Graduation Portfolio

Graduation Portfolio
A digital solution towards a waste-free city
NON-CONFIDENTIAL Program: International Communication

Name: Matteo Sabbatini Company supervisor: Thomas Miedema
Student number: 342124 University supervisor: Mart Wegman
University: Hanzehogeschool Second supervisor: Nico Barning
School: Communication, Media & IT Date: June 11th, 2019
A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 1

Written by
Matteo Sabbatini
Hanze University of Applied Sciences

School of Communication, Media & IT
BA International Communication
Company supervisor: Thomas Miedema

University supervisor: Mart Wegman
Second supervisor: Nico Barning
Student number: 342124

Date of submission: 11/06/2019
2 Graduation Portfolio
Executive Summary
This graduation portfolio is a collection of all towards a waste-free city if the communication
six phases of Design Thinking Research. The product…
purpose is to develop a communication product
that contributes in solving a problem in the client 1...allows young citizens to track their own
organization, Gemeente Groningen - the city waste consumption.
government of Groningen - Waste Management
Department. 2...aims at further informing and educating
the target group on ways to reuse, reduce and
Gemeente Groningen has an ambitious recycle waste.
environmental goal: to make the city waste-
free - meaning that no waste is incinerated and 3...delivers further information on ways to
it is either reused or recycled - by 2025. To do easily recycle paper, textiles and particularly
so, good communication with the population is chemicals and organic waste.
needed and this assignment will focus on the
younger share of citizens, aging from 15 to 35 4...has notifications about sustainable waste
years old. consumption tips and stories that are released
once a week. Users can change the frequency
The assignment was commissioned with the in ‘Settings’.
intent of identifying ways to increase cooperation
between young citizens and city government, so 5...takes into account the different cultural
that they can work together towards the same backgrounds of the target group and provided
environmental objective. This is done by making information should also be in English.
civilians more aware of the client’s ambitious
goal and actions towards it and by educating 6...further informs the target group about the
and facilitating behavior change towards reusing, municipality’s mission objective and its existing
reducing and recycling waste. Furthermore, efforts in achieving this goal.
the client wished to take a digital approach on
communication. 7...the communication product’s strategy
takes into account the preferred social media
To explore how to change behavior and how to channels.
spread awareness, three analyses have been
carried. The Needs Analysis, to analyze the needs 8...triggers behavior change on waste
of the target group in terms of communication and consumption by complying with the Fogg
messages; the Functional Analysis, to identify best Behavior Model: motivation, ability, prompts.
practices, theories and techniques that worked
well in the past for the client; the Context Analysis, 9...triggers behavior change on waste
to delve into the external factors which might consumption by using the 4 pillars: informing,
influence the communication product’s design. engaging, making it easy, challenging.
The research resulted in 13 design requirements
that serve as a guideline in designing the product. 10...triggers behavior change on waste
These are: consumption by focusing on the ability to share
progress on social media.
Gemeente Groningen can improve cooperation
between young citizens and city government 11...engages and educates the target group by

using 3 principles: relate, create and donate - survey sent to the target group to finalize certain
by focusing on technology. aspects and to get confirmation whether the
target group would use such a product or not.
12...has messages that only use a positive tone The results of both testings end up with positive
of voice. results and with one modified design requirement
(number 5) and completely new one:
13...builds up on one (or more) of the nationally
prescribed pillars for sustainable waste 14…[the communication product]...allows
consumption. users to search waste items that display in
which recycling bin that item should be thrown.
These design requirements are then translated
into a creative concept: to enhance the functional Lastly, the strategy for implementing the mobile
mobile app, that Gemeente Groningen is app and ensuring that Groningen’s young citizens
developing for its citizens, so that it can become a are aware of it, so that they can download it and
portal for education and awareness on sustainable start using it, is presented.
waste consumption. The technicalities of such
product are discussed in a business canvas.
The mobile app, which originally allows users to

locate nearby waste collection bins and to check
for collection dates on the waste calendar, is
complemented with new communication functions
which add:
• A portal for awareness on the client’s
organizational goal and actions taken towards
it.
• A completely redesigned waste information
page with two subsections with educational
purpose:
• ‘Learn’, where users can learn more
about each waste type by reading general
information, tips on how to be more
sustainable and stories to find out what
happens to waste.
• ‘Play’, where users can take small quizzes, or
more complicated challenges, to learn more
which playing. Users are rewarded for taking
challenges.
Notifications with the aim of:

• Reminding users on ways to reduce, reuse,
recycle.
• Notifying users about new educational games.
• Spreading awareness on new achievements
reached by Gemeente Groningen towards the
organizational goal.
• Users are allowed to personalize the frequency
of such reminders based on their own
communication needs.
The designs are tested twice. The first testing is

a focus group with four experts in the fields of
International Communication, Artificial Intelligence
and Environmental Law. The second testing is a
Table of Contents
Graduation Portfolio
Chapter 1: Orientation 7
01. Project Description 8
02. Problem Description 11
03. Client Goals 13
04. Role of Communication 15
05. Time Plan 16
Chapter 2: Research 18
01. Research Strategy 20
02. Needs Analysis 22
03. Functional Analysis 29
04. Context Analysis 36
05. Design Document 39
Chapter 3: Developement 44
01. Creative Concept 44
02. Business Case 46
03. Business Canvas 47
Chapter 4: Design 50
Chapter 5: Evaluation 56
01. Evaluation 56
02. Implementation 60
Chapter 6: Final Product 64
Chapter 7: Reflection 70
Appendices 74
I. Appendix A 76
II. Appendix B 80
III. Appendix C 97
IV. Appendix D 99
V. Appendix E 101
Anti-plagiarism Statement 102

Chapter 1:
Orientation
This chapter contains the Project Initiation Document (PID) which
purpose is to define the project and the problem which the final
product of this graduation assignment will contribute in solving,
as well as provide clear communication objectives together
with concrete measurable goals. The organization (Gemeente
Groningen) for which the project is carried for is also discussed in
the following.
WORD COUNT: 2023
Table of Contents
Orientation
01 Project Description 8
1.1 - A Waste-free City 8
1.2 - Recycling, Reducing, Reusing 8
1.3 - Current Situation 9
1.4 - Target Group 9
1.5 - Structure & Styles of Communication 9
1.6 - Contact Person 9
02 Problem Description 11
2.1 - Problem Statement 11
03 Client Goals 13
3.1 - Main Goal 13
3.2 - Sub-goals 13
3.3 - Measurable Goals 13
3.4 - Influencing Factors 14
04 Role of Communication 15
4.1 - Communication Objectives 15
05 Time Plan 16
06 References 17

Project Description
1.1 — A Waste-Free City (Miedema, T., personal interview, February 26th,

Gemeente Groningen is the municipal government 2019).
of the city of Groningen, The Netherlands. Its tasks Recycling (1) means that garbage is separated in
include the preparation of local regulations and are the waste separation factory located south of the
predisposed with legal and financial means to apply city, and then re-fabricated to create new items
and administer decisions and regulations (“Roles out of the recycled materials. This seems like the
and responsibilities of municipal government,” n.d.). best option in order to achieve the city’s objective
however, a few limitations threaten it.
Concerning waste consumption, the city of By 2020 the contract with the current separation
Groningen has an ambitious goal that entails plant utilized by the city will expire, by
turning Groningen into a 100% waste free city by consequence, Gemeente Groningen will have to
2025 and the organization is taking extra steps open another contract which could change the
towards this objective. In fact, it uses 6 main way garbage is handled. If a new plan with no
nationally prescribed pillars to tackle behavior separation facilities will be contracted, then the
change in its favor (Impulsplan Zwerfafval municipality will have to create education programs
Groningen, 2017). These include: to train the civilians on how to separate their waste.
• Influencing behavior This could be a rather negative outcome as citizens
• Participation and remuneration are not used to separating garbage on their own;
• Smart facilities the result could be a rather time-consuming and
• Incentives to influence expensive paradigm shift, as educational programs
• Smart management will be required. Furthermore, the municipality
• Smart devices cannot exclusively rely on recycling as a mean to
achieve its 2025 goal. This is because some items
‘Influencing behavior’ as well as ‘smart devices’ that are easily purchasable cannot be recycled,
are the two chosen focal points to contribute to thus making the ambitious goal of Gemeente
achieving this ambitious organizational goal in Groningen more complicated and harder to
this assignment. This will be done by influencing achieve. For instance turpentine, a chemical used
existing behaviors linked to waste consumption to clean and eliminate paint residues on brushes,
so that civilians can help the municipality reach its cannot be recycled and needs to be disposed in
goal, triggering cooperation and the achievement predefined containers. More examples include
of a shared interest: a more sustainable living batteries or plastic bottle caps.
environment. Reusing (2) garbage entails reusing waste such as
electronic components or glass bottles. By doing
1.2 — Recycling Reducing Reusing so, the city virtually disposes less waste, and there
Gemeente Groningen’s waste management is a lesser need for incineration of materials.
branch’s main goal is to turn Groningen into a Reducing (3) waste is the last option for the
100% waste free city by 2025; this entails that all municipality to meet its goal. This is an important
garbage produced by the city is either reused or alternative to the previous two options as it tackles
recycled as opposed to being incinerated. This goal the problem at the source. Less garbage means
is part of a plan to reduce CO2 emissions in the less need for recycling, separating or reusing
country and to reach the goal set by the national materials. Concerning the reduction of waste, the
government of The Netherlands. city has multiple programs and communication
When it comes to achieving such a goal, three campaigns which are handled by Miriam Hall’s
things can be done: recycling, reusing, reducing division, program manager, she is responsible for
developing and directing the 2025 waste-free city Whereas internal communication is generally
objective. achieved through emails and meetings, for external
communication, Miriam Hall’s division is charged
1.3 — Current Situation with delivering messages about waste within
Currently, of civilian-produced waste, 59% of it is the city. The division has various projects and
being reused or recycled whereas 41% is being communication campaigns to target all age ranges.
incinerated (Miedema, T., personal interview, Education and information about waste reduction
February 26th, 2019). If Gemeente Groningen start in junior school where young children are
manages to engage individuals to be part of this easier to educate, this is generally done by
waste-free city transition, these numbers can be environmental stewards who jump from school to
reduced from the source and it gives more time school to send the message across. Teenagers
for the municipality to tackle a different parallel are where things get complicated; they are a much
problem: waste coming from private and public more difficult group to target and the municipality
organizations. Actually, ‘Company waste’ is does not actively target this group. Dutch and
generally perceived as a different waste flow, and international students are targeted through posters,
the numbers for incineration rates are much higher, pamphlets, leaflets; for example during the KEY
meaning that further measures need to be taken. week or by using organizations such as SSH,
international student housing, as an intermediary
1.4 — Target Group channel to reach international students.
Two main groups will be targeted for this graduation According to Miriam Hall (2019), the general rule
assignment. to target students is: informing, making it easy,
Firstly, a group ranging from 15 to 25-year-olds encouraging, challenging. Lastly, expats are not
will be the main target. This is the hardest group actively targeted because they represent a minor
to educate about waste consumption; however, segment of the population. However, it is useful
it is the group most likely to feel comfortable in to point out that they can be generally found in
adopting new technologies. This includes both the main international companies: Shell, GasUnie,
Dutch teenagers, Dutch students as well as University of Groningen, Hanzehogeschool, UMCG
international students, which represent a large or IBM CIC. The Dutch population is targeted with
percentage of the total student population of regular communication campaigns. Moreover, the
the city. Thus, it will be important to take into tone of voice used is always positive, as negative
consideration cultural differences. toned messages have been proven to be less
Secondly, a group ranging from 25 to 35-year- effective (Hall, M., personal interview, March 25th,
olds will represent the secondary target group. 2019).
This cluster includes the young working force
of the population. This specific target group has Concerning intercultural communication, Gemeente
been chosen following an interview with Miriam Groningen is taking extra steps to take into
Hall, where it came up that students and younger consideration all communities. Even though there
civilians are harder for Gemeente Groningen to is a Dutch governmental policy that doesn’t allow
target (more info in 1.5 - Structure and Styles of municipalities to deliver messages in a language
Communication). This is therefore a wish of the other than Dutch, Miriam Hall’s division decided to
client and a need of the client organization. ignore it given the large international community
in the city to make the right messages were
1.5 — Structure and Styles of Communication understood by all citizens. Still, there is room for
Gemeente Groningen’s organizational structure can improvement. According to Miriam Hall, different
be identified as rather hierarchical, in the sense that cultures that are more receptive to certain styles
there are many layers of supervision. For instance, of communication over others, are not addressed
when someone comes up with an idea, approval appropriately; currently, the only differentiation is
is needed by many people, making things slow, between Dutch and international citizens.
a characteristic of governmental organizations.
Nevertheless, the actual perceived structure is rather 1.6 — Contact Person
flat. Employees are direct to each other and easy to Specific information about the organization is
approach, they use a rather informal tone, and the provided by the contact person, Thomas Miedema
general organizational culture is friendly and open who works in the business management office of
(Hall, M., personal interview, March 25th, 2019). Gemeente Groningen and acts as client supervisor.

Regular meetings are arranged to ensure the
correct execution of this project, provide internal
data and to connect the student with other
stakeholders in the organization. Furthermore, he is
the person with whom all goals have been agreed
upon. Multiple meetings have been arranged to
rectify the validity of all goals and objectives so that
they are in line with the client organization’s wishes.
Problem Description
2.1 — Problem Statement

The problem statement is the following:
“
How to involve young civilians in the waste-free city transition so that
they can help in leading towards Gemeente Groningen’s 2025 mission
objective - without the municipality losing its influence as a leader in
sustainability and waste management.”
Figure 1 - Problem Description Model (based on De Haan & De Heer, 2015)
External stakeholders
• NL + regional government
• Private/public organizations
• Citizens
• Schools/universities
Internal stakeholders
• Miriam Hall
• Luchiena Lanjouw Dilemma
Undesired situation How to involve civilians in
• Anneke Oostra
Groningen loses influence the waste free city transition
• Thomas Miedema
as a leader in successful without the city losing
waste management influence as a leader in
& sustainability in the waste management.
Netherlands because the
waste-free city objective is
not met by 2025. The desired situation is not
easily reached because: Problem
• The city has no tools How to involve young
GAP to educate and engage civilians in the waste-free
civilians to reuse / reduce city transition so that they
waste. can help in leading towards
Desired situation
• Young audiences are Gemeente Groningen’s 2025
Cooperation between city
harder to target & need mission objective - without
government and (young)
extra incentives to be the municipality losing its
civilians contribute in
willing to be educated on influence as a leader in
achieving Gemeente
environmental issues or to sustainability and waste
Groningen’s organizational
change their behaviour. management.
goal.
• Some materials cannot be
recycled and civilians are
not always aware of it.
• Separation plant contract
is bound to expire in 2020.
This could change the
way waste is handled by
civilians.

