Unico
A user study and design coursework aimed to develop a sustainable shopping platform mainly catering to university students.
A user study and design coursework aimed to develop a sustainable shopping platform mainly catering to university students.
Living sustainably is important but challenging due to high costs, limited options, and lack of support. Students, in particular, struggle to find affordable, sustainable choices.
The project aims to create a sustainable shopping platform for university students, combining various eco-friendly shops and brands with student discounts and easy delivery.
The project seeks to:
Confirmation and Innovation: The interviews validated our initial concept and provided new ideas.
Essential Requirements:
Communication: Participants highlighted the inefficiency of current communication channels and the need for diverse methods to raise awareness about sustainability.
Simplicity and Authenticity: Ensuring the service is straightforward and genuinely sustainable was crucial.
To crystallize our understanding of users, we craft one persona, which can serve as an invaluable tool in guiding design decisions and ensuring a user-centric approach.
Our user-centric approach begins by highlighting the cost-conscious students and community-driven individuals as central figures in the conceptual model.
The following concept map visually articulates the essential components of the conceptual model, emphasizing the interconnectedness of features and functionalities tailored to cost-conscious and community-driven users.
Eino, a sustainability-conscious university student, often struggles with finding and exploring sustainable shops offline due to scattered information and limited discussions. She uses the UNICO website to discover a wide range of sustainable shops, compare options, and read user comments.
One day, while on campus and needing to buy daily necessities, Eino accessed the UNICO website on her mobile phone. She navigated to the ‘Shops’ page and used the ‘student_discount’ filter to find shops offering special deals. She reviewed several shops to ensure their prices fit her budget.
Next, Eino explored the forum for additional insights by selecting ‘Forum’ from the hamburger menu. She used the search bar to find relevant comments about the shops, avoiding extensive scrolling.
Satisfied with the positive feedback, Eino checked the shop’s location by selecting ‘Map’ from the hamburger menu. She searched for the shop on the map, assessed the address, and determined its convenience for a visit.
The information architecture of the web application is visualized in the sitemap.
Although we also designed one screen for desktop browsers, this project focused mostly on mobile browsers. Therefore, only wireframes for the mobile version are displayed here.
Our design concept for UNICO revolves around simplicity, sustainability, and user engagement.
Informed by the user study, we made a deliberate choice in our color palette, selecting two shades of green as primary and secondary colors. This decision was driven by the association of green with sustainability, aligning our design with the platform's environmental ethos.
In the culmination of our design process, we transitioned from wireframes to the creation of high-fidelity screens using Figma.
The interactive prototype aims to showcase the finalized designs for the key screens that hold substantial value for the user.
The prototype allows users to interact with buttons and navigation elements, fostering a realistic simulation of the web service's functionality.
All interactions were implemented with a focus on accessibility, ensuring that users can easily navigate and click buttons.
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