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Galaxy Upcycling at Home
UX DESIGN · SERVICE DESIGN · DESIGN FOR CIRCULAR TRANSFORMATION
INTRODUCTION
In early 2017, Samsung launched Galaxy Upcycling Project to reduce E-waste. Being an open-source platform, it relied heavily on a user's desire to upcycle, & questionable carbon footprint reduction to gain traction as a sustainable practice. In 2019, We were tasked to improve upon the Upcycling Platform by designing a new Sustainable Service aimed at reducing E-waste while upcycling smartphones in a more efficient & cost-effective way while making users mindful of their indulgent consumption.
MY ROLE
THE TEAM
TIME LINE
Responsible for conceptualisation, Research analysis, Product design, Design systems, delivery of key modules and feature areas.
2+ designers, 2 product managers, 8+ engineers.
June 2019 — Feb 2020
My Role as the UX Designer was to come up with a upcycling service that is sustainable with zero e-waste generated & minimal backstage actions & service processes
BACKGROUND
As we think about sustainability,
perhaps the biggest challenge facing humankind is to coexist with nature
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
Where does your old phone go when you buy a new one?
A Transformation Design take on User Psychology
UNBOXED
6 MONTHS
12 MONTHS
18 MONTHS
24 MONTHS
30 MONTHS
36 MONTHS
Full Capacity
Apps Lagging & Crashing
Dropped & Spilled liquid
Too long to take a Photo
Vertical Lines in Display
Battery doesn't last a Day
Dropped one too many times
USER'S EMOTIONS
"Phone's getting slower & slower"
"Damn I dropped my phone & it broke"
''Getting tired of carrying a charger"
''Oh God! My phone looks so old!"
AFTER THE NEW PHONE ARRIVES
User Gaslighting Self
Visual
Appeal Compromised
Functional
Appeal Compromised
User Satisfaction
Re-evaluation
''Lemme Keep it in the drawer while I decide what to do with it"
User in Denial about the old phone's value
ANTICIPATED ACTIONS
Secondary Backup Phone
Give it to a Family Member/Friend in need
PERCIEVED VALUE TO USER
Market Price (Before Unboxing)
LessThan
Market Price (Once Unboxed)
THE FATE OF THE OLD PHONE
Sell Phone For Refurbishing E-Commerce
Exchange for a Discount in new Phone Price
E-Waste
50% of
Market Price
15% of
Market Price
PERCIEVED VALUE CLOSE TO ZERO
PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTICS
Depreciation of Functional & Aesthetic Appeal reduces the Perceived Value of the sample
& the Perceived Value directly affects the Carbon Footprint post phone lifecycle
OBJECTIVE
India's E-Waste Scenario
Being the second largest electronics market in the world, India is yet to have a e-waste management infrastructure
45 million tons of e-waste/ year
82% of it is Handheld Devices
According to the 2017 Global E-waste Monitor, nearly 45 million metric tons of e-waste is discarded annually.
Finding innovative ways to repurpose older devices will save more tech from ending up in landfills, conserve considerable amounts of resources, and ultimately create a more sustainable future.
E-wasted is disposed by the 'Unorganized Sector' which is a major cause of Pollution
India is also the 3rd largest producer of e-waste in the world
VALUE ESTIMATION OF OPTIONS
Is it really worth dumping based on it's 'Perceived Value' or is there hidden potential in recently generated E-waste?
SOLUTION PROSPECTING
Possible User Journeys
Based on the Carbon Footprint Vs Business Value we started an exhaustive process of 'selection by elimination' to categorise Green-Solutions by the Business Value
REUSE
REFUSE
REDUSE
REPAIR
RESELL
RECYCLE
REPURPOSE
Too late to give it to a Family Member/Friend in need
Impossible,
as in this case, everyone needs a phone
Needs Insight & Realization on user's part in Consumption
Impossible as at this point Repair costs > Perceived Value
Impossible as at this point Resell Value > Perceived Value
Not a good option in SWA market as most of it is
done by the
Unorganized Sector
Cant be done without Severe Depreciation of Perceived Value/ More Carbon Footprint
WHILE COMMUNICATING GALAXY AS A POSITIVE BRAND FOR CAPTURING A GREEN-CONSIOUS MARKET SHARE
REFURBISH
Good option for the refurbisher/reseller & buyer but not enough incentive for the User-Seller without more consumption benefits
UPCYCLE
Good option
for the refurbisher/
reseller & buyer but not enough incentive for the User-Seller
Upcycling preserves many of an original product’s materials, reworking or reconstructing them to give the product a new function.
What has been Samsung doing so far?
Headquartered in Seoul, the Galaxy Upcycling team (C-Lab) explores simple, ‘do-it-yourself’ ways for people to repurpose older Galaxy devices.
A FUNDUS CAMERA
Samsung 'Eyelike™'
BRIEF
Samsung’s EYELIKE™ Fundus Camera Repurposes Galaxy Smartphones to Improve Access to Eye Care
TARGET REGIONS
Vietnam
Papua New Guinea
Morocco
India
YEAR
April 2017
— Present
TEACHING AN OLD PHONE NEW TRICKS
Galaxy Upcycling (2017)
BRIEF
Upcycling is the process of finding new and useful applications for old items or devices. The purpose was twofold: unlock phones’ bootloaders—and foster an
open source marketplace of applications for makers.