Figure 2 - Stakeholder Map
Gemeente
Level of influence
Groningen
Schools &
Central & Regional Universities
Government
Level of interest
Citizens
Public & Private

Organizations
Stakeholders other than the client include:

• Central and regional government for being interested in sustainable
solutions that drive towards the goal of waste-free cities.
• Schools and universities as the nature of the assignment is educational.
• Citizens for being the target group.
• Private and public organizations for being a piece of the puzzle in trying to
achieve a waste-free city.
Client Goals
The following set of goals have been operationalized and agreed upon together with
the client supervisor, Thomas Miedema, over a span of 3 three intake meetings. The
organization’s wishes have been taken into consideration above all.
3.1 — Main Goal (Desired Situation)
Gain the support of Groningen’s civilians in regards to the municipality’s waste-free city
transition objective by involving them in the transition by raising awareness on ways to
effectively reduce and reuse waste in households in a way that appeals young civilians.
3.2 — Sub-Goals
01. Raise awareness about Gemeente Groningen’s organizational goal.
02. Create a digital communication tool to guide civilians in the waste-free city
transition and to encourage cooperation between citizens and city government.
03. Establish a two-way communication between civilians and city government for the
sharing of feedback, ideas, and data.
3.3 — Measurable Goals

01. All higher education institutions in the city of Groningen support and promote the
waste transition. (UG, Hanze).
02. Increase awareness amongst international students and expats - measurable
through surveys and interviews.
03. Generate Dutch local media coverage with at least 5 newspapers per year to
promote the transition.
04. The communication product reaches the same downloads as the
‘afvalwijzer’(23,000*) over 2 year.
05. Obtain a digital tool rating of 3.8/5 star, over 2 years following the implementation
of the communication product.
06. Gather at least 100 ideas/feedback submissions from Groningen’s citizens over
one year.
07. Gather survey data from at least 400 users over one year.
*Note that: this measurable goal is based on the number of downloads of the ‘afvalwijzer’ (a downloadable
document containing a calendar of waste collection) over one year, the original number of downloads is
46,000 but only half of that amount of downloads will be considered for this mobile app as a realistic and

Figure 3 - Goal Tree
Main Goal
Gain the support of Groningen’s civilians in regards to the municipality’s waste-free city
transition objective by involving them in the transition by raising awareness on ways to
effectively reduce and reuse waste in households in a way that appeals young civilians.
Sub-Goal 1 Sub-Goal 2 Sub-Goal 3

Raise awareness about Create a digital Establish a two-way
Gemeente Groningen’s communication tool to communication between
organizational goal - 2025 guide civilians in the civilians and city
waste-free city. waste-free city transition. government.
Measurable Goals Measurable Goals Measurable Goals

• All 3 higher education • The communication • Gather at least
institutions in the city product reaches the 100 ideas/feedback
of Groningen actively same downloads as the submissions from
promote the waste ‘afvalwijzer’(23,000*) Groningen’s citizens over
transition. over 2 year. one year.
• Increase awareness • Obtain a digital tool • Gather survey data
amongst international rating of 3.8/5 star, over from at least 400 users
students and expats 2 years following the over one year.
(measurable through implementation of the
surveys and interviews). communication product.
• Generate Dutch local
media coverage with
at least 5 newspapers
per year to promote the
transition.
3.4 — Influencing factors
With the help of the de Haan and de Heer’s framework, it is possible to identify
the main influencing factors that have a repercussion of the measurable goals in
order to figure out what the role of communication will be (de Haan & de Heer,
2015). By taking into consideration the client’s main wishes, the graduation
assignment will focus on the measurable goals 04 and 01 (by order of priority).
Figure 4 - Goals and Influencing Factors

Influencing Factors
1st Chosen Measurable Goal • Level of awareness of existance of product
Communication • Level of awareness of product purpose
product reaches 23,000 • Level of interest about waste consumption
downloads over 2 year. • Product branding & appeal
• Online & offline promotion
Influencing Factors
2nd Chosen Measurable Goal • Level of interest in sustainable activities
Active promotion of • Perceived benefit of sustainable activities
Groningen’s organizational • Level of awareness of organizational goal
goal by universities. • Availability of content and ease of implementation
• Cost of promotion
Role of Communication
4.1 — Communication Objectives

The measurable goals’ results can contribute in achieving the main goal:
Establish a communication strategy to gain the support of Groningen’s civilians
in regards to the municipality’s waste-free city transition objective by raising
awareness on ways to effectively reduce and reuse waste in households.
Accordingly, the communication objectives are the following.
01. Raise awareness on Gemeente Groningen’s organizational goal - to make

the city waste-free by 2025 - and actions the municipality took towards it.
02. Inspire behavior change towards sustainable waste consumption amongst

Groningen’s young citizens so that more waste is recycled, reused or
reduced.

Time Plan
Phase Deadlines Tasks Communication Resources

01. Orientation Internal: March 11th • Project description • First intake meeting • Access to Google Suite
Official: March 11th • Problem description with Miriam Hall, • Access to Adobe CC
Project Initiation • Sub-goals & Luchiena Lanjouw,
Document Duration: 2 weeks measurable doals Luminita Stoica The student has access
• Communication • Two intake meetings to these tools, therefore
Go, no go moment objectives with Thomas Miedema no budget is needed
• Time plan
02. Research Internal: April 21st • Needs analysis • Interviews with • Access to Google Suite
Official: June 11th • Functional analysis stakeholders (Miriam • Access to Adobe CC
Research Report • Context analysis Hall, Luchiena Lanjouw,
Duration: 3 weeks • Design requirements Anneke Oostra) & target The student has access
• Personas group to these tools, therefore
• User Journeys • Survey with target no budget is needed
• Empathy maps group
03. Development Internal: May 5th • Creative Concept • Presentation with • Access to Google Suite
Official: May 5th • Business Canvas Thomas Miedema, Mart • Access to Adobe CC
Creative Concept • Presentation Wegman
Business Case Duration: 2 weeks The student has access
to these tools, therefore
Go, no go moment no budget is needed
04. Design Internal: May 26th • Lo-fi & Hi-fi • Expert consultation • Access to Google Suite
Official: June 11th wireframing • Access to Adobe CC
Prototype + • Visual design
Final prototype Duration: 3 weeks The student has access
nb: Phases 4 & 5 are to these tools, therefore
simultanuous no budget is needed
05. Evaluation Internal: May 26th • Focus group • Expert consultation • Access to Google Suite
Official: June 11th • User survey • Advisory Role • Access to Adobe CC
Evaluation Report
Duration: 3 weeks The student has access
nb: Phases 4 & 5 are to these tools, therefore
simultanuous no budget is needed
06. Reflection Internal: June 3rd Reflection on: • Access to Google Suite
Official: June 11th • Research execution • Access to Adobe CC
Reflection Report • Advisory role
Duration: 1 week • Communication The student has access
• Collaboration to these tools, therefore
no budget is needed
References
Gemeente Groningen (2017). Impulsplan Zwerfafval Groningen 2013-2022.

Internal document: unpublished.
Hall, M. (2019, March). Personal Communication. (Sabbatini, M., Interviewer)

Miedema, T. (2019, February). Personal Communication. (Sabbatini, M.,
Interviewer)
Roles and responsibilities of provincial government, municipal government and

water authorities. (n.d.).
Retrieved from: https://www.government.nl

Chapter 2:
Research
This chapter includes the research report and the design
document.
WORD COUNT: 4,986
Table of Contents
Research
01 Research Strategy 20
1.1 - Introduction 20
1.2 - Problem Statement 20
1.3 - Research Objective 20
1.4 - Research Approach 20
02 Needs Analysis 22
2.2 - Research Questions 24
2.3 - Research Methodology 24
2.4 - Research Results 24
2.5 - Conclusions 27
2.6 - Design Requirements 28
03 Functional Analysis 29
04 Context Analysis 36
05 Design Document 39
06 References 41

Research Strategy
1.1 — Introduction
The purpose of the research report is to explore how the target group - in this
case, young civilians (Dutch and international) of Groningen - can be involved
in the waste-free city transition.
The research will be divided in 3 main analyses which will result in design
requirements:
• Needs Analysis: aims at discovering the needs of the target group; its
demographic and psychographic characteristics as well as its pains and
frustrations.
• Functional Analysis: aims at finding out how the communication product
should be designed; which are the common practices and which are the
failures coming from previous attempts and products.
• Context Analysis: aims at pointing out the preconditions which can have an
impact on the communication product and how it is designed.
The purpose of the design document is to summarize all design requirements

that have been outlined by the research.
1.2 — Problem Statement

How to involve young civilians in the waste-free city transition so that they
can help in leading towards Gemeente Groningen’s 2025 mission objective -
without the municipality losing its influence as a leader in sustainability and
waste management.
1.3 — Research Objective

The research objective is to produce a set of design requirements for a
communication strategy for Gemeente Groningen to improve cooperation
between young civilians and city government in the waste-free city transition
by making an analysis on the (communication) needs of the target group
(1), identifying best practices with regards to behavior change (2) and
preconditions likely to impact the strategy and design of the communication
product (3).
1.4 — Research Approach

This research follows the guidelines of Design Thinking Research. The
following is an exploratory research that will use research tools such as
qualitative and quantitative research - using both primary and secondary data
sources - as well as design thinking tools such as personas and empathy
maps. Preliminary research and preliminary (and final) design thinking tools
are used to come up with key concepts which ultimately serve as a framework
to craft research questions as well as survey and interview questions. Below
(Figure 5 - Research Approach) is a visualization and summary of how the
research has been carried out.
Figure 5 - Research Approach
Design Thinking Research
Needs Analysis Functional Analysis Context Analysis
Creative Tools Creative Tools Research Tools

• Proto personas • Final personas • PEST analysis
• Proto empathy map • Final empathy map • SWOT analysis
Key Concepts Key Concepts

• Demographics of target • Motivation, ability
group and triggers
• Enablers of behavior • Relate, create, donate
change: • Strength of previous
• Attitude, communication products:
subjective • Inform, engage,
norm, perceived make it easy and
behavioral control, challenge
and intention • Good practices for
• Cognitive factors behavior change in
• Awareness and mobile apps
knowledge
Research Tools
Research Tools • Stakeholder interview
• Survey • Desk research
• Observation

Needs Analysis
The Needs Analysis identifies the needs of the target group in terms
of communication. This allows to explore the target group’s pains and
frustrations, attitudes and standpoints towards a subject.
In this case the aim is to find out the needs of Groningen’s young citizens to
achieve the desired situation - to contribute in increasing cooperation between
citizens and city government.
The research questions have been derived from an application of previous
literature and an observation of preliminary creative thinking tools (see
Appendix B).
Figure 6 - Deriving concepts to research questions (Needs Analysis)
Previous Literature Design Thinking Tools

• Theory of Planned Behavior • Proto personas
• Social Learning Theory • Proto empathy map
Key Concepts
• Demographics of target group
• Enablers of behavior change:
• Attitude, subjective norm, perceived
behavioral control, and intention
• Cognitive factors
• Awareness and knowledge
Research Question
The Theory of Planned Behaviour is a valuable framework in determining the

enablers of the desired behaviour, if those are in place and how communication
can help achieve it. The theory’s concepts are unraveled below (Figure 7).
Figure 7 - Unraveling concepts (Theory of Planned Behavior)
Enablers of Behavior Change
Perceived
Attitude Subjective Norm Behavioral Control Intention
• Interest in • Attitude oof • What makes it • Willingness to

sustainable waste community hard and easy to change
consumption • Social norm recycle, reduce, • Willingness to
• Current towards waste reuse learn more
behavior
The Social Learning Theory adds a component on top of the Theory of Planned
Behaviour, since the information component is missing and it is believed that
further knowledge or awareness is also a necessary component of behavior
change. To avoid overlapping with the previous theory, the Social Learning
Theory has been unraveled as follows (Figure 8).
Figure 8 - Unraveling concepts (Social Learning Theory)

Factors Determining Human Behavior
Environmental Cognitive Behavioral
Knowledge Attitude Awareness
• Ways to reduce, reuse, • Client’s organizational

recycle objective
• Recycling rules • Separation facilities

2.2 — Research Questions 1. Those are the participants aged 36 and above
Main Question (4.9%), and participants living outside Groningen
What do young citizens need in terms of (13.8%).
communication and messages about sustainable
waste consumption in order to undertake the 2.4 — Research Results
desired behavior and therefore be more cooperative Sub-question 1: What are the demographics of
when it comes to achieving the 2025 waste-free the target group?
city objective? 1a. What are the general characteristics of
young citizens?
Sub-questions
1. What are the demographics of the target group? The target group that was taken into consideration
1a. What are the general characteristics of included citizens ranging from 15 to 35 years old.
young citizens? The respondents had to answer a series of general
1b. What is the intercultural background of questions such as age, gender and nationality.
young citizens of Groningen? A valuable insight may be the occupation results
1c. What is the social media use of the (Graph 1). In fact, most respondents have identified
target group? as students (UG and Hanze), 59%. Whereas only
2. What is the general opinion and standpoint of 26% of the respondents identify as employed. This
the target group towards sustainable waste means that, although the age range may vary, most
consumption? young citizens are students.
2a. What is the attitude (or belief) of young
citizens towards sustainable waste Graph 1 - Occupation
consumption?
2b. What can be concluded about
the subjective norm of young
citizens towards sustainable waste
consumption?
3. What is the perceived behavioral control
of the target group over sustainable waste
consumption?
3a. What makes it hard or easy for young
citizens to recycle, reduce and reuse
waste? 1b. What is the intercultural background of
3b. Which of the results to ‘sub-question young citizens of Groningen?
3a’ can be tackled by communication?
4. What is the intention (willingness) of the target With 64 out of 123 respondents identifying as
group towards sustainable waste consumption? Dutch, it is clear that the main nationality is the
5. What are the needs of the target group in terms Dutch (Graph 2). However, the results show that
of awareness and knowledge of Gemeente young citizens feature a widely international
Groningen’s ongoing projects? background.
2.3 — Research Methodology Graph 2 - Nationality

An online survey has been sent out and distributed
to Groningen’s citizens to gather the necessary
data. The survey is divided in 2 sections: the first
contains general information questions to explore
the target group’s characteristics; the second
contains information about the respondents’
opinion and their personal behavior in regards to
waste consumption.
The survey got a total amount of 123 respondents.
However, respondents that did not have the
necessary prerequisites to be part of the sample
were only able to answer questions from section
1c. What is the social media use of the target Graph 6 - Frequency of recycling behavior
group?
The preferred social media channels are Instagram

and Facebook. LinkedIn is the least used social
media channel on a regular basis (Graph 3).
Graph 3 - Frequency of use of social media

channels
However, the main items that are usually recycled

are: paper (77.4%) and glass (81.1%), with textile
(41.5%) being somewhat in the middle. Chemicals
and organic being the least recycled items (Graph 7).
Sub-question 2: What is the general opinion Graph 7 - Most recycled materials

and standpoint of the target group towards
sustainable waste consumption?
2a. What is the attitude (or belief) of young
citizens about sustainable waste consumption?
Groningen’s young civilians are interested in

sustainable waste consumption, with 79.3% having
high interest. Only less than 5% have little to no
interest in the issue (Graph 4).
2b. What is the subjective norm of young
Graph 4 - Interest in sustainable waste consumption citizens towards sustainable waste
consumption?
Sustainable waste consumption is something

that society values and therefore individuals will
recycle, reuse or reduce to fit with the subjective
norm - the norm in society which makes individuals
want to align with others’ behaviors. This can be
seen in Graph 5 where 80% responded positively.
Furthermore, interest in sustainable waste
Young civilians also generally recycle (Graph 5), consumption makes it a subjective norm (Graph 4).
42.5% of the sample states that they do it most
of the time and 22.6% always recycle; only 14.9% Sub-question 3: What is the perceived
almost never or never do it (Graph 6). behavioral control of the target group over
sustainable waste consumption?
Graph 5 - Share of young citizens that recycle 2a. What makes it hard or easy for young
citizens to recycle, reduce and reuse waste?
The most relevant points for ease of recycling were:

