''Save the seal'' App
incentivizes recycling behavior
The communication challenge
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Creative solution
My solution is to create an easy and friendly recycling system and involve social norm and help people build positive feelings toward recycling. I created an educational and time-saving App prototype called '' Save the seal'' App. The reason I chose a marine animal as the main character of the application is that the majority of plastic waste ends up in landfills and flow into oceans. Only 9% of the world's plastic is recycled. Plastic has been found inside the guts of at least 180 species of marine animals. After ingesting harmful chemicals from the plastic debris, seals and other animals could suffer from diseases for years before they die.
First, when people open the App and click the button below, they can scan the products' barcode and the App would teach users how and what to recycle in the shortest time.
However, besides developing a tool, to evoke people's empathy and pay more attention to the environmental problem, I want to build a community online to make people united and put more effort into recycling. According to the research, people are more likely to recycle items linked to their identity. On the ''Save the seal'' App, each user has their seal characters. The more users use the App, including scanning, opening, searching the recycling information or connecting with friends, the healthier the seal will be. For example, I devise four scenarios which are respectively living healthy, ingesting the debris, snared by the ropes and dying. Some of the scenarios seem brutal, but they are all the predicaments the marine animals are facing. There is a life bar at the top of the page revealing the seal's health condition. In the meanwhile, the message of the knowledge of recycling will pop up to remind users of the importance of recycling to achieve educational meanings.
By clicking the page of the seal, users can find more information about both positive and negative effects of recycling and not recycling
