Duration
4 Weeks
Team
Gaby Gayles, Tyler Stern, Molly Vierhile
Tools
Sketch, Final Cut Pro
My Role
UX Design, Videographer, Editor
$11.5 Billion - The value of recyclable containers and packaging Americans throw away every year.
34% - The percentage of all recyclables that is correctly sorted and disposed of in the U.S., 2015.
1,700 lbs. - The amount of litter collected from Lake Tahoe on July 4th, 2017.
How might we encourage more people to properly sort recyclables in public places?
An Internet-of-Things enabled recycling can that turns recycling into an arcade-style, community driven game.
Gamified Recycling
Trashketball turns recycling into something fun. Users earn points throwing away their recycling.
The further they shoot, the more points they get.
Trash Recognition
Trashketball uses Computer Vision to determine what is being thrown away.
If users try to dispose of something non-recyclable, like an apple, points are deducted.
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Encouragement
Instead of shaming users for missing, Trashketball encourages them to shoot again, evoking playfulness and engagement.
Community Competition
Points are aggregated for parks and displayed on a leaderboard, promoting friendly competition between communities and the feeling of social connectedness.
The goal for our project was to create some sort of IoT technology that would promote civic engagement. Our team quickly focused on recycling and sustainability because of the pressing need for action and our mutual interest in natural spaces.
Our ideation and background research proved largely unfruitful many of ideas were half-baked or illogical. From our background research we knew that littering was a huge problem, especially considering the then-recent news of trash overrunning national parks due to the government shutdown.
Eventually we came across a video from smart (like the car):
Their project promoted civic engagement by reducing the number of accidents at crosswalks through a dancing traffic light. What struck us was that they made a topic like civic engagement that's usually pretty serious into something lighthearted. That prompted us to think:
What if recycling was simply fun?
From this insight, our team came up with Trashketball: an arcade-style game that earns points for a local park by shooting recyclable waste into a basket.
The idea was inspired by a game played in my classrooms from elementary to high school for review sessions before tests. However, this time we envisioned a wider scope for the game to be played, enabled by a handful of sensors and IoT technology.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was how to display the information of the game. We considered implementing Augmented Reality technology, prompting users to use their own devices to measure distance and tally points.
However, this solution featured three setbacks:
1. Additional Barriers to Play:
It is hard enough to get people to recycle. If we want people to play trashketball, we shouldn't create an additional barrier by requiring them to download an app.
2. Free Handed-ness:
Throwing trash while holding up your phone to use AR is wonky and makes it hard to play.
3. Personal Devices Aren't Social:
One of the benefits of Trashketball is promoting social connectedness. Even if people are getting outside, they likely won't interact with others if they are looking down at their own devices. See: Pokémon Go.
Ultimately, we decided the best option to convey this information was through a physical display mounted on the back of the wastebasket, similar to a basketball hoop's backboard.
Our team went through several iterations of the scoreboard, mainly exploring how to represent the points and distance information.
After a few rounds of user testing, we landed on our final design which displays numeric point values beside a trail of glowing lights that increase the further someone steps away from the scoreboard.
While this project was mainly an exploration of depicting IoT technology within civic engagement, our experience proved to us that civic technology shouldn't be over-designed. It can be tempting to implement contemporary mobile technology or QR codes and expect people to use a service. These technologies will only mask a lackluster solution. But in a field where most everything is serious -- and rightfully so -- maybe some well-placed fun could be simple enough to encourage more engagement.