There is a huge amount of bins throughout the city
and they are usually located nearby student flats.
The information is clear and people usually receive
it from the Afvalwijzer.
Reusing certain materials, like paper, is simple.
Knowing that recycling contributes to a better world
also makes it easy to recycle.
However, from the following question, it became

clear that not all respondents were thinking about be involved in the waste-free city transition.
recycling in Groningen.
Graph 8 - Willingness to change behavior towards
The most relevant points for difficulties of waste consumption
recycling were:
• It’s hard to recycle large objects; generally
students don’t own a car and the disposing
facilities are far away.
• Young citizens don’t want to go out of their way
to find recycling bins when they are located far
away or when they are not aware of where to
find them.
• Young citizens sometimes live in small houses There is a wish to receive information on ways to be
and therefore have no place to store their more sustainable (Graph 9). However, information
recyclable materials in-house. should be sent either monthly or weekly; yearly for
• Young citizens are unsure of the rules for more important messages (Graph 10).
recycling; for instance, one mentions that pizza
boxes cannot be recycled as paper Graph 9 - Interest in receiving information about
• Information is not always in English; a few sustainable waste consumption
respondents mention that information is
generally in Dutch.
• Laziness is a factor that has been mentioned by
many.
It appears many respondents expressed their ability

to recycle in other countries but are confused on
recycling guidelines in Groningen. Furthermore,
many have noted their frustration regarding the way
general waste is handled; do not know that plastic Graph 10 - Desired frequency of information about
is automatically separated by Gemeente Groningen. sustainable waste consumption
This means more information needs to be provided,
particularly to international students
(Appendix B).
2b. Which of the results to ‘sub-question 3a’ can

be tackled by communication?
Not all elements that contribute to a better
perceived behavioral control can be tackled by
communication. However, communication can help
improving the behavioral control of certain points: Sub-question 5: What are the needs of the target
• Young citizens are unsure of the rules for group in terms of awareness and knowledge of
recycling. Gemeente Groningen’s ongoing projects?
• Information is not always in English.
• Young citizens don’t want to go out of their way Young citizens seem to be rather uninformed on
to find recycling bins when they are not aware what the Gemeente does to achieve its goals.
of where to find them. 56.6% declare to be unaware of Groningen’s waste
separation facilities (Graph 11) and 84.9% are
Sub-question 4: What is the intention unaware of the municipality’s organizational goal
(willingness) of the target group towards (Graph 12). Those who know about it, seem to
sustainable waste consumption? mainly have gotten information from word of mouth,
whereas 4.7% and 5.7% have acknowledged it
Young civilians are willing to change their behaviour from the Afvalwijzer and the news (Graph 13).
and 63.2% wish to make changes in their lives to
carry a sustainable lifestyle; thus, there is a wish to
Graph 11 - Waste separation awareness meaning they might have different communication
needs depending on their background, a mix of
high- and low- context cultures can be identified.
Lastly, the target group’s preferred social media
channels are Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
2. What is the general opinion and standpoint

of the target group towards sustainable waste
consumption?
The general attitude towards sustainable waste
consumption is positive and interest in the topic
Graph 12 - Gemeente Groningen’s organizational is high. Young citizens claim to recycle, reduce
goal awareness and reuse most of the time, although they mainly
recycle paper and glass. Thus, there is a need for
more communication on ways to recycle chemicals,
organics and textile. Another observation is
that many are unaware of Groningen’s ability to
separate plastics therefore citizens should be made
aware of it.
It can be concluded that the subjective norm is to
recycle; there is a certain pressure from society to
be sustainable.
Graph 13 - Mediums for Gemeente Groningen’s 3. What is the perceived behavioral control
organizational goal awareness of the target group over sustainable waste
consumption?
Some factors that negatively impact the
behavioral control cannot be directly tackled by
communication. However, communication can
help improve it if more information is delivered in
English which makes it easy for young citizens to
quickly understand what the general guidelines for
recycling are. Furthermore, some young citizens are
still unaware of where the recycling facilities might
be, despite the large amount of bins throughout the
city.
2.5 — Conclusions 4. What is the intention (willingness) of the target

The conclusions to the Needs Analysis are group towards sustainable waste consumption?
based on the survey responses and observation. In terms of willingness to change, young civilians
Moreover, the results will serve as data to produce are ready to make changes and are interested in
final and representative design thinking tools - final receiving information on ways to consume waste
personas and empathy map (Appendix B) - which sustainably. Special attention should be put on the
give an overview of the target group’s preferences frequency of information so that the target group
and frustrations. does not feel bombarded. Lastly, the target group
has expressed a wish for tracking their own waste
1. What are the demographics of the target consumption.
group?
In terms of demographics, Groningen’s young 5. What are the needs of the target group
citizens are mainly university students, even though in terms of awareness and knowledge of
a good share of the sample is currently in the Gemeente Groningen’s ongoing projects?
working force. The intercultural background greatly The target group is generally uninformed on what
varies and should be taken into consideration as the client organization’s goal is, with 85% not being
many international students are populating the city, aware of it. Thus, Gemeente Groningen needs to

put more effort into making their organizational Explanation
goal clear to the target group in order to increase Groningen’s young citizens are mainly Dutch, but
cooperation between civilians and city government. many come from different background and this
Moreover, as also discussed in sub-question 3, shouldn’t be overlooked in the communication
young citizens need to be aware of the fact the product.
Groningen has separation facilities, as this was a
point that many complained about. Design Requirement 6
...further informs the target group about the
2.6 — Design Requirements municipality’s mission objective and its existing
Gemeente Groningen can improve cooperation efforts in achieving this goal.
between young citizens and city government Explanation
towards a waste-free city if the communication Given the low awareness of young citizens on
product… the municipality’s efforts to turn Groningen into a
waste-free city, the product should feature a way
Design Requirement 1 to deliver that information. This also should include
...allows young citizens to track their own waste what Gemeente Groningen does at the moment.
consumption. For instance, how waste separation is handled by
Explanation the city, a point that creates confusion.
Young citizens should have a way to track their
waste consumption in order to become more Design Requirement 7
aware of their current behavior’s impact on the ...the communication product’s strategy takes into
environment and to be able to slowly reduce their account the preferred social media channels.
waste consumption by setting personal goals. Explanation
Namely Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
Design Requirement 2
...aims at further informing and educating the target
group on ways to reuse, reduce and recycle waste.
Explanation
The product’s main goal should be trigger behavior
change towards waste consumption.
...delivers further information on ways to easily
recycle paper, textiles and particularly chemicals
and organic waste.
Explanation
Young citizens do recycle, but there is room for
improvements concerning certain materials.
Information on how to recycle those materials
should be accessible and easy to find.
...delivers information on sustainable waste
consumption weekly, monthly and yearly
(depending on the importance of information).
Explanation
The target group wants to get more information
on sustainable living but attention should be put
on the fact that too much information might be
overwhelming and might alienate the audience.
...also provides information in English.
Functional Analysis
The purpose of the Functional Analysis is to explore literature and best
practices to identify the insights that will help in designing the client’s product.
In this case, the analysis will turn to theories of behaviour change (desk
research), investigate the strengths of Gemeente Groningen’s previously
designed products with a stakeholder interview with Miriam Hall (Appendix
B) - project manager for communication on waste management - and how
technology can be used to trigger behaviour change by using organizational
papers.
Key-concepts were derived by using creative thinking tools generated through
the Needs Analysis and previous literature, (Figure 9).
Figure 9 - Deriving concepts to research questions (Functional Analysis)

Previous Literature Design Thinking Tools
• Fogg Behavior Model • Final personas
• Engagement Theory • Final empathy map
Key Concepts
• Motivation, ability, triggers
• Relate, create, donate
• Strength of previous communication products
• Inform, engage, make it easy, challenge
• Good practices for behavior change in
mobile applications
Research Question
Key concepts can be unravelled as follows (Figure 10 and 11).

Figure 10 - Unraveling concepts (Fogg Behavior Model)
Fogg Behavior Model
Motivation Ability Triggers
• Pleasure • Resources (Time, • Facilitation

• Hope money) • Appeal
• Social acceptance • Effort (Physical, mental)
Figure 11 - Unraveling concepts (Engagement Theory: A Framework for

Technology-based Teaching & Learning)
Engagement in Education
Relate Create Donate
• Collaboration • Project ownership • Useful contributions

• Interaction with others to society
+ Web-based technologies
Motivation & ability to learn
3.2 — Research Questions 3.3 — Research Results
Main Question Sub-Question 1: How can communication
Which functional requirements should the literature be applied to the communication
communication product feature in order to ensure product?
engagement and behaviour change towards waste 1.1. How can motivation, ability and triggers -
consumption in Groningen’s young civilians? the relevant notions retrieved from the ‘Fogg
Behaviour Model’ - be taken into consideration
Sub-questions when designing the communication product
1. How can communication literature aiming at in order for it to contribute in changing young
triggering behaviour change in education be civilians’ behaviour?
applied to the communication product?
1a. How can ‘motivation, ability and The Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM) implies that for
triggers, - the relevant notions behaviour change to happen three elements must
retrieved from the ‘Theory of Behaviour converge at the same time: motivation, ability and
Change by B.J. Fogg’ - be taken into triggers or prompts (Fogg, 2009).
consideration when designing the
communication product in order for it to Motivation could be broken down in:
contribute in changing the behavior of • Pleasure: achieved by recycling;
young civilians? • Hope: recycling gives hope that the action is
1b. How can ‘relate, create and donate’ - positively impacting society;
the relevant notions retrieved from the • Social acceptance: recycling is socially
‘Engagement Theory: A Framework for accepted and encouraged.
Technology-based Teaching & Learning’
- be taken into consideration when Secondly, the ability to execute the desired
designing the communication product situation can be broken down into:
in order for it to contribute in creating • Resources: time and finance to recycle;
engagement amongst young civilians in • Effort: either physical or mental effort.
education activities concerning ways to
reduce, reuse, recycle waste? Lastly, the tigger (or prompt) component can be
2. Which previous communication products is broken down into:
Gemeente Groningen using to trigger behaviour • Facilitation: for instance, Gemeente Groningen
change in young civilians and which successful places recycling bins right next to student
elements can be re-used in the communication flats to facilitate the process of recycling and
product? to make it easy for students to undergo the
2a. What insights can the interview with desired situation.
Miriam Hall give on behavior change • Spark or a signal: reading a very worrying article
and communication regarding waste about the effects of chemicals on soil could be
consumption? a trigger to recycle chemicals at home.
2b. What can be learnt from the analysis of
two existing communication products 1.2. How can ‘relate, create and donate’
by using the results from the previous - the relevant notions retrieved from the
sub-question and the Fogg Behavior ‘Engagement Theory: A Framework for
Model? Technology-based Teaching & Learning’ - be
3. What can be learnt from secondary literature taken into consideration when designing
related to behaviour change and technology? the communication product in order for it to
3a. What insights can the interview with contribute in creating engagement amongst
Miriam Hall, give on behavior change young civilians in education activities
and communication regarding waste concerning ways to reduce, reuse, recycle
consumption? waste?
What can be learnt from the analysis of
two existing communication products Axelson and Flick (2011), refer to student engagement
by using the results from the previous as the level of interest or involvement they appear to
sub-question and the Fogg Behavior have during a learning activity and the extent to which
Model? they are connected to the lesson.

Technology can prompt engagement in ways which To find out what the best tools used by the client
are complicated to achieve differently (Kearsley organizations are in targeting young citizens, a
& Shneiderman, 1998). It revolves around three stakeholder interview with Miriam Hall, was carried
main principles: relate, create, donate (Table 1). (see Appendix C).
They entail that learning activities happen when
they occur in the context of a group; when they Foremost, it resulted that the client organization
are project-based and when there is an outside is not actively targeting teenagers attending high-
focus. An explanation of these principles is found in school level education. This is because this group
Appendix B. is usually too busy with other things in life to be
motivated in living a sustainable lifestyle (Hall, M.,
Relate Encouraging collaboration and personal interview, March 25th, 2019).
interaction leads to more effective
learning about waste consumption. Dutch and international students are targeted
Furthermore, the interaction with through different methods.
peers could motivate further During the ‘KEI week’, leaflets about waste and
learning. recycling guidelines are offered to each student
attending the event. Moreover, Gemeente
Create To keep citizens interested and Groningen actively targets students through
engaged they should be able to intermediary organizations such as SSH, student
create their own cases and learn international housing organization, to make sure
more about sustainable living by that international students are well informed on
conducting personalized mini- waste management.
projects or games. Additionally, Facebook communication campaigns
are also carried through intermediary organizations
Donate Citizens should be allowed to to also reach this target group online. However,
conduct personalized ‘mini- Hall points out that Instagram, is not yet used and
projects’ which actually contribute should be taken into consideration.
to the community they live in. If
they can be made aware of how Of all the techniques that seem to have
their learning had an impact on successfully worked for the client organization,
their community they will be kept young people are best targeted by using 4 pillars
engaged. (Hall, M., personal interview, March 25th, 2019):
Inform: by sending out relevant information
Table 1 - Relate, Create, Donate. Make it easy: by ensuring that waste management
activities do not take much effort from young
Engagement Theory promotes human interaction people (e.g.: placing bins right next to student
in the context of group activities and defends flats).
the opinion that web-based technologies can be Challenge: by creating challenges where people
incredible assets for collaborative efforts - such as have to complete a task to live more sustainably
triggering cooperation between city government over a certain period of time (e.g.: 100-100-100).
and civilians. Technology provides a learning Encourage: by providing incentives and motivations
environment which cultivates the level of creativity to recycle or reuse waste.
and communication needed to feed engagement
(Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998). Moreover, Miriam Hall stresses the fact that
intercultural communication is a focal point for the
Sub-Question 2: Which previous communication organization at the moment, given the increase in
products is Gemeente Groningen using to international students in the city every year. The
trigger behaviour change in young civilians and difficulty in successfully targeting international
which successful elements students lies in the extensive cultural differences
can be re-used in the communication product? found in the city. Some cultures can be hierarchical
2.1. What insights can the interview with and therefore can have different communication
Miriam Hall, project manager, give on behavior needs than non-hierarchical cultures (Hall, M.,
change and communication regarding waste personal interview, March 25th, 2019). Thus, the
consumption? current limit of the client organization is to only
focus on English and Dutch (Hall, M., personal
interview, March 25th, 2019).
Additionally, she mentions the importance of

storytelling that uses a positive tone of voice when
it comes to targeting young audiences. In fact,
according to the U.S. Department of Education,
storytelling can be used to make students with low
motivation or weak academic skills work harder
(Williams, 1986).
2.2. What can be learnt from the analysis of two

existing communication products by using the
results from the previous sub-question and the
Fogg Behavior Model?
Two communication products can be analyzed

(Table 2) after the interview:
• A poster (Image 1), aiming at encouraging
people to recycle old paper Image 2 - Afvalwijzer
• The Afvalwijzer (Image 2).
Poster Afvalwijzer
Positive tone of voice (“Old Positive tone of voice, (“Do

news becomes new paper! you also help?”) hinting at
return used paper? With collaboration rather than
the waste guide you get requesting the undergoing of
everything out of your waste”) a certain activity (“You have to
Humorous image in the recycle”).
background. Features an explanation
The message is delivered in a of Gemeente Groningen’s
short manner. organizational goal, however,
Visually, the poster tries to not in detail as the term
appeal to a younger audience ‘waste-free’ is not explained.
with the use of less serious Visually, the waste guide
Image 1 - Poster
and colorful type. features the same style as
the poster and both products
include the same slogan;
visual style is still rather young
and friendly to look at.
Not all principles in the Fogg Using the Fogg Behavior

Behavior Model are applied: Model:
No clear call to action (= no Motivation wise there is no
motivation) clear sparker to recycle more.
The desired situation requires Ability wise, the viewer is
physical effort, the act of given enough information to
going online. This could have be able to recycle, recycling
been made easy with a QR dates can be found on the flip
code. side, further giving ability to
recycle.
Table 2 - Comparing communication products.

