SFCleanPro
SFcleanPro is a speculative design for utilizing AI technology to improve SF street sanitation quality with the support of SF citizens.
Concept DEMO Video
About this project
SFcleanPro is a speculative design to help SF sanitation achieve an adequate and satisfactory level due to the current severe feces and waste problems. It cooperates with an ideated AI-powered robot system and app portal for users to order street cleaning requests if they discover some dirty areas on the street. Users can also use the app portal to check and monitor the progress of cleaning to see if their requests have been accepted.
Project Duration
November 2023 ~ December 2023
4 weeks
Project Overview
Current problem:
With the increasing population in San Francisco, its citizens find out that the street sanitation quality has worsened daily. Especially for the city's sanitation force, it has been a headache for them to keep up with the waste production rate in those high-density population areas with low incomes. This creates a challenge for both San Francisco citizens and sanitation departments to find an effective solution for street cleaning.
The goal:
This speculative design aims to assist both the San Francisco sanitation department and its citizens with an AI-powered platform for effective street cleaning to keep up with the large-scale waste production rate. The design includes an AI-powered street cleaning robot system for automatic and efficient street cleaning to support the city sanitation department. Additionally, there is an app portal for citizens to have quick and easy access to request street cleaning services.
User Research Summery:
During the initial stage of my research, I examined existing data charts and news information to gain insights into the current waste problem in San Francisco. Subsequently, I investigated the current sanitation methods employed by the city to understand their effectiveness and identify areas where improvements are needed. Following this, I interviewed local San Francisco citizens residing in different districts and contacted city sanitation department staff to learn their challenges in cleaning the city's streets. I utilized the gathered information to create personas and storyboards, illustrating the problems and conceptual solutions.
User Research: Pain Points
1
The street cleaning rate is not efficient
San Francisco citizens feel that street cleaning is not very efficient, based on their observation of existing waste. Sometimes, the same waste spot remains on the street for couple days, sometimes a week until the waste is gone.
2
City sanitation lack of enough support
The city's sanitation capabilities cannot keep pace with the increasing amount of waste produced by the growing population, which requries additional government's budgets and support.
3
Hard to report the dirty spot on the street
When citizens spot uncomfortable waste locations, they have to go through a series of processes to report to city officials for waste removal. This is inconvenient and time-consuming, requiring them to wait for necessary action.
4
Waste locations appear to be randomized
Waste locations occur randomly, making it challenging for city sanitation to predict and take prompt action to achieve a satisfactory cleaning rate for the streets.
Persona: Jason
Problem Statements:
Jason is a college student who wants a clean sidewalk along his route to school and a convenient channel to report waste to the city sanitation department. He believes that the current responsibilities of the city sanitation are inadequate in efficiently removing waste from the streets of San Francisco.
Persona: Katherine
Problem Statements:
Katherine, a staff member at the SF City Sanitation Department, requires additional workforce and resource allocation to keep up with the current waste levels in San Francisco. The current cleaning methods and personnel count are insufficient, falling short of meeting the satisfaction needed to efficiently keep waste and debris off the streets.
User Storyboard
In this scenario, an individual walking on the street encounters waste that makes them uncomfortable. To address this, he utilize a street cleaning app to request the services of a cleaning robot to promptly clean up the waste.
In this scenario, a worker from the SF Cleaning Department assigns a street cleaning robot a routine to patrol and monitor waste on the streets. During the routine, if the robot discovers waste, it automatically cleans up the spot. Additionally, if a nearby person requests a cleaning service, the nearest robot promptly moves to the location to fulfill the request.
This close-up storyboard scenario illustrates the concept user flow as individuals navigate through the process of requesting a street cleaning service from their app portal.
Ideate User Flows
These conceptual user flows outline the step-by-step process, illustrating how the user and the robot would navigate through the system's process from different feature angles for street cleaning requests.
Paper Wireframes
The paper wireframes for SFCleanPro concept for users to request the street cleaning robot services.
Digital wireframes
The login page allows users to either log in with their registered account or quickly access the app as a guest and register later.
