. When you make a list on our product you can download it for later use. This is also environmentally friendly because it saves you from using paper.
-
Most shoppers would look for labels that boasted sustainability. However, they disliked the fact that products often lacked labels that could verify eco-friendliness, and that the labels they did see were frequently just a marketing tool. We found that our product fills gaps by helping shoppers visualize product sustainability levels.
-
-
Sustainable Consumer Cognitions
-
To eco-conscious consumers, sustainability equates to minimizing impact & changing habits. This aligns perfectly with our product's purpose.
-
Eco-conscious shoppers also liked the feel good factor of buying sustainably, so our product speaks to users with a positive and encouraging tone.
-
Transparency was incredibly important to our survey takers. They really liked to back their decision with trusted sources and data. They felt that they would better understand product impact if the product could be directly compared to others. Our product provides them with the data they have been missing.
-
-
Competitor Usage
-
Consumers preferred a streamlined cart/list system. They also wanted to be able to edit their items within the list. However, they didn't want to have to go to their list to remove items. Our final product meets all these desires.
-
-
Product Name/ Grading System
-
EcoCart was the clear winner for our product name, so that’s what we went with.
-
People preferred to be graded through letters. For that reason, we attributed grades A-F as representation for levels of sustainability.
-
User Interviews
-
Grocery Page
-
Users struggled to find items with the original carousel feature, so we converted to listing groceries one by one. In the images below you'll find the original wireframe featuring an arrow button for looking through the products. Take notice of how Will and Eleanor ensured that the products were in a list format in our final product. Initially users were expected to click an arrow to move through available groceries. In the final product you see all the groceries at once.
-
-
Cart vs. No Cart (i.e. List vs. No List)
-
Users preferred having a cart when given the option, so we stuck with that. Later we began to call the cart a list since users were failing to realize that EcoCart was educational and not an online shopping experience. Below is Mika’s wireframe for the cart/list followed by the final product’s replication.
-
-
Receipt Page
-
Users liked having a dedicated conversion box for swapping less eco-friendly items with more eco-friendly ones. Below is a conversion box system from Mika’s wireframe followed by the website’s conversion box system developed by Eleanor and Will.
-
-
Other Notes
-
Users frequently stressed the importance of data transparency. In line with transparency, we also want to make sure our tool was seen as explicitly educational.
-
To maintain transparency we added hyperlinks to the bottom of our product’s detailed item pages so interested parties could visit our data source, “Our World in Data.”
-
To ensure that users knew this tool was purely educational we changed the language on the button in the list from “checkout” to “view impact.” We also changed the original cart icon to a list icon.
-
-
NEXT STEPS
Once user data was analyzed, the findings were shared with the team. Myself and the other interns continued to work together to oversee the creation of EcoCart.