Monica Vu | Digital Design Portfolio

Project Brief

As a group, the goal of our project was to design an iPhone mobile application using Figma that addresses a civic problem or improves a social service. The aim of the app is to make a positive impact on the community by enhancing access, efficiency, or awareness of social services.  Our end result is to create a user-friendly mobile app protype on Figma that offers a practical solution to our problem. To achieve this, we would focus on understanding the users’ needs, designing an intuitive interface, and ensuring your app is accessible to all.

Project Idea

The environment has become increasingly at risk with rising global temperatures and our ever-accumulating use of non-biodegradable materials. Without any proper solutions or problem-solving, the health of our very planet is at stake. Our society requires a way for people to connect with one another to help clean and protect our environment before it’s too late, so we can all keep inhabiting the place we call home. As a group we decided to create an interactive app, we named PlanetPal, where users can learn about the proper ways to recycle, find resources, environmental organizations and clean the environment around them through our app features like games, volunteer opportunities, a donation page, and a map.

Personally, this idea was interesting to me because it is a social issue that everyone faces but often goes unnoticed. No matter where I walk, whether in Colorado or California, there’s trash littered in some way. Even in public settings, people are not disposing of items in recycling bins correctly. I believe that educating others and providing resources to improve the environment around us, through an easy-to-use app accessible to everyone, can make a significant impact on the community.

Primary User
The primary user for this app is anyone living in Colorado currently and looking to improve their community’s environment by getting the people of Colorado recycling and taking responsibility for the environment they live in.

Problem
Colorado is home to many families who are ill informed of how to properly dispose of or recycle items. This leads to the environment being damaged and wildlife being hurt.

Rationale
This app will help with the lack of awareness towards recycling and how to properly dispose of materials. Bringing a wider awareness to the public of ways to help your community and events about the topic.

Figures & Data

Health Statistics
-13.7 million of deaths per year in 2016, amounting to 24% of the global deaths, are due to modifiable environmental risks. This means that almost 1 in 4 of total global deaths are linked to environment conditions.

Plastic Statistics
-Most of the plastic we make, 72%, ends up in landfills or the environment, according to a 2022 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
-Only 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled, and 19% has been incinerated. Some of it reaches the sea; estimates suggest that between 8 million and 11 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean each year. According to the National Academy of Sciences, that’s the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute.

Common Issues
-National Geographic found that 91% of all plastic that has ever been made is not recycled, representing not only one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime.
-In 2018, about 146.1 million tons of MSW were landfilled. Food was the largest component at about 24 percent. Plastics accounted for over 18 percent, paper and paperboard made up about 12 percent, and rubber, leather and textiles comprised over 11 percent. Other materials accounted for less than 10 percent each.

My Specific Feature

Using Figma, I oversaw designing the charities page of the app where users can browse different organizations that focus on making an impact on improving the environment. It would be a place where users could get more information about organizations, donate to their cause, and interact with organizations and other users as well.

In addition to that, I also designed the login page and worked collaboratively with another team member on the main menu. In general, as a team member, I supported other team members in anything they needed help with from ideas to designs. I also oversaw, looking over the little details in inconsistencies and checking other team members’ work.

Design Research and Planning

I started off with my team members on gathering information on similar competitors to our app idea. It helped us give us a better idea of what are some good features to include on our app and what are some ways for us to stand out against our competitors. Then we moved on creating a flowchart of our ideas for our designated features. I was in charge of creating the charity feature, so I made sure to include a donation page, information page, and so on. After, we went to create a wireframe of our ideas and with the feedback we got back we incorporated them to our final deliverables. Our final deliverables ended up drastically different then our wireframes after we had an in depth feedback with our instructor and with one another as well. This resulted us in adding new features and reformatting some of our designs like our buttons, backgrounds, and so on.

Competitor Analysis

Team Brainstorm Flowchart

Closer Look at Charity Flowchart

Closer Look at Charity Feature Wireframe

Final Deliverable

Prototype Walkthrough

Areas of Improvement

To test our designs and ensure they are user-friendly, I would have given them to friends and family to try out and observe how they navigate the app, identifying needed improvements and gathering their feedback. Overall, the app design lacks consistency in terms of appearance. Each feature in our app has a distinct style. Although we attempted to align our colors, buttons, and fonts, to ensure consistency our designs remained quite different in the design of our formats.

The main shortcoming of my design is its limited connection to other features. It would have been beneficial to find a way for my feature to integrate more seamlessly with other features within the app, as I believe it is versatile enough to do so. Additionally, I need to refine specific buttons in my feature like the profile and supporter pages, to enhance and optimize their functionality. For example, the profile page should have realistically offered more options like settings, notifications, and similar features.

Citations

Environmental Protection Agency. (2023, November 22). National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling. EPA. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#composting(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Main, D. (2023, October 22). Think that your plastic is being recycled? Think again. MIT Technology Review. https://technologyreview.com/2023/10/12/1081129/plastic-recycling-climate-change-microplastics #:~:text=Only%209%25%20of%20the%20plastic,enter%20the%20ocean%20each%20year. (MIT Technology Review)

Mavi Design. (2022, September 14). Create an Animated Like (Heart) Button in Figma. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS1OJefOYRE&t=264s&ab_channel=MaviDesign.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Public Health and Environment. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/public-health-and-environment(World Health Organization)