The Design Process (so far)

Challenge --> Research --> User Interviews --> Define + Reframe --> Ideate

Challenge

Unilever is a global company with a mission to decouple their environmental footprint from their growth and increase their positive social impact. My goal was to design a solution that would encourage consumers to use refill formats that are convenient, accessible, and incentivized.

An Iterative Approach

This project presents a meticulous design process, structured in the basis of design thinking. I believe that product design is a continuously circular process that always returns to user empathy and its real-world context.

Setting Achievable Goals

Every design idea and iteration was driven by our primary goal: to activate consumers to partake in refill options and retain those consumers, ultimately creating greener consumer shopping behavior.

Research

Once the problem space was established, we immersed ourselves in secondary and user research. This process was both ongoing and iterative.

Drive - Exisiting Trends Toward Greener Shopping

Our studies of online sources showed that consumers are willing to be more sustainable if it does not adversely impact the price, quality, and convenience. We found that consumers heavily valued accessibility for product refills, emphasizing on the cost effectiveness of refills.

Hesitation- Existing Research On Concerns About Refills

A general online consensus from refill-system reviews showed that consumers are unwilling to bring large and inconvenient containers to the store to be refilled. Our challenge was to figure out how we could make refill options accessible, while keeping overall cost competitive.

User Interviews

We surveyed around 50 individuals, ranging from 17 to 82, for our initial reserach to get a better understanding of current shopping habits and knowledge of refilling personal care products. Once we got a feel of what the general public felt about refills, we dived deeper with user interviews. Our goal was to understand individual experiences with refills, pinpointing the motivations and frustrations throughout the journey.

Define + Reframe

Our research from surveys and interviews determined the way we approached our reframed problem statement. In-depth analysis of the research led to our own visualizations of the consumer journey and empathy mapping of the consumer.

Ideate

Coming Soon