Final Project

WeLoop

A zero-waste online shopping platform that transform you and your community’s consumption behaviour.

Researching into the barriers and pain points of using existing reuse and refill solutions, WeLoop is designed for eco-minded but time-poor users who want to reduce packaging waste by breaking the distance and time constraints of reuse and refill, meanwhile overcoming the feeling of combating packaging waste issue alone.

Designer and users

Talking about the change of mindset after working on this project, one thing that I feel strongly with was that users are truly an eye-opener. Sometimes I overlook the basic thinking process as a human, and have blind spots on something obvious when I’m being too ‘close’ with my design. For example, when I struggled how the group order flow should be, talking to users effectively reveal those ‘nonsense’ out to me which otherwise, I would never think or notice of. Sometimes, even just a quote about users’ inner feelings can already be a huge signal to the design.

A flaw in the WeLoop project would be I did not get a chance to speak with the key stakeholders, such as retail chains or an independent refill shop owner. What I did instead, is to do secondary research and learn from existing resources and experience. I studied the reuse pilot reports that different grocery chains such as Tesco and Asda published, to help build up the bigger picture of what the stakeholders need to execute reuse practices.

Apply the design tools and methods in your way

During the ideation process, I read books and papers that explain the use case of different design tools and methods. However, in this self-directed project, I used the methods for whatever purpose! For example, the desktop system mapping (Thisisservicedesigndoing, 2019) which is usually used in the research stage for users to build and explore a business ecosystem, was used as a prototype technique in my project. I used it to present my concept to users in one of the workshops to explain the flow of materials, knowledge, funds among stakeholders which turned out brought the discussion to another level.

Another example would be COM-B. In the past, I usually use COM-B to unpack the brief in the early stage but it can also be used to check if my idea is a fit for my users. I found that I feel more comfortable with trying out new ways to apply the techniques and tools to arrive at the outcomes.