To conclude, generally print content seems to be and focused on the desired situation.
less effective than digital content when it comes to
behavior change because print content is limited in 3.4 — Conclusions
the way that it delivers messages to viewers and no 1. How can communication literature be applied
actions can be taken on print material. to the communication product?
Engagement is likely to happen if citizens can
Sub-Question 3: What can be learnt from relate to the transition by promoting collaboration
secondary literature related to behaviour between individuals; if they can create or carry a
change and technology? ‘mini-project’ that gives them a sense of ownership
3.1. What can be learnt from the analysis of the and if they can give back to society. Behaviour
white paper ‘Mobile Applications for Behavior change is likely to happen if citizens feel motivated
Change - The Future Is Now’? to undergo the desired situation; if they have the
ability of doing so and if they have the necessary
When analyzing best practices, an interesting case triggers to achieve the desired situation.
about behaviour change in mobile applications
can give functional insights which will contribute in 2. Which previous communication products is
delivering design requirements. Those will take into Gemeente Groningen using to trigger behaviour
consideration the wishes of the client and its desire change in young civilians and which successful
for a digital communication product. elements can be re-used in the communication
product?
Carlos Velez (2013), states that mobile apps are Online communication is primarily done through
now powerful tools used for many purposes: Facebook by using intermediary organizations.
marketing, social media, behaviour change. Intercultural communication is hard to set because
of the many nationalities that the city is hosting.
Carlos Velez (2013), explains that when it comes to However, language translation is the main
behaviour change, many people will rely on scare intercultural communication mean and a positive
tactics to achieve the desired situation, although tone of voice is paramount. The main pillars in
this can be inefficient since the thrill of danger is successfully targeting young crowds are: informing,
appealing to some, hence defeating the purpose engaging, making it easy, challenging. Lastly,
of triggering behaviour change in the first place. messages should be short, appealing and concize.
However, the dissemination of information together
with skill building and the ability to share progress 3. What can be learnt from secondary literature
or information on social media, provoking online related to behaviour change and technology?
discussions, together with well known behaviour Scare tactics are not efficient when it comes to
change theories may be the best way to achieve behavior change, especially in digital products.
the desired situation. Furthermore, the dissemination of information
together with skill building and the ability to
Digital products aiming to change behaviours may share progress or information on social media,
consist of a series of reminders and tips that can provoking online discussions, together with well
be accessed whenever needed. Moreover, the known behaviour change theories may be the best
attractiveness of a product is also a determining way to achieve the desired situation. Lastly, the
factor of its success as many people delete their attractiveness of a product is a determining factors
mobile apps minutes after downloading them, thus of its success.
apps’ success are dependent on their first try and
the amount of buzz they produce. The last point of
focus for a successful behaviour change product
is the importance of providing some kind of reward
for its users to stay motivated to use the product
(Velez, 2013).
Furthermore, users could make use of a visual

representation of their process in behaviour
change. Information and motivational messages
and the use of social media keep the user hooked
3.5 — Design Requirements Design Requirement 13
Gemeente Groningen can improve cooperation ..engages and motivates the target group by being
between young citizens and city government usable, intuitive and aesthetic.
towards a waste-free city if the communication Explanation
product… Usability and intuitivity are important components
of digital products. Aesthetics shouldn’t be
Design Requirement 8 neglected either as they act as a way to attract
...triggers behavior change on waste consumption attention and hold it.
by complying with the Fogg Behavior Model:
motivation, ability, prompts.
Explanation
B.J. Fogg states that in order for a behavior to
arise, motivation as well as ability and prompts
must align and happen at the same time.
...triggers behavior change on waste consumption
by using the 4 pillars: informing, engaging, making
it easy, challenging.
Explanation
In previous communication products those 4 pillars
have proven effective in keeping young citizens
engaged and in trying to change their behavior.
Future products should stick to this scheme.
...triggers behavior change on waste consumption
by focusing on the ability to share progress on
social media.
Explanation
Carlos Velez (2013) states that using social
marketing to promote a digital product is the best
way to learn about it, and start using it.
...engages and educates the target group by using
3 principles: relate, create and donate - by focusing
on technology.
Explanation
Engagement in education by focusing on
technology can be very effective, given that
the product focuses on 3 principles. Making it
relatable for the ‘students’. Allowing them to create
something. Allowing them to donate or give back to
society.
...has messages that only use a positive tone of
voice.
Explanation
In previous communication products, positive tone
of voices have been considered more effective than
scare tactics.

Context Analysis
4.1 — Introduction Secondly, it’s worth taking into consideration the

The role of this section is find out which Paris Agreement - a worldwide agreement that
existing external pre-conditions could affect the challenges 195 countries to meet the climate
communication product. Conclusions are found in standards set by the European Commission
Table 4. (European Commission, 2018).
Although, the Paris Agreement does not mention
4.2 — Research Questions waste, it’s clear that good waste management
Main Question and recycling, reusing and minimizing waste are
What preconditions could influence the design of excellent solutions in reducing carbon emissions.
the communication product and influence the way According to Eric Lombardi (2016), reducing,
young citizens cooperate with the city government reusing and recycling are just as important other
towards a waste-free city? climate solutions because:
• Emissions and energy related to the extraction
Sub-questions of raw materials are countered by recycling and
1. Which macro factors, analyzed through a PEST reusing.
analysis, can influence the creation of the • Energy use is highly reduced when new
communication product? products are made from recycled materials.
2. Which organizational factors could influence • Using recycled materials means there is less
the ability in improving cooperation between need for extraction of resources and more flora
municipality and young citizens? can remain intact, causing more absorption of
CO2.
4.3 — Research Results
Sub-question 1: Which macro factors that Economical Factors
can be found by applying a PEST analysis to When comparing numbers, the economic situation
the context of this project, may influence the has been improving over the years. The GDP per
communication product? capita has particularly been rising - €38,845 in 2013
A PEST analysis helps find out which factors could against €42,926 in 2017 (“Netherlands Economic
influence the design of the product: Data”, 2019). The economic growth bounced
exponentially, from -0.2% in 2013 to +3.2% in
Political Factors 2017. These numbers serve as an indication that
There are two main political aspects that need to be the economic wellbeing of the country is positive.
taken into consideration. Gemeente Groningen can expect to invest more in
Firstly, - as explained in the PID (Sabbatini, the Waste Management Plan and the city’s residents
Chapter 1: PID, 2019) - Gemeente Groningen have more money to spend.
bases its efforts on 6 main nationally prescribed
pillars to tackle behavior change in the context Social & Intercultural Factors
of sustainable waste consumption (Impulsplan Groningen’s young civilians are an international
Zwefafval Groningen, 2017). These pillars are: group (Graph 14).
• Influencing behavior
• Participation and remuneration
• Smart facilities
• Incentives to influence
• Smart management
• Smart devices
Graph 14 - Count of nationality Studies strengthen these findings. In 2015
over 35% of the population of the EU owns a
smartphone per household and 33% own two
(Distribution of the number of mobile phones
owned per household in the European Union in
2015, 2015)).
Another study shows the decline of desktop and

laptop device use compared to smartphone. In
2012 smartphone use was only 56.5% compared
to desktop (70.5%) and laptop (73.4%); in 2017 the
The Dutch base is obviously predominant. situation flips, 89.0% use mobile and 60.3% use
However, because of the many nationalities in desktop devices (Roberts, 2018).
the city with different cultural dimensions it is
challenging for the client organization to deliver Therefore, mobile is a huge asset to improve
clear messages that target everyone. The most communication and cooperation with its citizens.
obvious conclusion is that messages should be
sent in Dutch and English. Sub-questions 2: Which organizational factors
could influence the ability in improving
Furthermore, by looking at Schwartz’s culture cooperation between municipality and young
model, two cultural values are closely related to citizens?
nature and the environment, namely mastery and
harmony (Schwartz, 1992). In cultures that follow a To explore the organizational factors that could
mastery value, individuals are more likely to achieve influence cooperation between citizens and city
their personal goals by overriding nature and government, a SWOT analysis (Table 3) based on
controlling it. Harmony-oriented cultures coexist observation and the result of personal meetings
with the environment, meaning that rather than within the company has been undertaken.
seeking self-improvement, they accept what they
have been given.
Harmony-oriented cultures are more likely to Strengths • Financial resources (by government)
preserve the environment and fight to protect it. • Efficiency of work
• Creative and motivated teams
The client can use this model as a reference when • Communication with Dutch
targeting international crowds. citizens
Technological Factors Weaknesses • Slow processes (typical in

Young citizens are technologically savvy. By having governmental entities)
• Mostly targeting Dutch crowds
a look at the survey (Needs Analysis), it was found • Mainly targets international
that the take on daily smartphone use varies greatly students through SSH
from person to person. However, young civilians • Limited intercultural focus
use their phone extensively, with 52.1% of the
respondents using their smartphone 2 to 4 hours a Opportunities • Willingness of target group: youth
day (Graph 15). of population and education level
= high interest in sustainability
• Digitalizing approaches
Graph 15 - Daily smartphone use • Creativity
Threats • Cultural differences

• Awareness of citizens in actions
towards
• Personal motivation of citizens
• Personal ability to recycle, reuse,
reduce
Table 3 - SWOT analysis

The table shows that there might be a further 4.5 — Design Requirements
need for research and application of intercultural Gemeente Groningen can improve cooperation
communication. External threats and opportunities between young citizens and city government
generally revolve around the target group’s towards a waste-free city if the communication
motivation towards recycling, reusing, reducing product…
and are sometimes outside the reach of the
organization. The client can try to minimize these Design Requirement 5 (Needs+Context Analysis)
with further communication. This graduation ...takes into account the different cultural
assignment attempts at tackling this issue. backgrounds of the target group and provided
information should also be in English.
4.4 — Conclusions Explanation
Groningen’s young citizens are mainly Dutch, but
Question 1: The following conclusions can be many come from different background and this
Which macro derived from the PEST analysis:
• The Paris Agreement does not shouldn’t be overlooked in the communication
factors might
actively refer to waste, but reducing, product.
influence the reusing and recycling are key in
product? reducing carbon emissions. Design Requirement 13
• The economic situation of The
Netherlands is positive. This means ...builds up on one (or more) of the nationally
more funding will keep on being prescribed pillars for sustainable waste
given to municipalities. consumption.
• People from ‘mastery-oriented’
cultures might have a harder time
Explanation
to understand the importance The product should build on top of the pillars
of recycling, reusing, reducing. for sustainable waste consumption created and
Moreover, the highly international prescribed by the government (Influencing behavior,
population of Groningen makes
it necessary to focus on cultural participation and remuneration, smart facilities,
differences when targeting younger incentives to influence, smart management, smart
civilians devices).
• The technological resources
available to The Netherlands make
it clear that it’s important to focus
on digital products given the high
usage of mobile phones (especially
with young audiences).
Question From the SWOT analysis it can be

2: Which concluded that:
• Slow processes make it harder
organizational
for creative solutions to see the
factors might light of day. Getting approval
influence the on projects can be very time
product? consuming.
• Intercultural differences are a
threat to the organization in the
sense that it becomes hard to
target everyone.
• Some externalities which are
complicated to tackle, such
as low motivation or ability to
recycle, are also a threat to the
organization because they make
it hard/impossible for Gemeente
Groningen to achieve a maximum
level of cooperation between
citizens and municipality.
Table 4 - Conclusions
Design Document
Gemeente Groningen can improve cooperation between young citizens and city government
towards a waste-free city if the communication product…
Design Requirements Explanations Source
1...allows young citizens Young citizens should have a way to track their Needs Analysis
to track their own waste waste consumption in order to become more
consumption. aware of their current behavior’s impact on the
environment and to be able to slowly reduce their
waste consumption by setting personal goals.
2...aims at further The product’s main goal should be trigger behavior Needs Analysis
informing and educating change towards waste consumption.
the target group on
ways to reuse, reduce
and recycle waste.
3...delivers further Young citizens do recycle, but there is room for Needs Analysis
information on ways to improvements concerning certain materials.
easily recycle paper, Information on how to recycle those materials
textiles and particularly should be accessible and easy to find.
chemicals and organic
waste.
4...has notifications The target group wants to get more information Needs Analysis +
about sustainable waste on sustainable living but attention should be put Evaluation
consumption tips and on the fact that too much information might be
stories that are released overwhelming and might alienate the audience.
once a week. Users can
change the frequency in
‘Settings’.
5...takes into account Groningen’s young citizens are mainly Dutch, but
the different cultural many come from different background and this Needs Analysis +
backgrounds of the shouldn’t be overlooked in the communication Context Analysis
target group and product.
provided information
should also be in
English.
6...further informs the Given the low awareness of young citizens on

target group about the municipality’s efforts to turn Groningen into a Needs Analysis
the municipality’s waste-free city, the product should feature a way
mission objective and to deliver that information. This also should include
its existing efforts in what Gemeente Groningen does at the moment.
achieving this goal. For instance, how waste separation is handled by
the city, a point that creates confusion.

Design Requirements Explanations Source
7...the communication Namely Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. Needs Analysis

product’s strategy
takes into account the
preferred social media
channels.
8...triggers behavior B.J. Fogg states that in order for a behavior to Functional Analysis
change on waste arise, motivation as well as ability and prompts
consumption by must align and happen at the same time.
complying with the
Fogg Behavior Model:
motivation, ability,
prompts.
9...triggers behavior In previous communication products those 4 pillars Functional Analysis

change on waste have proven effective in keeping young citizens
consumption by using engaged and in trying to change their behavior.
the 4 pillars: informing, Future products should stick to this scheme.
engaging, making it
easy, challenging.
10...triggers behavior Carlos Velez (2013) states that using social Functional Analysis
change on waste marketing to promote a digital product is the best
consumption by way to learn about it, and start using it.
focusing on the ability
to share content on
social media.
11...engages and Engagement in education by focusing on Functional Analysis

educates the target technology can be very effective, given that
group by using 3 the product focuses on 3 principles. Making it
principles: relate, relatable for the ‘students’. Allowing them to create
create and donate - by something. Allowing them to donate or give back to
focusing on technology. society.
12...has messages that ...has messages that only use a positive tone of Functional Analysis
only use a positive tone voice.
of voice.
13...builds up on one (or The product should build on top of the pillars Context Analysis
more) of the nationally for sustainable waste consumption created and
prescribed pillars for prescribed by the government (Influencing behavior,
sustainable waste participation and remuneration, smart facilities,
consumption. incentives to influence, smart management, smart
devices).
14...allows users to Users can look for items such as pizza box, Evaluation
search waste items toothbrush, etc… and are told where they should
that display in which throw those items.
recycling bin that item
should be thrown.
Table 5 - Design Requirements
References
Axelson, R., Flick, A. (2011). Defining Student Engagement.

Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 43:1, 38-43. Doi:
10.1080/00091383.2011.533096
Distribution of the number of mobile phones owned per household in the

European Union in 2015. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/
statistics/615642/number-of-mobile-phones-owned-per-household-in-europe/
European Commission. (2018). Paris Agreement. Retrieved from

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en
Fogg, B. J. (2009). A behavior model for persuasive design. Persuasive ‘09

Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology,
Article No. 40. Doi: 10.1145/1541948.1541999
Gemeente Groningen (2017). Impulsplan Zwerfafval Groningen 2013-2022.

Internal document: unpublished
Hall, M. (2019, March). Personal Communication. (Sabbatini, M., Interviewer)
Lombardi, E. (2016). What Does the Paris Climate Agreement Say about
Waste? Retrieved from https://www.waste360.com/waste-reduction/what-
does-paris-climate-agreement-say-about-waste
Netherlands Economy Data. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.focus-

economics.com/countries/netherlands
Kearsley, G., Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement Theory: A Framework

for Technology-Based Teaching and Learning. Educational Technology
Publications, Inc., Vol. 38, No.5, pp. 20-23. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.
org/stable/44428478
Roberts, A., Bakker, J. (2018). Mobile device login and break-off in individual
survey of Statistics Netherlands [Discussion Paper]. Retrieved from https://
www.cbs.nl/-/media/_pdf/2018/06/dp-mobile-device-use-cbs.pdf
Schwartz, S.H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values:

Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1-65. Doi: 10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60281-
6
Velez, C. (2013). Mobile Applications for Behavior Change - The Future Is Now
[White paper]. Retrieved from: https://www.icf.com
Williams, J. (1986). What works: Research About Teaching & Learning (2nd
ed.). U.S. Department of Education.

Chapter 3:
Development
The third step of this graduation assignment is the Development
Phase. Its purpose is to use the design requirements - featured
in the design document, phase 2 - that were created from the
research results in order to tailor a creative concept for the
communication product.
A communication canva will be used to give a visual idea of the
creative concept’s details and its value proposition.
WORD COUNT: 1,104
Table of Contents
Development
01 Creative Concept 44
1.1 - Creative Concept 44
02 Business Case 46
2.1 - Business Case 46
2.2 - Canvas 47

Creative Concept
1.1 — Creative Concept

Gemeente Groningen has been working on a mobile application project
(referred to as ‘Phase 1’). The app is intended to be used by Groningen’s
citizens and its purpose is to display:
Waste guidelines, similar to those found in the print version of the Afvalwijzer
2019 (appendix C).
A map that shows nearby waste collection points based on one’s GPS
location.
Customizable notifications about waste collection dates.
The opportunity of having such a useful mobile app delivered to the public
opens new possibilities for the client organization in its efforts to communicate
with citizens. The creative concept builds up on the already existing mobile
application project (Phase 1) and will be referred as ‘Phase 2’.
The concept is to enhance the mobile app by adding communication functions

which have the purpose of triggering and facilitating behavior change and
increasing awareness of Gemeente Groningen’s organizational goal - and
what the organization does to reach it - in an effort to further the cooperation
between citizens and municipality towards the same environmental goal.
Image 3 - The creative concept
Primarily, the creative concept will:
• Add a storytelling element to the Afvalwijzer mobile app to:
• Teach ways to consume waste sustainably (design requirement 2 &
3) through pop-up messages or integrated text boxes located near
technical information or the GPS maps included by Phase 1;
• Capture the user’s attention by explaining interesting facts about
waste flows (design requirement 2 & 3). For instance, explaining
what happens to recycled glass with the use of a story and images
or videos.
• Add a progress bar for the waste-free city transition with
information about this goal and what the municipality does to reach
it (design requirement 6).
• NB: This progress page should give the possibility to receive
specific notifications whenever a new milestone is reached (design
requirement 4).
• Incorporate a way to track one’s waste consumption (design requirement 1)
with a system that allows the users to receive data on how much waste, in
kilograms, is consumed. This functions should also allow the users to set
personal goals in order to improve the sustainability of their lifestyle. This
could be done by either:
• Allowing the user to track its own waste consumption with a
system that works similarly to a calorie-tracking app (e.g.: scanning
the barcode of a food box to log plastic, paper or glass (in
kilograms)).
• Using a bluetooth scale to weight garbage which sends back data
to the mobile app in real time.
• NB: The users should be able to share their progress on social
media (design requirement 10).
• Feature a portal displaying ‘Challenges’ (design requirement 9) where the
user can start a challenge aimed at being more sustainable for a certain
amount of time. This would include all challenges created by Gemeente
Groningen in the past, such as 100-100-100 (see PID).
• NB: The users should be able to share their progress on social
media (design requirement 10).
• Curate the visual design and usability so that the risks of deleting the app
shortly after download are minimized (design requirement 13).

Business Case
2.1 — Business Case Key Activities

The communication strategy has been translated The student will provide the user experience and
into a canvas for a clear visualization of all relevant the visual design of the communication functions.
aspects that need to taken into consideration before Content creation and copywriting will be handled
starting the design of the communication product. by the student for titles and main section names.
For this, the ‘business model canvas’ and the Two testing rounds will be undertaken. Strategic
‘mobile app canvas’ have been merged to make implementation planning is included in Chapter 5:
sure that all points are relevant to this project and the Evaluation.
communication product.
Key Resources & Costs
Problems to Solve As the design of the product will be covered by this
The problems to solve are: graduation assignment, the only resources and costs
The perceived lack of information on Gemeente needed will be the development team. This includes
Groningen’s objective and which steps are being the team for the first build and the maintenance of
taken to achieve the goal. the product. There should be no additional costs to
The perceived lack of information - especially implement Phase 2 if both phases are developed
for international citizens of Groningen due to the simultaneously.
prevalence of information in Dutch - concerning ways
to reduce, recycle and reuse waste. Risks
Like with any other product there are some risks to
Value Proposition consider. The first might be the difficulty in persuading
The value proposition of this communication product potential users to download the app. Consequently,
is to further the cooperation between citizens and city users will need good reasons to keep using the app.
government towards the waste-free city objective by Hence, it is vital that the product is well promoted
releasing information on ways to reduce, reuse and and that functions within the app are usable, useful
recycle waste so that citizens are well aware of ways and keep the user ‘hooked’. Lastly, budget and
to consume waste sustainably and can find all the technological constraints might be a potential risk
information they need in one place. This is done by for the product; the functions should be realistic and
implementing communication features (see Creative feasible for the development team.
Concept) in the already existing Afvalwijzer mobile
application. Promotion Channels
The communication product will need to be promoted
Communication Objectives in order to ensure that Groningen’s citizens are aware
The objectives of communication in this product of it. The promotion should go through the following
are to facilitate and trigger behavior change through channels:
storytelling and further information; increase the Digital channels:
awareness levels of citizens regarding Gemeente Social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)
Groningen’s objective so that they know what the city Gemeente Groningen’s website - waste section
government is doing to achieve a more sustainable Print channels:
city that follows the national guidelines for waste and Posters on waste collection points (underground bins)
to involve citizens in the transition by giving them Posters in UG & Hanze buildings, Flyers given to
challenges and the possibility to track one’s waste students at the KEI week, Afvalwijzer 2020
consumption and set personal goals to reduce that
consumption.
Chapter 4:
Design
WORD COUNT: 955
Table of Contents
Design
01 Design 50
1.2 - App Structure 50
1.3 - Client Feedback 52

Design
After coming up with design requirements and translating them into a creative
concept, the design document and the business case give birth to the
professional product prototype, a reworked and enhanced mobile application
which not only aims at making the life of citizens easier but also delivers
important information that the client organization wants to communicate to its
citizens.
In fact, the objectives of the product are to (1) raise awareness of Gemeente
Groningen’s organizational goal and actions taken towards it; (2) giving citizens
essential information on ways to reuse, reduce and recycle waste by delivering
it with tips and storytelling. Ultimately, the role of the communication product
is to (3) give citizens the right tools and the right information to promote good
cooperation between city government and civilians so that they can both lead
towards a waste-free city.
1.2 — App Structure

In the structure below (Figure 12), it can seen that red elements (Phase 2)
represent the newly introduced communication functions and black elements
(Phase 1) represent the existing functions (structure is revisited after evaluation).
Figure 12 - App Structure

Start
Explanation
Profile Overview (Home) Waste-free City
Objective Information
Progress Bar
Menu
Calendar Locations Waste Info Waste Tracker My Waste Card Settings About This App
Learn About
Waste
Notifications Give Us
Randomized
Tips & Feedback
Storytelling “Mini-surveys”
Boxes Learn Play
General Quizzes &

Info, Tips, Challenges
Storytelling
Page Features Purpose
Start A series of pages that only pop-up as Aims at introducing the app and
the user opens the app for the first raising awareness about Gemeente
time. Groningen’s organizational goal (2025
waste-free city)
Overview The profile allows users to change Aims at raising awareness about the
(Called ‘Profile’ before their ZIP code for location related 2025 goal and actions towards it,
evaluation) functions within the app but also aims at encouraging users to share
features an explanation of Gemeente their ideas (empowering the users
Groningen’s organizational goal: so they feel they can contribute in
• Displays a barometer to show the achieving the waste-free city status)
progress towards the 2025 goal
• Displays further information on
that goal
• Displays which steps the
organization takes towards that
goal
• Allows users to share their ideas
Calendar & Locations On top of the functional aspect of The purpose is to casually send
being able to see which are the information to the user so that
upcoming waste collection dates for behavior change can be facilitated.
recycling & where the waste collection
points are located, the user can now
find tips and stories on sustainable
waste consumption. These come in
boxes and are randomized. They are
selected from the pool of tips and
stories that can found in ‘Learn About
Waste’.
Learn About Waste The waste information page has been The aim is to give users all the right
(Renamed ‘Reduce, totally reworked. It now features two tools learn more about sustainable
Reuse, Recycle’ after portals: Learn and Play. waste consumption and improve their
evaluation) • In ‘Learn’: users can select a current behavior so that more waste
waste type and learn about can be recycled and less waste is
ways to recycle, reduce, reuse. incinerated.
Users will find informative stories • In ‘Learn’ the aim is to inform the
and videos on the process of user through storytelling, tips and
recycling certain materials, lists recommendations.
of shops that are happy to accept • In ‘Play’ the aim is to inform the
sustainable packagings (e.g.). user through gamification and
• In ‘Play’: users can find simple through challenges.
games (e.g.: ‘build your own
compost bin’ or ‘only consume
2kgs of waste in one week etc…).
The user will also find more
complex and time consuming
challenges, for example ‘100-100-
100’. Users can win badges found
in ‘Profile’.

Page Features Purpose
Settings The users can enable specific The aim is to increase further educate
communication related notifications & raise awareness on Gemeente
so that: Groningen’s objective and progress
• They receive a push message towards that objective
when there is a change in the
barometer for the waste-free city
status progress
• They receive a weekly tip on how
to reduce waste consumption.
About This App Add the function to take part in The aim is to make the mobile app a
mini-surveys where the user can give two-way communication tool where
feedback to the Gemeente. NB: This not only the citizens get information
wont be designed but rather kept as out of it but the municipality also gets
a concept since it requires technical data back from its users.
information
Table 6 - App Structure
Above (Table 6), is an explanation of the contents of the app. Only

communication features are discussed (e.g. Waste Tracker page is excluded).
1.3 — Client Feedback

Client feedback has been received before the two testing rounds found in the
next chapter. The feedback received was very positive, all wireframes have been
validated by the client, however a few points were requested:
• The app should use the branding of the client organization (red colour hex
code #E60004).
• Add a way for users to post their own ideas to contribute in the waste-free
city goal.
• Add a section in the menu ‘My Waste-card’.
• Create a simple way to track waste by kgs.
Chapter 5:
Evaluation
This chapter reports the testing and evaluation of the
communication product. By testing the prototype, the aim is to
uncover whether the product is suitable to the target group and
whether it is a good solution to the problem.
WORD COUNT: 1,977
Table of Contents
Evaluation
01 Evaluation 56
1.2 - First Round of Prototype Testing 56
1.3 - Second Round of Prototype Testing 58
02 Implementation 60
2.1 - Implementation Plan 60

Evaluation
1.1 — Introduction different field perspectives. This includes two

The product prototype is tested in two rounds. The International Communication students to receive
first round is done through a brainstorming session feedback from a communication perspective, one
with a focus group with critical participants which Artificial Intelligence student for the technological and
study subjects related to topic of this graduation IT perspective and one Environmental Law student for
assignment - the critical participants can be the environmental and sustainability perspective.
considered to have expert opinion. The second round
of testing is done through a survey specifically sent to The session starts with an introduction of the
the target group. evaluation objective, an explanation of the
assignment’s topic and a short explanation of
For each round of testing a test plan, test results, Gemeente Groningen’s mobile app project and what
and an evaluation will be provided. How the design the newly designed communication product aims at
requirements fit with the final product will be doing.
discussed in Chapter 6: Final Product.
The participants were given printed copies of the
1.2 — First Round of Prototype Testing communication product’s wireframes (Image 6) -
In the first round of prototype testing, a focus group black and white versions of the mobile application
session as been arranged. In this session four that do not put emphasis on the visual design but
critical participants have been selected to give their rather the structure of the app and the way elements
opinions on the product and find weak aspects which communicate a certain message to the user. The
require to be improved. It’s worth mentioning that wireframes in full can be found in Appendix D.
the participants are also part of target group, as they
are all young citizens and particularly, international The main limitation for this test round is that the
students. critical participants, although experts in their
respective fields, are students and therefore have little
Critical Participants applied experience of said knowledge.
• Kamila Duvanaeva, International Communication
student (BA) The wireframes that were presented to the group
• David Zubrycky, International Communication were:
student (BA) • The starting messages that are showed upon the
• Boris Marinov, Artificial Intelligence student (BA) first opening of the app
• Raphael Eberle, Environmental Law student (MA) • Four examples of notifications given by the app
• The menu
Test Plan • The profile
The evaluation objective is to explore whether the • Calendar & Locations
communication aspects added to the mobile app are • Learn About Waste: including the ‘Learn’ & ‘Play’
appealing to the critical participants, whether they pages
agree with the positioning of elements and the way
they visually communicate messages and whether Participants were given post-its where they could
they think the application is a good solution to solve jug down their thoughts and opinions and each
the communication problem. participant was asked to leave one post-it per
wireframe. To guarantee constructive feedback, the
The group members are selected based on their research strategy for this assessment session focuses
subjects of studies in order to get feedback from on these main questions:
• What appeals to you about the communication the mobile application and the simplicity of the
product? messages which are not overwhelming
• What do you wish was done differently? • The progress bar that shows the percentage of
• How do you think it could be improved? recycled waste in Groningen
• ‘My Profile’ contains all the important information
Test Results needed to understand the waste-free city
The test results for this first round show that the objective
critical participants rather enjoyed the creative • The usefulness of the educational aspect in ‘Learn
concept and the first prototype. Overall, the feedback About Waste’, the amount of information and
was very positive and the participants liked that the awareness that the user can get out of it
information is delivered in a simple way and a simple, • The idea of engaging users through the ‘Play’
modern layout. They thought that the app concept page with gamification
would be particularly useful for new citizens moving
to Groningen that need information on recycling
guidelines, tips and functional information such as the
waste calendar and the collection locations.
The critical participants particularly liked:

