logo
Case Study
Trash-to-Cash
Litter is everywhere.
Get paid for throwing your trash away as well as any found litter you might wander across. Just snap a picture while you’re in the act and submit. It’s that easy.
Native iOS
Situation
I met a young man on the golf course trying to bring his first ever product to market. He had no formal training in design or product management. He had a year’s worth of blood, sweat, money and tears invested into the T2C vision, yet the product had not launched and still had a considerable way to go before doing so.
Challenge
1.) Evangelize and demonstrate the User Centered Design practice every step of the way.

2.) Learn and attempt to course correct any poor strategy and / or design decisions that had been made prior to my arrival.

3.) Help launch an MVP.
Approach
Based on the limited time and funds available, the stakeholder elected to take an Unintentional Design approach. The user research required to mitigate the risk to user adoption was scarce. The stakeholder was comfortable using friends and family to qualify his business strategy assumptions and our future-state user experience hypotheses.
Outcomes
Trash-to-Cash is live and operating according to the Product Owner’s vision. I provided mentorship, design artifacts, workshop facilitation and course corrections that unstuck the development lifecycle churn and ultimately informed an MVP.
Archetypes
Archetype

The Helper

The personas within this group are the do’ers of the experience. The business strategy fails if the personas within this key archetype do not perform the desired behavior.

Archetype

The Retailer

The personas within this group provide the incentives that compel the Helper personas to perform the app’s desired behavior. Their generosity in rewarding Helpers has limits.

Archetype

The Superintendent

The personas within this group ensure clean environments at closed venues like movie theaters, golf courses and concert halls. They usually clean up after events that draw large and / or steady crowds within an enclosed area.

Archetype

Civil Servants

The personas within this group serve communities of people. They have a responsibility for exploiting opportunities that help them keep the areas they manage and oversee safe and clean for the public.

Incentives, Personas & outcomes
A trash receptacle is close by!
(very convenient)
A trash receptacle is within walking distance.
(somewhat convenient)
There is no trash receptacle anywhere.
(not convenient)
Persona
Experience Outcomes
Information architecture & task flows
Future state Proposal
“Sitemap“
I audited the application’s site map using the Jesse James Garrett visual vocabulary best practices.
Future-state top-tier Trash-to-Cash sitemap showing relationships between sign in, capture, earn, shop and profile menu options.
Current state Task Analysis
“Onboarding new users“
I audited several key task flows using the Jesse James Garrett visual vocabulary best practices. These inspections revealed several key user experience citations which became the focus for future-state proposals and design hypotheses.
Triangle
Onboarding
Pyramid of Trust
Scenario
Consistency
Remove Friction
Conditional Logic?
Future state Proposal
“Onboarding new users“

Watch the research that inspired the changes proposed below

Pyramid of Trust
Core Value Proposition
Convert Anonymous User
Affinity
Promote Promotions
Testimonial
“Shawn has been my UX Design/Product Owner mentor since September 2022. He has been very generous with his time and very valuable with his wisdom.

He is extremely knowledgeable, not only of skills and mindsets, but also the history of technology and how it got to where it is today. He understands not only how things work, but why they work and who made them work first.

I highly recommend Shawn to any company who wants to enhance their products’ performance. He is precise and thorough while creating phenomenal user-centric designs. He is methodical yet efficient in his process and has a deep understanding of what it takes to design winning products.

I have the pleasure of spending time learning from and being around Shawn, he is a great person and has become a great friend of mine. So, I also recommend Shawn to any young person wanting to be mentored. Shawn only requires that you’re dedicated, do the homework and have an open mind to learning new things.”
Zach Bond — Burgeoning Entrepreneur and Product Designer
+1 (303) 269-1421
Savannah, Georgia (EST)
shawn@shawnkelshaw.com
Webyx for WordPress heavily customized by me.
Credits, references and sources coming soon.

© 2008 Shawn Kelshaw. All rights reserved.