After logging in, users can have a straightforward GPS map with information regarding their current location to help them quickly request the cleaning bot.
The login page allows users to either log in with their registered account or quickly access the app as a guest and register later.
Users can notice directly about their current location information on the home page.
Start the submit the cleaning request button on the home page for quicker accessibility to submit the request
In the process of requesting the street cleaning robot service, users need to provide basic information about the waste for the robot's AI to locate the waste location. Users can also upload photos for additional reference to assist the robot's AI.
Users are required to enter basic information when accessing the app as a guest to establish a record and prevent the misuse or abuse of the cleaning robot service.
Users have to provide some basic information about the waste, such as text descriptions or photos, to assist the robot's AI in achieving more accurate recognition.
After entering the information, users can review the request before sending it off to the robot's AI to ensure its accuracy.
Users can review the overall information they entered before submitting the request to the cleaning robots.
Once the users verify the information is all correct, tap to submit the request to the cleaning robot station, and it will start to process users' requests.
Users can track their request history and in-progress requests in the different categories such as in progress, pending and complete.
Request categories for users to track their previous request.
Request labels with some basic information of the cleaning request to help users to identify.
After tab onto the label, users can see the status of their cleaning request so they would monitor the progress of cleaning robots for cleaning those wastes.
GPS map with cleaning robot routine to the waste location for a general view
Detail schedule progress information to notify users how much time remain for the cleaning request to be completed.
Robot's brief information for this cleaning request
The digital wireframes for the main features of SFClearnPro portal.
Usability study: Findings
After completing the digital wireframes for SFCleanPro, I opted to conduct usability research and gather feedback from individuals. I tested the application with a diverse audience, specifically those who would be the target users for requesting street cleaning services. I collected and analyzed their suggestions regarding the functionality and layout of the app to refine and enhance the overall user experience.
Valuable finding
1
Users prefer to confirm the location directly from the map on the homepage rather than entering location address information on the requesting page.
2
Consider incorporating detailed selection options on the requesting page, allowing users to choose from predefined categories rather than relying solely on descriptions. This approach makes it easier and more controllable for users to provide waste information to the cleaning robots.
3
Rather than indicating how much time remains for the robots to complete the cleaning request, consider displaying the progress of cleaning steps as the robot's status. This approach allows users to set the right expectations, showing details like the departure time from the station and when it has arrived for cleaning.
4
When thinking of how robots might encounter various types of waste, consider refining the information provided by users to include more specific categories. This enhancement can enable a more detailed and accurate classification of the waste encountered by the cleaning robots.
Mockups
Before usability study
Before the usability test, the home page lacked the function to allow users to confirm the waste location directly. Now, users are required to select their location on the homepage map to activate the "request cleaning bot" button.
After usability study
Before usability study
Consider adding more specified categories for users to select when scheduling cleaning requests. This could include options such as the type, size scale, and form of the waste. By providing predefined options, users can avoid having to type lengthy text descriptions, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.
After usability study
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(For logged-in users)
(For guest users)
Before usability study
Replacing the original remaining time display with a more detailed status display on the request detail page. This adjustment would provide users with a clear understanding of which steps the robot has completed throughout the cleaning process.
After usability study
All Mockups
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High-fidelity Prototype
Guest users
Logged-in users
Takeaways
Impacts
With SFCleanPro, San Francisco citizens no longer have to endure inefficient street cleaning results. As more users participate in the platform, street cleaning robots efficiently remove more waste, assisting the SF sanitation department by saving resources and time in managing the increasing waste rate from the large population in the city.
What I learned
Designing a straightforward servicing platform involves an additional step of considering how to save users time and effort, making the process more efficient in completing tasks. Particularly for this project, I aimed to integrate the design with other elements to enhance versatility, accommodating functions such as robots and AI assistance.
Next steps in the future
1
Consider envisioning how the terminal would function as the sanitation department's control center, overseeing and reviewing the activities of the cleaning robots.
2
Explore additional possibilities and potential functions for the cleaning robot app's portal, considering a broader range of services that the portal can provide to users.
3
Conduct additional testing for requesting the cleaning service and identify areas where usability can be enhanced.