CASE STUDY
The annual turnover of the clothing industry in Japan is 96 billion dollars. Fashion is an evergreen trend and staying in fashion even more so. Being an island country with a dense population has resulted in small and packed living spaces. Clothes are bought, worn and thrown into garbage bins.
The aim of this project was to reduce that waste.
RESEARCH
To understand more about the outlook of the Japanese when it comes to donation, I conducted some basic survey where I asked them the major reasons for wanting to donate. The results are mentioned below.
I had to ensure that during the process of making the donation, all these needs are ticked off to ensure maximum user satisfaction. I also wanted to make less waste the theme of my project. For this reason, I opted for a minimalist website where each page was highly functional and the steps towards making the donation were easy and few.
The users don't have to bother scrolling to access the website and everything is available on one page. This is also going to decrease the page loading time, making the website quick and easy to use.
DESIGN PHASE and USER TESTING
The first step in the design process was to design a system where people could complete their task in less than 4 clicks. To do this, I made the option of signing up optional. You could donate without sharing way too much personal information. This was done by making a few details optional to fill in.
You could alternatively sign in/up. The sign up phase is split into two parts. This was done after receiving feedback from testers who mentioned that it would be more convenient if they could fill the same information over two steps. This reduces the overall tenuous feelings and makes signing up less of a mammoth task. ( basically more engaging.)
There would be continuous feedback where if the user fails to add in details, they will be notified about it the moment they fill the information incorrectly.
The initial workflow of the website alongside some edits that i made after receiving feedback.
Donation process
The sign up pages along with the immediate feedback is shown below. After signing up, the user has to confirm their email ID. The email that is sent to the user contains a link that sends them to a page on the website to set the password.
The profile page of those who decided to sign up is made to make them feel good about themselves. It includes the option of uploading their photo, make new donations and see past donations.The new donation page has the user's information pre-feed. However, if the user wishes to add a new address, they can always do that by pressing the +New address option.
The main profile page also has the option of Edit Info which let's the user edit all the information they filled up during sign up.
After user testing, I have added the contact page and volunteer form. The volunteer form also guides the user to the contact form in case they have worries or concerns regarding how the volunteering process takes place. Once a volunteer registers, they will be sent an email from recycled which explains in detail the pickup and dropping procedure.
The contact us (L) and volunteer (R) form
UPDATE
I am currently working on a few more functionalities:
1. Password Page
2. Volunteer Page
3. Rewards for donation
4. Japanese UI
