THE ECO.PODtransformation design: case study | fall 2010

+OVERVIEW//////////

Transformation design is the human-centered, inter-disciplinary process that

seeks to create desirable and sustainable changes in behavior and form-of

individuals, systems and organizations-often for socially progressive ends.

It is a multi-stage, iterative process applied to big, complex issues – often,

but not limited to, social issues.

Eco.Logic is a group of seven transformation designers from Herron School

of Art and Design at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis.

Eco.Logic was formed to address our community’s environmental concerns.

Collaboratively discovering how they could make a difference in their

community and positively impact the environment. After all, community

and environment go hand-in-hand, right? Eco.Logic believes they should.

TRANSFORMATION DESIGN: designing for innovation

01

ECO.LOGIC

Eco.Logic began their pursuits with an abundance of possible opportunities

in environmental issues they could transform but in the end decided to

focus on their collegiate community’s missed opportunities on IUPUI’s

campus in Indianapolis, Indiana.

OBJECTIVE

02

In the first part of the process, Phase A, we chose to look into

environmental issues over transportation issues based off of

our own individual preference. After researching recycling

systems in residential areas of Indianapolis and downtown

in general, we found that there were several issues right on

campus that could be explored. We looked to the new IUPUI

Campus Center food court where a large amount of traffic occurs.

+ We introduced professionals in the area of recycling, trash, or sustainability issues,

on and off campus, to collaborate with us to create a better recycling system in the

Campus Center.

+ We created a blog to keep our collaborator’s updated and others who were interested

in our efforts. This turned out to be a useful tool for feedback in the concept phases

and to post photos of what we were currently working on.

+ Our team spent time in the food court observing how the current recycling

system was being utilized. We conducted video observation and created a chart

based on who was recycling what materials, and in what provided containers.

+ Eco.Logic looked into other Universities recycling systems to get some idea of

what was working and what was not. Although this helped us to broaden our

knowledge of other systems, we also had to keep in mind of who IUPUI was

as an audience.

AB

Cformulate the problem/opportunity

+PHASE A

03

formulate solution

+PHASE B

In phase B, we held an ideation session that brought together all collaborators to

figure out what were the major recycling issues in the food court and plan out how we

could go about solving them. Top issues that were discovered were:

+ 8 different brands of recycling containers with 3 different

brands of trash containers

+ No signage for recycling containers

+ All materials made of non-recyclable styrofoam

+ Lack of knowledge or education on recycling

The trash/tagging system consisted of tagging specific food materials by stamping

them with a stamp that would correspond to the same symbol on designated recycling

containers. The eco.kit was similar to a mess kit in the aspect of reusable food ware

instead of disposable materials. If students were to use their mess kits they would receive

some type of a discount when paying for their meal. The art installation was created to be

interactive and informative. The concept for the art installation was to create some sort

of clear, acrylic, sculpture where students could dispose of their plastic bottles. It would

fill up completely and show a consensus of just how much plastic we use as a whole on the

IUPUI campus.

Eco.Logic diverged on further ideas based off of the

ideation session, such as looking into reusable food-

ware, the use of incentives, phone applications and

even a campus farm. We then converged best ideas

down to three main concepts:

+ trash/tagging system

+ eco.kit

+ art installation.

AB

C

AB

Cimplement solution

+PHASE C

04

Three completely different concepts were created so we could begin

user testing. For user testing, we created detailed digital renderings

to ask students which system they would use and why. We spent two

days making rounds in the Campus Center sitting down with students

to understand which one was most appealing and understandable.

Concept number three was favored over the others due to the usability

being the easiest system to understand.

The final stage of our process, Eco.Logic created a final, to scale, mock up

of the Eco.Pod, the new recycling system. We used simple, specific signage

for the system so it would be easy to navigate and educate students and

faculty. Along with our mock up we created the Eco.Pod Kit, which contains

everything IUPUI would need to go about making this project a reality. It

contained a proposal letter, project book, implementation aid and a CD of

all the elements.

The Eco.Pod a smart recycling system

In Phase C of the process we focused on rapid prototyping for the three

main concepts of trash/tagging system, the eco.kit and the art installation.

We used quick prototyping techniques to get out as many renderings as

possible. We used all of our resources, such as cardboard, popsicle sticks,

straws, paint, glass, kitchen utensils, sketching, etc. After creating several

different prototypes we found that the trash/tagging system would be the

best choice for the IUPUI Campus Center. Our team began to converge on

our ideas now that we were focusing on just the trash/tagging system. After

delving deeper into this idea we found that tagging would entail more labor

and would be best to drop it from the project. Instead, developing a better,

easier and more informative recycling system was key to the foundation of

anything changing in the food court.