World Usability Day 2016 – A quick Fitbit for sustainability

The theme for World Usability Day 2016(this will open in a new window) was sustainability and we put some of our open house visitors to work creating a “Fitbit for sustainability”.

Three teams were asked to temporarily suspend reality and imagine that Richard Branson has offered up a hefty investment funding package for the best idea to encourage people to record, track, and share their efforts to make the world a better, more sustainable place.

Teams were given just 20 minutes to prototype their solutions and then present them to an esteemed judging panel from other WUD attendees who rated them in terms of innovation, fun, usability and an X factor that really seals the deal for you.

Quick thinking was needed and we certainly got a lot of that. Each team of four people stepped through a rapid ideation phase before committing to their agreed solution. Armed with Sharpies, Post-its and plenty of paper they set to work creating storyboards, screen flows and individual interfaces for their solution. They described their typical context of use and target users as they prepared their presentations, all within 20 minutes – a great effort!

When it came to judgement time, each team faced our panel of 5 judges plus the beaming visage of Mr. Branson himself for their ‘Pitch to Rich’. Five minutes is not much time to convey your solution to change the world for the better but we had excellent, original ideas from all three teams.

The presentations from the teams included:

Bright Sparks A smart meter incorporating the chance to share with others your eco-creds, whilst turning your savings into donations to worthy causes and charities.

SLMR A self-scanning shopping solution that makes micro payments to your chosen good cause as you purchase and provides compelling encouragement throughout the process.

Travel to Tree An eco-travel app designed to nudge people into greater use of public transport.

It was a tight competition, and in the end there was only a single point in the judges scoring separating the winning team, Travel to Tree, from the rest of the pack.

The four winning team members enjoyed some of their 15 minutes of fame and glory and carried off their winnings which had somehow changed from heavy financial investment from the Virgin supremo into a consumable, beer-flavoured prize.

It was the taking part that counts and we send another big thank you to everyone who took part in one of the competing teams or the judging panel. Great efforts all around and some fantastic ideas!