TARGET REGIONS
Vietnam
Papua New Guinea
Morocco
India
YEAR
April 2017 — Present
01
OPEN SOURCE
The project operates on an open-platform principle, encouraging people outside the Samsung customer base to create their own IoT devices using old Galaxy smartphones.
02
BROWSE PLATFORM
Only a few years old, most phones were still too smart to be gathering dust in drawers at home.
Equipped with built-in cameras and network modules, they could still take pictures and connect to the internet. A search of the platform could help the user gauge his phone specs vs his needs for a device
03
IOT DEVICE
With these functions, the user quickly realizes that the Galaxy phone could be attached to everyday items, transforming them from unconnected objects into a whole range of IoT devices.
Galaxy Upcycling solutions were exhibited at Samsung Developer Conference 2017, encouraging visitors to think twice before throwing out smart devices
WEAKNESSES
What went wrong with the Upcycling Program?
Based on some of the Upcycling Ideas by the C-team
01
02
03
04
05
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Smart Pet Feeder with CCTV
GalOwl: Home IOT assistant
Bitcoin Miner Cluster
Smart Fish Tank Monitors
SMART FISH TANK MONITORS
REQUIRES MORE CARBON FOOTPRINT IN THE PROCESS
ADDS A WHOLE NEW PRODUCT TO BE UPCYCLED AGAIN
REQUIRES A LOT OF MOTIVATION/ WORK FOR THE USER TO UPCYCLE IT
01
UPCYCLING IN THIS CONTEXT SHOULD IDEALLY ADD NO PLASTICS/TECH
02
INSTEAD OF REPRACING ONE ADDS A WHOLE NEW PRODUCT
03
SHOULD'NT NEED ANY MORE EFFORT OUTSIDE USING THE PHONE
BENCHMARKING
The electronics market is flooded with semi-smart product categories potentially increasing e-waste in the future
Opportunities For Improvement
Add no extra plastics
Adding a physical body to the upcycling program has been deemed as mistake so far
Add no new product
Adding a new product category to many existing ones makes for a myopic solution for e-waste
Satisfying basic circularity
Has to satisfy the basics of circularity by repurposing an old product with minimal waste & money/footprint saved from replacing of other purchases
Add no extra chores
The Skeuomorphic hub interface would have a high recall value across the Target User Groups & help them align the interface with products functionality
Insights into Consumption
Provides Insight of the User's Consumption Patterns
Galaxy Ecosystem's Image
Has to add to the image of Samsung Galaxy as a conscious & responsible mobile manufacturer
FINAL CONCEPT
Upcycling an old phone into a new gadget
The SmartThings Labs provides a collection of experimental features, developed in-house by SmartThings, to test out user feedback on new service offerings. It opens up various possibilities for users to expand their smart living experience.
UPCYCLED DEVICE
OLD PHONE
SMARTTHINGS LAB
The old phone as so much more potential to offer in terms of sensors, camera, screen & raw computational power
Users can transform their old devices through SmartThings Labs, a feature within the SmartThings app
Reborn as an upcycled device
HOW TO UPCYCLE OLD DEVICES THAT A PILING UP AT HOME EVERYTIME YOU BUY A NEW PHONE
KEY FEATURE
What if every old phone in the house could be an IoT Device
We also started working on every possible iterations of the remaining features & what they could bring to the table
The User Journey comprises of the user onboarding an old phone into the Galaxy Upcycling at home program
To set up a Samsung phone as an upcycled sensor, you need a Galaxy-branded Samsung smartphone from 2018 or newer. Technically, you should also have a new Galaxy-branded smartphone to assist with setup, but there is a workaround for that. Both phones need SmartThings and the latest software updates installed.
01
NEW DEVICE, utilizes SmartThings Lab to set up as a IoT control for old device
02
OLD DEVICE, onboards itself through Wi-Fi follows a simple set up to become a new device
The pilot user stories revolved around converting old devices into sensor products for remote home monitoring
Using an improved artificial intelligence (AI) solution, Galaxy devices can more accurately distinguish sounds in everyday surroundings, and users can choose to save certain sound recordings. For example, if the device detects sounds such as a baby crying, dog barking, cat meowing, or a knock, it will send an alert directly to the user’s smartphone and the user can listen to the recorded sound.
CHALLENGES
Battery Optimization
For a device to continuously detect sound and light, it needs to be actively operating for long periods of time. For this reason, Samsung equipped the Galaxy Upcycling at Home upgrade with battery optimization solutions to minimize battery usage.
REFLECTIONS
We have seen a surge of thoughts & ideas about upcycling since the day of our secondary research on this project.
Based on the Carbon Footprint Vs Business Value we started an exhaustive process of 'selection by elimination' to categorise Green-Solutions by the Business Value
MOUSE PAD
PHOTO FRAME
NINTENDO GAME BOY
REMOTE CONTROL
HOME AI ASSITANT
E-BOOK READER
DESK CALENDER
And the best part is, this is only the beginning, more ideas are yet to come. Better ones. That belong to no one. An open platform, exactly as the dream of the first upcycling team.
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