Sweep

Mobile Application

Sweep is an app that encourages individuals to explore their local neighborhoods for discarded household items that can be rehomed. The intention is to turn someone’s trash into someone else’s gold.

My Contributions

Research
User Experience
Identity design
Web Design

Mission Objective

Create a mobile application where people have the ability to virtually share repurposable items they have discovered were discarded by previous owners. Informing others that these items are available for free at a specific location.

Audience and Their Engagement

Individuals living within an urban area who are either lower or middle class in need of furnishing their living space. This app depends on their users to post and map items they find to allow other users to retrieve the item if they desire. People can also share photos of their findings, before and after photos, suggested locations, and even request items that they may connect them with someone who no longer wants that item.

Competitiors

Craigslist

Craigslist provides an option to search for local free items, however there are not many restrictions on the platform thus making it an unsafe resource.

Freegle

Freegle allows individuals to post items they no longer want and offers for others to collect it. You can also search or browse the items offered, or post a request for something. This issue is that this app is not available in the USA, they are not user friendly, and the meetups can be dangerous for individuals.

Freecycle

Freecycle is a website that allows you to view discarded items in your area. This website is difficult to navigate due to no filtration systems, making it time consuming to find items the user is searching for.

User Personalities

Christian — New User

22 / Latino/ single / Art student / extrovert / Works in a coffee shop / gamer and comic book fanatic

Description
Christian moved into his first apartment with roommates. After settling in, he notices the empty space throughout the apartment and needs furniture. He can only afford necessities and prefers to avoid spending money. He looks into his school's resources under the housing & resources department and finds the app. He downloads it, creates an account, and explores what the software offers. He finds a chair and shares it with his roommates. One offers to go with him to the location and collect the chair.

Ashley — Returning User

33 / White / Female / Married / Mother / extrovert / dog owner / wine drinker / yoga & running enthusiast.

Description
Ashley goes out for a walk with her dogs and child in the stroller. She gets to the end of a block and notices a pile of items across the street.She decides to check it out and finds a coffee table with a few scratches. The furniture reminded her of a friend who mentioned their interest in looking for a table. They both like secondhand furniture, so she opens the app, takes a photo of the table, sends her friend a private message with the image, and encourages her to get it.

James — New User

29 / Black / in a relationship / Advertisement / lives with / introvert / cat owner / works out / enjoys cooking

Description
Joshua received new kitchen equipment as a gift and needs to get rid of his old pans and silverware. Rather than throwing it all away, he decides to make postings on Facebook market as a no-contact drop-off. With no luck, Joshua looks for other solutions and discovers Sweep. He downloads the app and creates a posting of the item. He receives a message of someone interested and they both schedule a pick up day. Once the time arrives, Joshua leaves the items outside and the other person comes and takes it.

Sitemap

After considering various scenarios for users, I was able to create a sitemap with the users experience in mind. This allowed me to determine the critical pages for the application and the content that was essential.

Flowchart

The chart Illustrates how a person creates an account and the introduction to the home page which displays a map. The path demonstrates the searching process of finding an item with the virtual map, and the GPS functionality.