• The design’s simplicity and the way information is
placed
• The easiness of reading through the content
• The menu flowing in a logical order
• The notifications which are useful to get back to
Image 6 - First prototype wireframes

The critical participants wished that: Furthermore, a new design requirement can be
• There would a more extensive use of icons and created after the test results: Gemeente Groningen
imagery to counter the vast amount of text and can improve cooperation between young citizens
readable information and city government towards a waste-free city if the
• The notifications would clearly state the date of communication product… allows users to search
the collections waste items (e.g.: pizza box, toothbrush, etc…) that
• There would be a way to customize notifications display in which recycling bin that item should be
based on one’s interest and communication thrown.
needs
• There were notifications about mini-surveys and 1.3 — Second Round of Prototype Testing
challenges In the second round of prototype testing, a survey
• ‘My Profile’ was called ‘Overview’ as that makes meant for the target group has been created and sent.
more sense
• Waste types had specific icons Test Plan
• The ‘Play’ page would have content that is easier The evaluation objective for this second round of
to get back to, maybe with the use of quizzes testing is to find out the preferences of the target
• The ‘Play’ page would be more educational and group in relation to certain wireframes and certain
games would be easier and more tempting to play changes made after the first round of testing.
• The ‘Learn About Waste’ page would be called
‘Reuse, Reduce, Recycle’ as that’s more trendy The survey starts with an introduction of the mobile
and eye-catching app and a brief explanation of the purpose of the test.
• The ‘Learn’ page would have more imagery or The survey is then divided in 4 sections, each with a
videos specific objective:
• The ‘Learn’ page had a function to search • The first section asks basic information questions
for items and the app would display in which (nationality, age etc…), similar to those asked in
category that item belongs to, waste-wise the survey undertaken for the Needs Analysis.
A secondary purpose is to exclude participants
Evaluation which do not fit the target group. Therefore
The participant’s feedback exceeded expectations respondents that are above the age of 35 and
and the quality and amount of data collected is useful respondents that do not live in Groningen weren’t
to improve the prototype. Based on the feedback able to proceed to the following questions.
received from the focus group and the testing results, • The second section features four questions
the following points should be improved: specific to the page about waste information,
arguably the most important page. The purpose
1. There should be more integrated media (images, was to test recommended changes to the app
icons and videos), especially in the ‘Learn About that emerged after the first round of testing and
Waste’ page so that the user can learn about new (smaller) features.
sustainable waste consumption in different and • The third section featured only one questions
more engaging ways rather than only through about the ‘Overview’ (or ‘Profile’) page.
readable content. • The last section featured 7 questions that were
2. Some pages have to be revised, renamed more specific to the app as a whole. The purpose
and reworked so that the feedback can be was to test certain aspects of the app with the
implemented. Particularly, ‘Learn About Waste’ target group to understand whether the app, and
should feature a function to search a specific item its features, is a good product and whether the
so that users can go back to that page more often target group is likely to use it.
and therefore continuously learn new things.
3. Special attention should be put on ‘Notifications’, Generally, the respondents were given screenshots
a settings page should be designed so that users with the communication product’s wireframes
can personalize their notifications and reminders and had to choose between two slightly different
based on their own communication needs. wireframes based on their own preferences; other
4. The ‘Play’ page should be reworked so that users questions (particularly in section 4) were mainly linear
would be more tempted to get back to it. A more scale questions.
educational aim should be set.
However, two limitations are worth mentioning: consumption. However, 51.7% of the respondents
The survey got 32 replies, 1 of them being from a expressed interest in using such function.
person living outside of groningen which was thus • As a follow-up, the target group is also interested
removed. in receiving a fictional reward for completing
96.9% of the respondents are university-level challenges.
students. • When asked about the perceived appeal of
the general design of the app, the target group
Test Results was extremely positive. However, in an open
The test results for this second round were rather question where participants could leave feedback,
positive. Overall, the app seems to be very well three respondents stressed on the fact that
received by the target group and it seems like the the organization’s branding colour, red, is too
product is likely to be used by Groningen’s young aggressive to the eye and a green theme could
civilians. be more relevant for an app about waste and
sustainability.
The test results will be divided by sections. • The last question aimed at figuring out how
Because the first section’s purpose was to filter out frequently the target group would like to be
respondents not included in the target group, those notified with tips about sustainable waste
replies will not be discussed in this chapter. However, consumption. The result was: 45.2% prefer to be
all questions and answers can be found in Appendix notified once a week; 22.6% twice a month and
E. 19.4% only once a month. The small remaining
sample preferred to be notified either once a day,
Section 2: Waste information page every six months or yearly.
• Participants were asked whether they agreed with
the first round of testing feedback which was to Evaluation
rename the waste information page to ‘Reuse, Generally the participants’ performance went as
Reduce, Recycle’ from ‘Learn About Waste’. The expected or exceeded expectations. Based on the
target group preferred the original option ‘Learn survey replies collected, the target group agrees that
About Waste’. the communication product should:
• Following the implementation of one of the 1. Some of the suggested changes coming from the
suggestions from the first round of testing which first round of testing need to be changed, based
consisted in adding a search function to look-up on the target group’s preferences (refer to Test
in which bin a certain item should be thrown away. Results for details).
The target group preferred using a magnifying 2. A few other tweaks need to be made for the
glass icon over adding the ‘Search’ button on the product to be finalized, based on the target
secondary menu. group’s preferences (refer to Test Results for
• The target group preferred having subtitles details).
indicating if the content boxes in ‘Learn’ where 3. The target group prefers to be notified once a
about stories or tips on sustainable waste week.
consumption. 4. The communication product received positive
• Lastly, the order of content that was preferred feedback and the likelihood of being used seems
by the target group was ‘General information (1), very promising; respondents are satisfied with the
Tips (2), Stories (3)’ as opposed to having ‘Stories’ concept and find the product appealing.
before ‘Tips’.
Section 3: Overview & profile One of the design requirements (design requirement
• The target group was more keen on the idea #4) can be altered:
of having two separate pages to showcase the • Gemeente Groningen can improve cooperation
‘Overview’ (page about awareness) and ‘Profile’. between young citizens and city government
Section 4: General Opinion towards a waste-free city if the communication
• 64.5% of the target group is likely to use the product… has default notifications about
mobile application, 9.7% is neutral, the rest not sustainable waste consumption tips and stories
likely to use the communication product. that are released once a week. However the
• The target group is divided when it comes to user can change the frequency of messages in
having a ‘Play’ function to take quizzes and ‘Settings’.
challenges to learn more about sustainable waste

Implementation
2.1 — Implementation Plan

The mobile app will have to be released to the public so that Groningen’s
citizens can download and start using the app. The implementation and
release of the final prototype will be divided in 5 main steps:
• Testing: The two round of prototype testing during the graduation
assignment
• Development: The app is developed by a developing team recruited by the
client
• Launch: The release of the mobile app on Apple and Android
• Promotion: The actual promotion (both print and digital) of the mobile app
• Final Evaluation: The final moment where the success indicator is evaluated
The advice on how the app should be implemented is represented below

(Tables 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) where financing and staffing are also discussed.
It’s important to note that no clear dates can be added to the tables since
the timing of the implementation of the prototype largely depends on the
development team that will code the mobile app. However, a rough time plan
can be visualized (Figure 13).
Step 1: Testing
Component Comments Finances & Staffing
First round of testing The first prototype 2 hours

wireframes are tested Matteo Sabbatini
during a focus group
session.
Second round of The improved 5 hours

testing wireframes are tested Matteo Sabbatini
again with an online
survey. This leads to
the final prototype.
Table 7 - Step 1
Step 2: Development
Development of Phase The mobile app Estimated finished

1 of the mobile app project is sent to the product by December
developing team. 2019
Budget €150,000±
Development Team
Development of Phase The final prototype Estimated: 9-12

2 of the mobile app (Phase 2) created by months
the student is added Budget €50,000
to Phase 1 of the app Development Team
Table 8 - Step 2
Step 3: Launch
App Store App is launched on $99/year

the Apple App Store Communication
Department
Google Play App is launched on One time fee $25

Google Play Communication
Department
Table 9 - Step 3
Please note that there is no set budget for this communication product.
The costs of the mobile app (Phase 1) are covered by Gemeente Groningen
because of government funding. The budget for Phase 2

Step 4a: Print Promotion
Posters (including Posters to be printed Estimated cost of 390

QR code for quick and distributed around A1 posters: €1575,00
download of app) the city, mainly hanged Cost of 1800 A3: €290
on: Price estimation
• (A3) Recycling through https://www.
bins for immediate printenbind.nl/en/
promotion (1800 poster
containers in the
city)
• (A1) Rug & Hanze
buildings [5x18
(number of Hanze
buildings) + 5x60
(estimated number
of RUG buildings)]
Afvalwijzer (print & App is promoted on Communication

digital versions) the digital version of department
the Afvalwijzer first.
Upon new years, the
app is also included
in the print edition
which is distributed to
houses.
KEI Week flyers App is promoted on Communication

handed in to students the KEY week flyers department
given to students upon
arrival to Groningen.
Table 10 - Step 4a
Step 4b: Digital Promotion
Facebook Promotion Paid advertising 6 months of paid

advertising estimated
price: €20,000
Communication
department
Instagram Free advertising Promo type: Free

Communication
department
Gemeente Groningen Communication

website & newsletter department
promotion
Table 11 - Step 4b
Step 5: Final Evaluation
Final evaluation of The app is successful Google Analytics

success if it reaches 26,000 Communication
download in two years department
(as discussed with
the client in the early
stages of the creation
of the prototype /
client expectations)
Table 12 - Step 5
Figure 13 - Time Plan (Implementation)
Testing Development
Launch
Promotion Final Evaluation

Chapter 6:
Final Product
Final Product
This chapter will discuss the design requirements. The following poages
contain wireframes with their respective design requirements together with an
explanation of how they have been met.
Certain design requirements belong to the product as a whole rathen than a

specific wireframe. These are:
5...takes into account the different cultural backgrounds of the target

group and provided information should also be in English.
The application is in Dutch and English, all editorial content is provided by
Gemeente Groningen.
7...the communication product’s strategy takes into account the preferred

social media channels.
See Chapter 5: Evaluation, page 60.
8...triggers behavior change on waste consumption by complying with the

Fogg Behavior Model: motivation, ability, prompts.
Motivation to recycle is provided through stories in ‘Learn About Waste’ - e.g.:
if the users know about what happens to the waste they may be more likely to
recycle.
Ability to recycle is provided through the amount of information available in
‘Learn About Waste’.
Prompts are facilitating recycling through functional pages such as ‘Calendar’
and ‘Locations’ as well as the spark created by the general design.
12...has messages that only use a positive tone of voice.

All headlines and titles in the app feature a positive tone of voice. However, all
editorial content is provided by Gemeente Groningen.
13...builds up on one (or more) of the nationally prescribed pillars for

sustainable waste consumption.
The pillar ‘Smart Devices’ is the foundation of the communication product.
All 14 design requirements have been met.

Design requirements in this wireframe:
2...aims at further informing and educating

recycle waste.
This design requirement represents the main
purpose of this wireframe. The same information
boxes have been applied to wireframes from the
mobile app Phase 1. See wireframes below
3...delivers further information on ways to

easily recycle paper, textiles and particularly
chemicals and organic waste.
As it can be seen from the icons - paper, residual
waste, organic waste, glass and textile are included
in the wireframes.
10...triggers behavior change on waste

consumption by focusing on the ability to share
content on social media.
Some boxes with tips or stories can are shareable
on social media.
11...engages and educates the target group by

using 3 principles: relate, create and donate - by
focusing on technology.
‘Relate’, refers to people’s ability to be engaged
when collaboration between peers takes place.
This is met because bigger challenges, such as
100-100-100, require people to cooperate together.
The idea of having games can be linked to the
princinple ‘create’, which implies that people are
more motivated and interested in a subject when
conducting their own projects.
‘Donate’, suggests that engagement can be
reached when students make a useful contribution
while learning. Challenges and quizzes can be
shared on social media. Moreover players receive
badges for completing games.
2...aims at further informing and educating

recycle waste.
This design requirement represents one of the main
purposes of this wireframe.
9...triggers behavior change on waste

consumption by using the 4 pillars: informing,
engaging, making it easy, challenging.
All pillars are present in this wireframe.
3...delivers further information on ways to

easily recycle paper, textiles and particularly
chemicals and organic waste.
Through quizzes and challenges.

6...further informs the target group about the

municipality’s mission objective and its existing
efforts in achieving this goal.
The overview is the default page of the app,
here users can learn everything about Gemeente
Groningen’s ambitious goal; they can track the
progress towards it and they can share their own
ideas and get a chance to win a reward.
This design requirement is also present in the

wireframes created for the ‘Start’ interface. These
are pages that are only seen once when the user
opens the app for the first time.
4...has notifications about sustainable waste

consumption tips and stories that are released
once a week. Users can change the frequency in
‘Settings’.
Although the notifications are not a new feature, the
user can now have many more notification settings
on top of the reminders for waste collection dates.
14...allows users to search waste items that

display in which recycling bin that item
should be thrown.
This is the unique purpose of this wireframe
1...allows young citizens to track their own

waste consumption.
Although this was a big part of the creative
concept (Chapter 3: Developement, page 45) for
technological and financial reasons the waste
tracking option was limited to a simple solution for
users that are really serious about reducing their
waste. They can weight trash with their own scale
and manually input the data into the app, which
remembers and safely stores each log.
Limiting this design requirement allowed for more
time to be spent on more relevant communication
features and requirements.

Chapter 7:
Reflection
The final component of this six phases assignment is the reflection
report. The report will include a reflection on the execution of the
research, a reflection on the collaboration and communication with
stakeholders and target group and a reflection on my advisory role
as a communication professional.
WORD COUNT: 1,174
Table of Contents
Reflection
01 Reflection 72
1.1 - Execution of Research 72
1.2 - Collaboration & Communication 72
1.3 - International & Intercultural Communication 73
1.4 - Advisory Role 73
1.5 - Conclusion 73

Reflection
1.1 — Execution of Research interactive interfaces together with communication.

