Maker's Shack is a material trading platform designed to help makers and creatives increase the utilization rate of materials and reduce waste.
Makers and creatives often find themselves in the situation of accumulating different types of materials that they don't always end up using. It results in storage shortage and material waste. There's not yet a good solution for trading second-hand materials that makes it a convenient and repeatable process.
With a second-hand material trading platform, makers can get what they need at a low price and let go of what they don't. They can also keep an inventory of what they have at hand and manage their supply with ease. The additional social functions let users share their work and find inspiration.
The user research for this project was done by our 3-person team. We investigated the material utilization, recycling, and reuse in the maker community, with the goal of identifying the problems and needs that makers have with materials.
Specifically, We interviewed some independent designers and makers in the bay area as well as directors of makerspaces to get a sense of how professional makers budget their material use and deal with waste. We based our interview on the following research questions and got some valuable insights from our interviewees.
What our interviewees said
From our interviews, we learned that "hoarding" is a common practice for makers due to uncertain future needs and lower unit price. As a result, storage becomes a common problem because they wouldn't quickly get through what they have in storage while they accumulate other new materials. Some makers develop their own ways to make use of scrap and get the most out of their materials, others actively exchange extra material with peers or give away spare material on Craigslist. But in general, there's still a concern about how to keep a balance between having enough supplies and storage space, and how to discard no longer needed materials properly. Based on the findings, we created two personas to illustrate the makers' needs and pain points regarding their material utilization, waste, and recycling.
After the research project, I started thinking about a design solution that help makers deal with their spare materials and reduce waste. I wrote down some "how might we" questions to explore the possible directions.
With these questions in mind, I came up with some ideas for a platform with material logging, sharing and project browsing features.
Brainstorm
After consolidating my ideas, I decided that the app would need the following
main features:
1)
Post and browse second-hand material;
2) Communicate with other users to establish a transaction;
3) Establish
a personal inventory system for better organization;
4)
Share project ideas based on scavenged material.
User Flow
After solidifying the userflow, I fleshed out the key screens and interactions of the application.
The user could freely browse available material offers in the shack and add preferences to filter results. On the detail page for each posting, the user could view images, description, and see reference products online. For additional information, the user could directly message the owner or post a public question so other people could also see.
While messaging with the owner, people could ask about ways to utilize the material as well as discussing how they could hand off the material if they decide to take it.
To add a material listing, the user would upload a few images and fill in the information about the material. The user could either add the material to their inventory, as a way to document and sort their material storage, or mark the price, location, and handling method to post it to the platform. The user could check their inventory for the material they posted and received.
There's also a community gallery section for users to share the projects they did, which could spark more inspirations for how different materials could be utilized.