DIZZEY

UX/ Service

2020

A system designed specifically to teach and advocate sustainable business practices locally.

UX/ Adobe Xd

INTRO

How might we support small, sustainable businesses through increasing informed purchase decisions?

Consumers have a lot of political power–not just at the voting booth, but in the checkout line. I designed a program to promote sustainable, carbon-efficient small businesses through community programs and increasing informed consumer purchase decisions. Deliverables include storefront identifiers, mobile review app, community workshop, promotional mailers, and customer survey boxes.

KEY FINDS

Research results

Interviews & secondary research

Small business owners may feel that they don’t have the money or resources to put into sustainability and energy efficiency practices.
Small business owners have limited time to invest in sustainability.
Owners of SMBs may not see the value in sustainability and energy efficiency.
Small businesses may be interested in increasing their sustainability and energy efficiency, but they may be unsure of how to begin. It can feel overwhelming and seem like there are many barriers to entry.

WHY

Why buy local?
When you spend money at a local business, a significant amount returns to the local community. This income helps to foster economic growth and local development, benefitting everybody in your community. Big box stores cost local communities $12 million per year in sales. Local businesses donate more per sales dollar to local non-profits, events and teams compared to national chains. Further, there is an extremely close correlation between big box corporation and low wages.

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Why geared toward local sustainability?
Locally owned businesses make more local purchases requiring less transporation and set up shop in town or city which generally means less sprawl, congestion, habitat loss, and pollution.

The survey boxes are meant to minimize the barrier between customer and businesses. The phrase “share your two cents” allows the customer to be a participant in the business decisions. Further, the box can serve as a donation jar for the business itself or a charity of choice.

CORE AREAS

Design Questions

1.

How might we help consumers make informed purchase decisions?

Store-front Identifiers
Community Workshops

2.

How might we open communication between businesses and consumers?

Survey Boxes
Review Platform

3.

How might we help businesses make more sustainable decisions in their day to day operations?

Community Workshops

Medium Fidelity Prototype

USERS

Persona Mapping

TAYLOR (consumer) ☺

Age: 25
Profession: Engineering Student
Attributes: Vegan, brings convas tote everywhere
Interests: Sustainability, politics, fashion
Goals: Go zero waste, maybe save the planet?
Motivations: Wants to support small sustainable businesses
Frustrations: Easy to find *already* successful sustainable businesses

JO (business owner) ☺

Age: 45
Profession: Coffee shop owner
Attributes: Loves talking to customers, drinks 3 coffees a day, workaholic
Interests: College football, growing business
Motivations: Climate Crisis
Frustrations: Accessibility to sustainable operations

Store-front sticker identifiers. Different levels correspond to sustainability certifications. Shown above is “Level 3” for a carbon-positive business.

TAKE
AWAYS

My learnings

Involve the user in the process. Bring in the users for regular feedback sessions, but also create alongside with the users. If I could go back, I would have hosted a preliminary workshop with business owners to understand how they react to learning about sustainability and go past the initial point of becoming sustainable. How can we get them to *stay* sustainable? Also, what are some immediate benefits of supporting small?

Analog items such as the survey boxes can feel like an intrusion rather than a compliment to the current service offerings. An amazing benefit to digital design is that it has a more subtle adoption (envrionmentally speaking)! I would love to add a twist to the survey boxes and maybe switch it toward a POS extension. It's easier on the customer and the business owner. Also, when testing some said they would be more inclined to paticipate if advertised the money was being donated on the boxes.