Sustainable Tourism REDUCEO

In this project we explored current design practices and the role of theory that informs and guides the management of the design process. We prepared comprehensive design brief and strategically mapped the design process.

Project Context

The project started with identifying the current trends happening around the globe. After brainstorming on the trends we created a mind map and discovered a design opportunity to solve the challenge of single use plastic waste in the tourism industry, further focusing on airline and hotel sectors.

Team

Namrata Chore, Zoe Roane Hopkins, Sebastian Vanegas Ruiz

Timeline

6 months

My Role

UX Researcher, UX Strategist

Secondary Research

We started the project by doing some secondary research on the amount of waste that is being generated in the tourism industry just by using single use plastics. We then created an intent statement and defined our target audience.

Opportunity Statement

How might we reduce the amount of single use plastic that is being generated by tourists while traveling?

Primary Research

We began the process by doing some secondary research and created a user journey map on the consumption of single use plastics by travelers when traveling by road and air.

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To understand our audience and empathize with them, we conducted surveys, did observations and had personal interviews.

Observation- We observed tourists pack their luggage to see how many single use plastic items they carry with them while traveling. Other places we observed were cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and in public places like parks.

Survey- We sent out a detailed survey to understand the use of single use plastics by tourists at each stage of their travel and which area generates the maximum amount.

Personal Interviews- We interviewed 17 people who traveled frequently for tourism or business purposes. 55% of them were under the age of 30.

Insights

Travelers are willing to change their habits however they are left with no alternatives to plastics.
Hotels have plastic shampoo and soap bottles and have cups wrapped in plastic.
Bottled water is the only safest option during travel which generates a huge amount of plastic waste.
Food items served in the airport are usually in a plastic container.
Airlines generate a lot of plastic waste by using cups, containers and many other things that are wrapped in plastic.

Analysis & Synthesis

We gathered 700 data points and then started clustering them into groups. We made clusters of similar yellows and wrote a blue. Similarly clustering blues and writing pinks. The final framework was created by having the greens.

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Framework

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After affinity mapping and synthesis we were able to find 10 insights for the next steps of the design process. We decided to focus on-

Airlines
Hotels
Food at airports
Convenience while traveling

Conceptualization and Ideation

We sketched different possible solutions for the areas that we decided to focus depending on our framework. We further did affinity mapping of the sketches and grouped the similar ones to build onto those ideas.

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Solutions

We narrowed our solutions to designing products for airline and hotel industries as it would create a bigger impact on the tourism industry as a whole. We evaluated our solutions based on feasibility, scalability and impact.

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Prototypes

After sketching possible solutions, we created 3D models and rendered them. Our solutions were aimed at airlines and hotel industry by designing a series of products like catering service cart, edible cutleries, amenities cafe for hotels, water filling stations and shampoo and soap dispensers.

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User Journey Map after our solutions show a significant reduction in the use of single use plastics

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User Tests

In this phase we created prototypes of carts and other solutions to test it out with users and asked them for their feedback. After getting their feedback we improvised on our solutions.

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Solutions after User Feedback

Our design criteria and solutions changed after getting feedback from the users. We decided to create our solution in a form of a firm which is dedicated to help companies reduce their use of plastics, focusing majorly on airlines and hotels in tourism industry. Our firm REDUCEO will educate, create awareness, design and implement solutions for other businesses to become more responsible with their actions in order to contribute to a sustainable future.