Ecora - Bio-waste management unit

ecora leverages auditory & visual cues to help users better manage their food waste at home. It aims to encourage potential users to take on an active role in defining realistic goals towards minimizing food waste. The objective is to positively influence user's behavior and nudge them towards a more sustainable food-lifestyle.

Project details

Instructed by - Umeå Institute of Design
Course - Industrial Sound Design (ISD)
Integration - Interaction Design + Advanced Product Design
Project team - Amanda Wallgren, Tianyi Wang,
Yuan Hong
Project Duration - 2 weeks

My role

- Conducted secondary research to gather foundational knowledge
- Developed sound design to enhance user interaction
- Created prototypes to explore and refine design concepts
- Conducted user testing to validate designs and gather feedback
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Current scenario

Global Impact: Every year, 1.6 billion tonnes of food is wasted.

Carbon Footprint: The food industry is a major contributor to CO2 emissions. Reducing food waste could save about 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

Methane Emissions: Wasted food in landfills decomposes, releasing methane—a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than CO2.

Urgent Call for Action: Minimizing food waste is critical for combating climate change and safeguarding our planet's future.

We all get the importance of not wasting food, yet, somehow, it still ends up in the trash. Ever wonder why there's such a big gap between our good intentions and what we actually do? A big part of the problem is that we don't always see the direct effects of our wasteful habits—it's hard to connect
the dots between tossing out a few leftovers and the bigger picture of food waste.

Our aim

Leverage visual and auditory reminders around your home to encourage a positive shift towards managing food waste. These
cues can serve as gentle nudges to help everyone in the household become more mindful and proactive about reducing food waste.

ecora - eco-bin

The smart bin, your new kitchen buddy is designed to transform the way you handle food waste at home. It's equipped with sensors that measure everything from how much you toss to the conditions inside the bin, and it uses sounds to help guide your waste habits. Through a simple interface, you get a clear picture of your waste patterns, sparking awareness and nudging you towards greener choices. With the smart bin, you're not just throwing things away—you're learning how to live more sustainably, one piece of waste at a time.

The eco-bin adds a twist to the way we think about waste disposal. It plays distinct sounds for different types of waste, turning an ordinary task into an interactive experience. Its design ingeniously expands, visually showcasing the volume of food waste we accumulate. This creative approach serves as a gentle prompt, encouraging us to reflect on our habits and motivating us to minimize our waste.

ecora - companion Interface

This app aims to provide potential users with data about food waste in their household through intuitive & engaging interface.

It summarizes and presents this data through a sound aura created by the combined auditory cues/sounds the bio-bin has been making throughout a specified time period selected by the user.
The sound aura helps the user learn about their household waste generation pattern. This auditory feedback aims to eventually encourage/motivate the user to their set weekly goal.
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ecora provides the user with recommendations or tips to reuse/reduce food waste. These tips enable the user to make wiser decisions with regard to bio-waste management in their household.

ecora - prototyping

We created several low/high fidelity mockups to better understand the functionality of the concept. We developed a 1:1 working prototype with components made using the 3D printer and paper. These mockups/prototype were later used for user testing.
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In the real world, eco-bin is envisioned to be made out of recyclable plastic
and silicone. It aims to be affordable, robust, user-friendly and sustainable.

User testing - wizard of oz technique

During this course, we intensively tested the sounds, tangible mockups and interface designs with potential users and our peers. This helped us in identifying frictions early on in the design process and in validating our design direction.