Greenoffice
The project
Improve sustainable behaviour by completing challenges that suit your preference. Challenges can be about food, activity, recycling, or spreading awareness. Greenoffice makes it possible for everyone to contribute towards a better place at the office in something they are good at. Completing a challenge rewards you with a token that can be used to build an abstract shape at your desk. The shape makes it hard to compare yourself to others putting the focus on your own development, stimulating instrinsic motivation.
Project details
Year: 2018
Client: TU Delft, Rabobank
Nature: Individual project
My tasks: Contextmapping
Assignment
The goal of the project was to improve the sustainable behavior of the office workers of the Rabobank Eindhoven office. Contextmapping was used in the form of interviews, observations, photo diary, and focus group sessions to understand more about their current context. The final concept was made into a paper prototype and tested for a whole week at a different office, afterwards, interviews were done to gather insights.
Target audience
The target audience were office workers from the IT department of Rabobank Eindhoven. Changing people towards a more sustainable lifestyle is a slow process. Challenging people with tasks that suit their preference makes this process easier.
Contextmapping
Contextmapping was done for this project to understand more about the sustainable behaviour of the Rabobank employees. First interviews, observations, and photo diary were done to gain an understanding of the context. Followed by a small assignment and a focus group session to understand how they behave in the context.
Key insight: Co-workers enjoy challenging each other at the office. They challenge other members of their team. Also, they hold tournaments in Mario kart for leisure.
Key insight: It is easier to change your behaviour in a skill you are comfortable with. For instance, if you are good at being social, you should raise awareness for sustainable options.
Usertesting
A paper prototype was made to test the concept at the Rabobank for a week. Participants had to complete challenges and they would score points for each completed challenge. Interviews were done afterward to gain feedback.
Key insight: A competition causes extrinsic motivation. Workers fell into old habits when the competition was over and thus the incentive to be sustainable was gone.
The second iteration focuses more on improving own behaviour. You are challenged by cards but are rewarded by tokens which can be used to create abstract shapes. The reward is harder to compare to others. The focus of the incentive is less about competition and more about self-growth.
Things I learned during this project
1- Sometimes the target group themselves don’t understand their own context. Using an assignment helps them to reflect on their own behaviour.
2- Work in the environment you are learning about. You will learn from just being there, even when you are not doing a user study.
3- Make time for a small chat with your target group before/after your user research. In an informal setting, you get valuable honest feedback.