Generally, I was able to give sufficient direction
to the research. All phases have been a success To conclude, I truly believe that Design Research has
overall; I managed to come up with realistic design been an invaluable tool and I believe I have learnt a lot
requirements which also fitted with my client’s needs during these four months. This has made me a better
and wishes. Moreover, my client is very satisfied researcher and a better communication professional.
with the outcome of this assignment and soon I
will be able to present it to Gemeente Groningen’s 1.2 — Collaboration & Communication
boss to sell the idea and hopefully implement the Between client and supervisor
communication product. Furthermore, the research The collaboration and communication between client
was a rather iterative process, as sometimes new (Thomas Miedema) and supervisor (Mart Wegman)
insights from one phase would make me rethink was good. The two have met once, at the Business
some components of a different phase. For instance, Case presentation. They did not communicate
changes to the PID were made in the last days of the outside of that meeting but if any communication was
graduation assignment. needed between them, I was able to act as a bridge
between them.
The biggest difficulty that I have experienced was
I only had used Design Research in one occasion Between supervisor and student
before. I thought it was challenging to understand The collaboration and communication between
what was expected of me and to evaluate whether supervisor (Mart Wegman) and myself was good.
I was on the right path or not. Particularly during My supervisor often challenged me to find answers
the second phase, for example, I found it hard to to my questions on my own and I believe this made
understand how to properly unravel concepts and me a more independent professional. Furthemore,
how to make use of theories to use as a foundation he was extremely helpful in the early stages of the
guiding the formulation of research questions. Luckily, assignment, especially with the PID and in the later
as part of the professorship at the Energy Academy, stages when he provided me with feedback.
we students had the chance of having coaches
always available to answer our questions and always Between client and student
eager to help out. The relationship between my client (Thomas
Miedema) and myself was outstanding. Thomas
Because of the avid enthusiasm from my client on was able to answer all my questions in the quickest
the assignment - and the result of early meetings that time-frames even when he was extremely busy
did set a direction to the research and the creative or out of the office. He always took the time to
concept - another challenge I encountered was fitting arrange meetings and we have met many times
the goals and needs of my client with the assessment - approximately twice a month - throughout the
form and the type of results that I was able to derive graduation period. He checked the quality of my
from the assignment. deliverables and was always eager to help, give
input and feedback and arrange meetings with key
I think my assignment was also challenging because I stakeholders. His enthusiasm over my assignment
had to find the right balance between communication made it a great experience and made me feel valuable
and user experience (given the nature of my in the organization.
communication product, the mobile app) but in the
end this made me a better professional where I could With experts and critical friends
bring in my design background and passion for As my graduation assignment was part of a new
project at the professorship CBSS (Living Lab), we above.
students had the chance to always have coaches
ready to further explain parts of the Design Research, At Gemeente Groningen, I was involved with the
give feedback and answer questions about the waste management department. There, employees
methodology. I think that this was a great set-up that do their best possible work coming up with and
really allowed us do our best. Moreover, having the implementing new ideas to make the city cleaner and
possibility of collaborating and communicating with more sustainable. Sustainable waste consumption is
other students in the Living Lab made it easy to share a main focus for the Gemeente and many actions are
tips, information and resources. taken towards it.
1.3 — International & Intercultural The main ethic that I have shown throughout my time
Communication at Gemeente Groningen was serving professional and
International & intercultural communication social interests. In fact the purpose of my research
My client was a Dutch governmental organization, the was to find out a digital solution to contribute in
municipality of Groningen. As for any governmental solving a sustainability issue in the city. Thus the
organizations the language used is the national main focus of my assignment was to create a good
language. This limits the amount of international product, free of use, that helps the community and
employees in the company. Furthermore, both the environment.
supervisors (client and Hanze) are Dutch. However,
the CBSS environment made it more of an 1.5 — Conclusion
intercultural experience. To conclude, I believe that the graduation assignment
went very well and I have learnt a lot throughout the
However, one example of how I had to adjust my whole experience. I am glad that I was given so much
behavior was when my client supervisor arranged freedom and the opportunity to write my graduation
a last minute stakeholder interview for me with a project for the municipality. Having the opportunity
communication professional working in the field of to work a project that helps society is a challenging,
behavior change. I could feel that she was irritated by refreshing and extremely satisfying experience.
the fact that I did not have specific questions for her
possibly because of her low-context culture (Dutch).
To counter this, I came up with questions on the spot
that would make her feel more valued during the
meeting; even if I knew that the answers were not
going to be useful for this project. In the end she was
eager to answer my questions and the barrier was
lifted.
1.4 — Advisory Role

My advisory role has noticeably improved over the
course of this graduation assignment. Although in
the beginning I had to rethink my initial proposal
written for my client, he has always given me full
freedom to be creative with this assignment and that
really pushed me to do my best. As I experienced no
resistance from my client, I was able to feel confident
in advising as the role became more familiar and
genuine over time.
Examples of resistance don’t come to my mind very

easily, in general I had a great experience interacting
with stakeholders as everyone at the Gemeente was
excited to see the outcome of my creative concept
and valued the importance of having a mobile app as
much as I did. The only example of resistance which
I can think of, was during that interview mentioned

Appendices
Table of Contents
Appendices
Appendices
I. Appendix A (Orientation) 76
II. Appendix B (Research) 80
III. Appendix C (Development) 97
IV. Appendix D (Design) 99
V. Appendix E (Evaluation) 101
Anti-plagiarism Statement 102

Appendix A
Orientation
Meeting 1 Municipality of Groningen Luchiena: Groningen wants to be a pioneer of things.

February 4th, 2019 Doing a local campaign to raise
awareness.
Participants: Miriam, Luchiena, Ningna, Louisa, Anna, Matteo: Design an app to replace your garbage container
Matteo and Lumi card and connect the card, to show
people how much trash they use – linked to the app. We
Ningna: Gamification to help people to change behaviour are not allowed to connect the use of
on plastic use. Connect personal the card to a person. (Miriam) The cards are per
stories of plastic. People don’t throw their plastic waste household, but it is complex. What to build?
on the street or mix it in the other The prototype of an app for plastic waste.
waste. Use less and try not to throw it in the street. All the Miriam: We’ve been working on a app for 3-4 years.
plastic on the street is annoying and
costly (Miriam). Millennials: internationals. Educative Luchiena: App for when to put the paper out or furniture.
programme. Graffiti – games, rate which If you collected the plastic for one
behaviour you desire for yourself. In the neighbourhood of week, you would be shocked about the amount of plastic.
schools with funky trashcans. Put Miriam: 100 x 100: 100% waste-free for 100 days. How
your waste in the right place and buy less. In the inner city little waste people can generate in a
it is mixed, in the outskirts people week. The winners generated less than a kilo. The food
have separate trashcans for paper, and food waste. waste battle was used to raise
(Luchiena) awareness of how to stop wasting your food (40-45 kg
Miriam: We do carry out the separation of plastic post- per year – throw away).
collection in the last 10 years, longer Luchiena: Zero Plastics – book check it out, written by
than other municipalities. Difficult to make them aware of two sisters, but in Dutch.
how this is done, to inform people. Miriam: update on what to put on containers, how to
People need to understand how this is done. We have a visualize the information that we put
programme that focused on primary across. Trash lorries driving continuously through the city
schools (environmental stewards). Primary schools are an and photos of schools. Plastic
important target group. The target reduction goal: 100% recycled in 2025. Goal for the
group: secondary education (teenagers) and students. amount of waste: 100 kg that cannot be
Louisa: Reduce plastic waste at events and festivals. recycled per person. Now they are at 59% recycling, and
Information for international students on 150% waste). For plastic prevention is the goal. For your
how plastic waste is separated. How to create a brochure fruit and vegetables take your containers with you. The
and video for international students percentage for
to inform them on how plastic waste is tackled here. separation is higher for Groningen than for other cities.
Plastic waste at festivals and events in For the consumer: What are my options?
Groningen. Festivals: Norderzoon, Eurosonic, 4 Mile, Miriam: benefits of being on location. Scenario 2 –
Bevrijdingsfestival, King’s Day. location for most of the student work at the
Miriam: We have information in English to inform Professorship.
international students via de SSH (Student Next step, this Thursday: adapting the graduation assign-
Housing). But not all students rent via this organisation, ments and sending the description to
and the Gemeente is dependent on Miriam together with the FPA graduation
these people. More trash bins do not lead to less trash. Miriam: There is always room the municipality, but it is
There is a policy behind it. difficult to find a regular space. For
Anna: There is no money back for plastic bottles except meetings it is possible.
for large bottles (1.5 bottles). Develop Luchiena: Nice to visit the waste factories to see how it is
and implement a plastic bottle deposit legislation. Start all separated.
with a draft and take it from there.
Local campaign to target the supermarkets by mobilizing Meeting 2 Municipality of Groningen
public opinion. Focus on World Plastic February 26th, 2019
Free Day. Local public support campaign for the bottle
deposit policy. Participants: Matteo Sabbatini, Thomas Miedema
Miriam: This is an incredibly political issue. Big lobbying
behind it. The public was annoyed that Thomas: Change in law regarding privacy implying that all
the bottles are taken away. It is very complex. There are details about waste management need to be anonymized.
local examples (e.g. a few cities in So we don’t know who is throwing away what in the city.
Catalonia, part of Scotland, Sweden). What we know is the amount of waste that’s collected per
location. We know when the card has been used but we Thomas: Well, this is part of part of the plan to reduce
don’t know the kilos. CO2 and to reach the goal set by the government in the
Netherlands. I think it’s quite a big goal and not achieving
We have been working on an app for the last year and it would mean that we don’t have so much influence
basically the developer gave the assignment back to us in Groningen achieving this goal. It’s obvious but not
because it’s not feasible. But this opens an opportunity for achieving it would be quite bad. Right now we are at
you because there is a wish, we would like to have an app 59% and it’s going to be quite hard. I think that in the way
that works the way you described it but that’s too hard. we do it right now we are never going to make it. A part
of this is because we have this separation plant where
Goal of the Gemeente is to become 100 waste free which we separate after we collect trash. We throw everything
means no trash is incinerated and everything is reused or in the underground bins and then separate in the plant.
recycled. The stage at the moment is about 59% waste This has a lot of advantages actually, but also has a lot of
free [numbers need to be checked]. disadvantages, the hardest part is that in two years we
will have to get another plant because the contract will
The Gemeente is having a ton of projects to achieve this expire in 2020 and in 2021 there will be a new contract. If
goal and to reduce waste. There are 3 points you can we are going to a plant made for recycling at the source,
do: you can reduce waste, recycle waste, reuse waste. with the people in town, then there will be a huge task to
To reduce, that would be marketing programs to make educate people on recycling. However, this is a big ‘if’
sure the people in the city actually are aware of what because we don’t know which kind of plant will be used
they throw away, what they buy and which waste can’t next, if there will be a new one or if we will work with other
be recycled. We reuse a lot, so for example old electric municipalities. People here are not used to separating
parts which can be reused. Then we recycle, therefore we garbage to it will be tough. Right now everything is
refabricate the waste into new items. So for these 3 things separated by machines. Another challenge if citizens will
we all have programs for. That’s Miriam Hall’s division have to separate the garbage is that we will need to install
working on these. many different bins, for example for plastic bottles, the
lid is a different plastic than the actual bottle. This will be
Matt: My assignment would link to the ‘reduce’ quite hard to educate people on it and to do it correctly.
component because my base idea with this app was to It’s all going to depend on the way the new plant will work.
find ways to motivate and inform citizens. I know that for example in Germany they have state-of-
Thomas: We did a brainstorm session where we the-art plants where the split the garbage at the atomic
discussed ideas that we would like to have in the app level with hydrogen or something in those lines. Another
and what kind of ideas should be in there. Basically, your challenge is that the law is not really there, it has to do
idea will be to work on these ideas. My colleague and I with garbage coming from civilians and garbage coming
thought about including Miriam Hall’s division but also from companies. They are treated differently, the garbage
truck drivers, basically anyone’s input to see what would coming from companies is being incinerated basically
be really beneficial for this app and how can we make it 100% of the time, we see them as different flows of trash
better. If we had a final document that we could sent to and the way they are treated at the plant is different. There
the developer and say ‘hey in half a year we would like are laws for this but it doesn’t necessarily serve the goal.
to have this, can you make it?’ that would make it so Usually the burn rates for civilian garbage is 40% but for
much easier. I also thought about how to use this app companies it’s way higher.
to motivate more to reduce garbage. There are these
websites where you say ‘we have these broccolis and Basically we should have more tools to guide civilians in
a carrot and a potato, which dishes can you make with helping up to achieve this 2025 goal and I think that’s also
it?’ so if you have this function in your app you would part of why we want this app to help the people. I think
stimulate people right away from the app to throw less we could do way more to help the people. There are many
away. creative ideas coming from here but we have a hard time
realizing these ideas for time and budget reasons. This is
Matt: For example, these applications where you can log actually one of the threads to achieving this goal. There
in all your food you’ve eaten to see how much calories are some materials we can’t recycle or reuse and as long
you’ve eaten, it could work similarly. For example if you as these are there we can never achieve this goal of 100%
log one frikandel broodje - which comes in paper + plastic waste free. The only way for now is to tell people that
bags from Albert Heijn - then the app could tell you how these items can’t be recycled so they should avoid buying
much plastic you’ve wasted on that day. It could also give them. We need to find another solution and that’s what
information on how households can reduce their waste or the app could be perfect for.
maybe teach people how to reuse certain packagings.
Matt: what do you think would be the best outcome of
Thomas: We have numbers and average so it could this assignment
also say ‘compared to the average you’ve wasted this Thomas: If we have a proposal ready to give to a
much plastic or paper etc…’. Basically, we have a lot of developer then this would be a great outcome of your
information, we just don’t know from who that’s coming project. Like I said there are also some things that we
but it would be nice to give this data back to the people. could incorporate in the app that could have a value for
Will you be able to build the app? us, internally. I think what’s really hard is to set up a goal
So, I will send you the document where we explain the of the app for the civilians, why is it that we make this
app that we were working on. app, is it to educate people or to make their life better
and easier? We really look - from my department - is that
Matt: What’s the undesired outcome in achieving this they can open the container with their phone for example.
2025 goal? What could do wrong? These are things that didn’t really work with the last
developer because it’s too hard to achieve so you should

