Better Experience for Home Gardening and Compost System
inSoil is a tool that analyzes the condition of soil and compost while informing the users about maintaining a sustainable food waste cycle within their households.
Context
This case study was inspired by harmonious cohabitation with human and non-human agents we discussed at Immersive Studio Class at the University of Washington. The non-human agents our team focused on were soil, plants, and food wastes. We were challenged to decenter the human, and design for the non-human actors in our environment to achieving harmonious cohabitation.
Team Members
Design Process
This was a five-day design sprint, which allowed us to solve a problem and to test ideas in a short period of time. Besides, the non-human centered design topic also helped us to jump out of the box, and to consider more factors in the system we are designing for.
Exploring Challenges
At the brainstorming stage, we came up with common barriers to harmonious habitation and situations that lack consideration for non-human actors. After sorting our sticky notes, we found plants and recycling were the most striking topics to dive into.
Later, we had a lot of conversations about food wastes as my teammate Nathaniel does compost at his home. We realized that home recycling is a huge topic, and it can be impactful on both small and large scales.
Problem Space
We decided to address the food waste problem, more specifically, how to better compost our food. Composting itself is considered an environmentally friendly alternative to landfilling food with garbage, but it doesn’t address the amount of food being wasted and any possible alternatives to use this waste matter as a food byproduct. So, we want to explore alternative forms of composting that include non-human actors such as worms and fungi that can lead to cohabitation spaces. This potential solution can decenter the human and benefit non-human elements in the world while achieving harmonious cohabitation in the long run.
Research
Literature review:
- “28% of the world’s agricultural area is used to produce food that is ultimately lost or wasted each year.”
- “A study in the UK further revealed that most edible food is wasted by consumers at the home rather than in agriculture or retail [1].”
- “What is produced, what we eat, and how much of the food is thrown away in production and consumption greatly affect greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn will have almost unpredictable impacts on our climate, fauna, and flora.”
Interview and survey findings
- We found out that not a lot of people have the habit of composting the food wastes regularly. Maybe more than half of us have difficulty actually starting to compost food wastes.
- We also realized that not a lot of communities have effectively informed their residents about how and why we need to compost food wastes.
- Interesting points we found is that in-house compost and recycle facilities can be very helpful as we are all busy bees.
- Lastly, we found if the food wastes can turn into something useful and visible to them, then it can be encouraging for residents to put more effort into food recycling.
Competitive Analysis
Most of the compost related apps are entirely educational, which can be hard to involve the users. Few other apps tried to gamify the compost activities but failed to motivate the users to take action in the real world.
We also found that indoor odorless smart composters available online were all very expensive.
Refined Problem Statement
How might we utilize the nutritional value that is still present in food waste for both humans and non-human agents?
Ideation
With findings and insights from the stages above, we were clear about what we want to bring through our design. Accessible, rewarding, and engaging are three values we kept in mind while sketching.
After sorting all the concepts, we down-selected four ideas to expand.
- Food Recycler: a food waste device that receives food waste and converts it to a nutritious food by-product or compost the remaining waste. Depending on the waste, the device would indicate what possible by-products it can create with the waste including air-dried fiber material, spices, protein powder, and compressed food pellets.
- Smart Fridge: a smart fridge that is installed in the kitchens of individual households. In addition to the refrigerator, the fridge will have a ‘waste compartment’ where food can be composted to either be up-cycled or compressed.
- Grocery Subscription: a reward system that connects grocery stores and buyers to help customers choose foods more wisely at the beginning by utilizing more informative packaging and online buyer guides, then gather and sort food waste more efficiently by offering coupons or waste pick-up.
- Home Garden Potter: a garden planter that converts a small amount of waste to soil and gives an opportunity for people who don’t commonly compost and garden because of lack of space or land.
After group critique, we thought the fourth idea was a good balance of focus between human and non-human agents. However, we knew that a magic potter is not enough, we need to give people the compost instruction in a more relevant and interactive way that really inspire users to take the action.
Target Audiences
We kept our design space broad, but now we could map out our stakeholders as we decided on the idea we wanted to move on with.
The non-human agents :
- Soil, air
- Worms, bacterias
- Plants
The human agents:
- People who are willing to invest their time and money in composting and planting
Revised Concept
We were struggling with the Potter idea and decided to talk to more stakeholders to gain insights and suggestions. Soon, we found there are products like soil moisture sensors and nutrition testing kits available to generate essential information and create extra interaction between users and non-human agents.
Then, we came up with inSoil. A concept consists of a hardware and a software component. The hardware part is a small reading device that is inserted into soil or compost to send analyzed data to the app. The app will work simultaneously with the soil reader to inform users about the state of the soil or compost and provide steps users can take to further optimize the soil based on plants that live there.
Prototyping
During the prototyping stage, we realized that our final step pages weren’t detailed enough to prompt users to start composting. So, we created a clearer list of things people could compost to fertilize their plants.
Final Design
Final prototype link
Here we have Molly’s scenario. Starting with connecting the sensor and the app. Then, Molly wanted to tailor the nutrition of the soil for her UFO plant. After testing the soil with the sensor, she found that the soil condition could be better if she adds around 150 grams of coffee grounds or other options in the list.
Molly can also optimize her compost for non-human agents like worms and bacteria through our product. She will select “compost” as her testing subject. Then input the type of compost and who does the compost feed for. Then, the system will give you information on the health status of your compost and what to add to make it more efficient.
Future Directions
- Adding a profile section for users to record the plants they owned and build a closer relationship between human and non-human agents.
- How can we organize the compost notes for users to make the trash sorting less time-consuming?
- Adding playful and meaningful micro-interactions to the app.
Key Takeaways
While doing group projects during the pandemic, we worked hard to stay in touch in these five days. Without in-person interaction, we learned to hop between different chatting software and remind each other if they were muted while speaking:0
- Be more active in sharing ideas and concepts. The more conversations you have the better the design becomes.
- Ambiguity is both scary and freeing. Don’t be afraid of thinking broad. It’s always helpful to consider a broader audience and environment.
- Eye-opening to explore non-human centered perspectives, and learned to sympathize with things that cannot express for themselves.