Refactory Companion Application
This project was an interdisciplinary collaboration in the course "Experts in Teams" during my master studies where I worked with other interaction design, programming and engineer students to create a service loosely based on sustainablilty. Refactory is a concept where we would place mini-factories around the size of a vending machines at different locations. Users would recycle their plastic at these vending machines and then be able to receive a 3D printed trinket created from recycled PLA, or donate their recycled plastic to a chartiable and sustainable purpose, such as the Eco Brick.My main responsibilities for this project was to design and create a clickable prototype of a companion application which would keep track of the user's progress along with their collection of trinkets.
The companion application contains certain elements of gamification such as achievements and leveling up through "experience points" in this case represented through "total grams of plastic donated". The idea is to give the user value when leveling up in the form of, for instance, coupons and vouchers which could be used with various brands we would partner with. Some trinkets obtained from the machine would only be available to users once they reach a certain level, further motivating them to recycle their plastic in an appropriate manner. Before the user recycles at one of our vending machines, they will be asked to scan a QR on the display of the machine through the companion application. This will add the trinket they received to their digital collection as seen in the images below, as well as the total amount of plastic donated to their experience bar.
Some trinkets would be available only for limited periods of time while others such as specific landmarks, are based on the geographic location of the recycling machines themselves which adds a certain depth to the collection aspect of the system. Users can view a digital representation of their collections in the application by scrolling through a skeuomorphic menu with virtual shelves. They can touch each trinket in order to see its title, the date they obtained it along with various fact regarding the trinket's origin. Finally, the application has a map functionality with allow users to see the exact location of Refactory machines along with their operational status and potential access to limited/rare trinket rewards.
Landmark vector objects in the prototype were obtained from freepik.com