work with the education part and stick with it or it will be 100 people try to reduce waste by 100% in 100 days. I
too broad and not too realistic. If I introduce you to some think the app could help people that are not doing this
people this is what you will hear: we want this and NSE challenge but it would let them see how much they are
and real time information about the container levels etc… throwing away so that could easily give you an insight
Really determine the goal for yourself. I know from my I think. We like small things so if you can find on some
experience that these university assignments can easily chinese website, a way that can automatically send the
be done too big, for every solution you can think of, there weight of the garbage to your phone and connects with
will be three new problems. the app, this would be great.
Meeting 3 Municipality of Groningen Let’s forget about privacy for a moment, image you use
March 7th, 2019 the trash card, you throw your trash in the underground
bins, and the bin could weight and sense it automatically
Participants: Matteo Sabbatini, Thomas Miedema and send it to the app, then you have a direct insight.
Matt: What would be a good number of downloads for the You need to get information from people on how they use
app? the app to make sure the incineration rates can go down,
but I don’t think there’s any other way to figure that out
Thomas: There are around 180,000 people in groningen without sensors. What do you think?
of which you would say that your target group would be
between 20 and 40 or 50 years old. So that makes ⅓ of Matt: I think that you could track the data they users put
the population, maybe a little bit more and that would in the app, then of course it won’t be a 100% accurate
make around 60,000 people. If you reach ⅓ of that, I think result but you could see from the data how the app
it would be a major success. But on the other hand we changes the behaviour of people. If the app actually helps
know how many times the Afvalwijzer, it’s a sheet where them or if it doesn’t.
you can see when certain trash is being collected, it’s
online and it was downloaded also 20,000 times so it Thomas: You could specify how many kilos do people
would be great if everybody who is downloading this page register in the app, to determine if the app is successful or
right now is also downloading the app. So I think 20,000 not, then you get an insight on participation rates. I think
is an ambitious goal but it’s also a nice goal for you. we have averages on what people throw away, so you
could say the more they log, the more information you
Matt: Could you get me the document which has the have.
exact incineration / waste recycling rates? We have a lot of data that’s generalized, there are no
privacy problems, for instance, how often someone
Thomas: Ok, that’s going to be a bit hard because I don’t uses the trash card. Then you could say, on average, it’s
have the document. Miriam Hall has this and actually I this amount, and then you can ask your users on some
should set you up for an appointment with her because kind of in-app survey, you can keep it small, if this is
she has a lot of knowledge since it’s her division working the average for Groningen, where do you fit? Then you
on this. But this will be next week or the week after. also have some measurable outcomes and it would give
great insights for us. I’m actually looking for something
Thomas: So what I actually would like to do is to set you where people can also give feedback to us. We have this
up for a meeting also with the project manager, her name StadsPanel, where every month for example, you get this
is Anneke Oostra, she’s been working on this app for survey where you can rate the city. That’s very important
a year so I think there will be a lot of information. I also because based on the answers the municipality acts
would say that we need to have an interview with her, she upon. So these small surveys in-app could really help.
has a lot of documents about research and this kind of
stuff, so maybe come prepared with questions already. We have these people that go to schools and educate
small children and they know a lot about how to educate
What I can also do for you is arrange a meeting with and deliver a story to educate so maybe it’s also nice
another municipality which already has an app, you can for you to have a talk with one of them, they could give
ask about research usage. It’s a village about 20 minutes feedback on your app.
from year, with around 60,000 people. Their app is pretty
basic but they might be able to tell you why the users So, what I really can do for you is to set you up with
use it, how they use it. I’m sure they already have done stakeholders, so Miriam Hall, Luchiena, Anneke Oostra.
research on this. They have overall knowledge on what they need.
What also would be a nice subgoal is that it can be used Afvalwijzer Download Rates
as a platform where people can give feedback to us. So From: Google Analytics
not only us communicating to civilians but also them
communicating to us.
Then, to measure the impact that the app has on
incineration rates, I think that’s really hard to measure
because there are also many other things the municipality
is doing to educate people. Unless you get some data
from people, like a calorie tracker then it would give us
somehow an insight on what people normally throw away
and then on what people throw away after the app is
used. But this requires a lot of effort.
We are also doing this project called, 100-100-100 where

Appendix B
Research
Stakeholder Interview with Miriam Hall students?

Municipality of Groningen
March 25th, 2019 Miriam: well that’s informing them, we also do it in
different ways, also with posters and pamphlets also
Participants: Matteo Sabbatini, Miriam Hall, Thomas leaflets at SSH, we give them loads of material so the
Miedema agreement is that they give lots of those to new incoming
students so informing them and making it easier from
Matt: What does the Gemeente do to target young people them and challenging them, those are the 3 ways we do it.
(students & high-schools 16-25, young working force 26-
35) on waste consumption? Matt: how about dutch students?
Miriam: We have different target groups, we actually Miriam: it’s similar, so inform, encourage, challenge and
start with the youngest, junior school and then we target make it easy. Dutch students are difficult because a
students. We find senior school children difficult to target. lot of them live in accommodations owned by student
We go for the young children because they are still very organizations but a lot of them live in private housing so
open and interested and they are good to influence on it’s difficult to reach them all. We use different means like
how you should treat the environment and waste so we organizations on facebook as well and we make sure that
have environmental stewards that go junior schools give the facilities are easy by the flats, we’re increasing the
lessons on waste, and how you should treat it. We find number of glass containers and paper containers by those
teenagers difficult to target because they are just busy flats, and we inform them via key week in the beginning
with other things so we don’t really focus on them and and those that live in private housing are difficult to
then if you look at student we do the following. We find approach. We target them via surveys as well and what
it very important to inform them on what you should do we also want to do is to start targeting via instagram as
with your waste so we start with KEY week, we have a well.
stand to inform people on what they can do and we also
have a double page in a folder that all students get when Matt: What’s the tone of voice used by the Gemeente
they move to groningen all about waste and how you when addressing to young people?
should treat it. We go to different student organizations
to tell them what we think is important on the basis of Miriam: It’s always important to keep the tone positive
waste. So there are 3 things we do and then what we instead of saying ‘don’t do that’, instead ‘please can
are also doing, we got a student project to see how we you do this’. So we try to keep a positive tone. So with
can target students better in regards to waste so what different forms of communication channels, either via
we did first is to focus on a few areas in the city where posters or pamphlets we tell people what they can do. We
lots of students live. We did a survey in which we ask also tell them in a few sentences why it’s important to do
students what do you think of waste, what do you think that. We also do posts directed to different people, so you
is important, what do you think you should separate got dutch students and international students.
and under which circumstances do you do it and on the
basis of that we make sure there is a lot of information Matt: What has been proven to be working when
for students, for example on facebook pages of student communicating waste consumption messages to young
organizations, what you should do, so we’re focus on people? Which are the most successful campaigns?
informing people. We are also improving the number of
containers on the student flat, just like paper and glass Miriam: I don’t know, it’s so incredibly difficult to monitor
to make it as easy as possible for students to separate these kind of things, you can try and do that with
their waste and we’re targeting Dutch students and also surveys but we don’t know if the answers are right or if
internationals. At the moment we’re busy with the SSH, it’s what the person thought it would be good to say in
which houses a lot of international students and we use that moment. We just use a scientific background for
them as an intermediary organizations to tell them what the things that we do, what is proven in general to be
they should do with their waste. We actually started a new effective, so what we know is that the easier you make
project just a few weeks ago, it’s called Bin Bang which it for people to separate the waste the more likely it is
we’re challenging students in the sense that they are for them to do so. That’s what we know on the basis of
participating in a real challenge where they have to waste experience and scientific research and that’s what we
the least amount possible for a month’s time, and actually apply. How do you measure the success of a campaign
giving people or groups presents as well if they produce so we can see if the percentage of waste separation
very little waste. has improved and we can interview people again.
When we do campaigns, we interview people, asking
Matt: is this the only way you target international for suggestions, ‘did it make it easy for you? What else
would make it easy for you?’ it’s always possible that
people give the answer which people think is expected Thomas: and also the trend is that the university focuses
at that moment so you just don’t know; and if you look at on international students because they can earn more
measuring the level of waste separation that’s creeping money so the whole trend in the netherlands is that it will
up, but we’re talking about half a percent and we don’t become more international so I think it’s really good to
know what that’s caused by. really prepare for it.
Matt: when you say making it easy do you have an Miriam: where do all expats work? well , at the Shell,
example? Gasunie, the University, the UMCG, IBM. I think that’s
where the majority of expats will work. So up to now
Miriam: for example the fact that we put glass and paper they are not a really big group for us. On 230,000 I can’t
containers right next to the student houses or flats and imagine there will be more than 10,000.
we’ve been doing that with student flats all around the
city but also with new flats that are being built at the Matt: Which are the best ways to change a certain
moment so as soon as people come to live there we hope behavior?
that they will immediately start that kind of behaviour -
separate your waste, when you go outside, bring paper Miriam: Well behaviour is incredibly difficult to change.
with you - so we hope they will choose certain patterns There are lots of models to change behaviour, there are
which they will continue to use. while a few dutch models in place at the moment that are
used to change waste behaviour. People have different
Matt: Do you take cultures into consideration? driving forces, at it’s very difficult, very dependent on
your religious background or cultural background, all
Miriam: we really try to take cultures into considerations, sort of things. That’s the case for the dutch as well,
we are aware that we are getting more and more regional background influences your behaviour. So you
international students so we have to focus more and can make it incredibly complicated or not because there
more on them so up to recently we weren’t even allowed are so many different models that you can use. But
to communicate in a language other than dutch, that’s one of the main things that is very clear is that positive
governmental policy. I don’t even know whether that messages worked better than negative messages, it’s
policy actually changed but we’ve just decided to ignore really important to show people what you’d like them to
it. It’s so important to communicate in other languages do. For some people before they change they really got
and we know that most courses are offered in english so to know why, so it’s important to emphasize that and why
we expect them to speak english. your message is important. It’s also important to keep
repeating your message. We have poster campaigns
Matt: is there another example of how you take culture throughout the year, you’ve got posters throughout the
into consideration? As you said there are students city, mainly in dutch, we also have a lories that have got
that come from different continents so how do you posters on the sides so you keep seeing that message
differentiate that from people that come from north and we’re gonna put them on waste collection bins too.
america or asia? We’re trying to surround people with that message so
they keep seeing that message. At some point people no
Miriam: we’ve got to look into that, but we don’t have longer realize that they are doing what we would like them
that sufficiently clear yet, however that’s a very important to do.
factor because some cultures are very hierarchical so if Groups of people like to have challenges, so we try to
you say ‘do this, please’ they will and some are not at all, have at least 1 challenge a year where people can join
so then you’ve got to use different means. So the way and raise waste awareness. For example a few years
we do it now is that we differentiate between dutch and ago we did 100-100-100, last year we did the food battle
international students. where we encouraged people to throw away as little food
as possible and we want our challenge for next year to be
Matt: What about expats that live here? about plastics.
Miriam: that’s something we’ve still got to look into it. We Thomas: so that’s very important for you because your
do have all information in english on the side in relevant app which we think should already be there can fit very
place but we know that students are a quarter of the well with this.
population in the city and I’m not quite sure how many
expats live in the city or work in the city. Miriam: an app is so incredibly important, I’ve been
wanting an app and I’ve been working here almost 6
Thomas: it can’t be too many, it’s of course not smart years. But it’s not easy.
to forget about them at all but like you said, we are not
making a problem out of translating into english. Even Matt: What’s the internal communication style of
for your (matt) idea for the app I would suggest you have Gemeente Groningen?
english and dutch.
Miriam: well I think it’s direct, you can walk up to your
Miriam: A lot of these expats are here for a short time and boss, a lot of emails to see what’s going on.
if you look at people that work for shell, I know quite a few
people that work there and they are here for 4-5 years and Matt: How would you describe the organizational culture?
the language spoken at work is english and it’s the same if
you look at several expats that work at the university they Miriam: I think it’s pretty informal, friendly and open.
are also here for a limited amount of time, some are able
to extend their contracts but you know the language they Thomas: I can judge more for my own department but yes
speak at the university is english. it’s pretty informal, my manager is really easy to approach.
phone for everything you know that’s a natural way of
Matt: so would you say that the structure is kind of flat? thinking for them, and getting information. Because i was
brought up in a different way I don’t do it so naturally, I
Miriam: yes id say so, but not if you look at the structure know it’s possible but I just don’t think about it. You’ve got
because it’s actually very vertical if you look at the number to think it through in your way too.
of lays but if you look at the informal culture than it’s Look at the age demographics cause that’s also
pretty flat. important.
Thomas: that being said it’s also a political culture, it is Matt: Are there certain topics or tips, which the population
a culture where if you have an idea or you want to pass is not really aware of, and should definitely be included in
something it needs to go through a lot of people and the mobile app?
you need the approval of many people and I think that’s Miriam: absolutely, the majority of people still don’t know
something characteristic of the whole government, it’s that we have a waste separation factory here which
what makes it pretty strong but it’s also a big part of separates plastics, metal, paper and cartons, and so I
internal organization, and culture. very frequently get asked when Groningen will stop being
a very backward Gemeente that doesn’t separate they
Matt: If the app is to educate citizens and attempt to plastics, but it’s actually really well done. We do try to
change their behavior, in which ways do you think that bring across that message.
would be done best?
Matt: last question, how do you inform the population
Miriam: well what I think is very important for an app is about the organizational goal 2025.
that people are willing to download it. They have to think
that this is an app that I want to use, and that’s what I Miriam: I think people know it but not everyone is aware
kept thinking ‘what will make the app attractive so that of course, it’s so difficult to bring across a message. If
they keep on coming back’ ‘what are the selling points’? we sent people messages, either a letter or something,
Because you have a lot of apps made to inform about like the separation calender than the first sentence will be
waste separation but I don’t know if that’s what it’s gonna about the 2025 goal, and then the next sentence is where
make everyone thing ‘yeah I want this app I’m gonna we explain why it’s so important.
download it’ so I’ve been thinking ‘what is the information
that I want people to know about waste and will want to Thomas: it’s a bit of a national thing, there’s a trend and
make them download the app’. Partly, I think things like people start knowing about waste free cities. But it’s also
‘don’t forget that if you put your paper out tomorrow we a pretty hard message because people don’t understand
will connect it’ that’s definitely part of it. But more than what it means waste free - do we not throw anything
60% of our population is dependant on underground away?
containers to dispose they waste and there’s always a
feeling that these are always broken or full, whether that’s Miriam: I think there is a need to inform people more
the case Thomas knows more about that on the basis of about that, it’s difficult for governments to bring those
his research but that’s a feeling, people get really annoyed messages across. And I think it’s really important to use
if they bring out their waste and it’s broken so that should instagram because we are such a young population but
be a point to focus on, so notifications are incredibly I think people don’t get much interested on what the
important. You’ve got to think about the natural ways to government does.
deliver information. For example, once a year you can get We have a website and i think it’s absolutely awful, it
compost from us, join us at this challenge, and it’s not the doesn’t make people stay on it, it’s so not interesting,
basic information but it can make it interesting, to engage and we’ve been battling for years to make the waste
the people. page of the website more attractive but it’s just not
working because of the central policies on external
Thomas: what’s interesting is where does our app and communication.
where does your educational part of the app starts.
Thomas: We have a unique opportunity now with creating
Miriam: same with glass or christmas threes, don;t forget our own app, and I think we are really creating our own
to separate your glass and then you can add some app here, and I still think we are a bit limited with what
information like, did you know the glass goes here where we can achieve because a lot of people have a say on
it’s recycled in 48 hours to make new glass. Storytelling is it but I think there’s a bit chance so if you need to write
so important. something about why you think it’s gonna work, it’s
because the need is really high, there’s a case here.
Matt: then maybe people feel even better about recycling
or reusing because they know what’s going on. Matt: Thank you very much Miriam
Miriam: What you could is inform visitors that come to the Miriam: My pleasure, I’m really interested in what you’ve
city center about all the shops that are very happy to put going to think out and hopefully we can use it.
your products in your box, like cheese or at the butcher
or the market. And lots of people would love that but they
don’t dare because they think the shops would think of
them as crazy but you know if that sort of thing you can
put in an app to make that interesting.
I think it’s really important for you to think it about it too
because as a project manager I’m at an age where I don’t
even use my phone that much and you two are a lot
younger than me and if I look at my children they use their
Proto-personas
Profile Behaviours
• Sometimes recycles paper
• Informs herself on sustainability issues
• Can pull a 9a.m. to 10p.m. when needed
• Uses social media extensively
• Meredith
• 21 years old Goals
• In a relationship • Wants to graduate without study delays
• From the UK • Wants to keep a good balance between
• International Law, second university and social life
year student
Profile Behaviours
• Loves lifting and running
• Tech savvy and hungry for new tech
• Travels to Amsterdam every other
weekend to visit friends
• Follows the news extensively
• Nathan
• Single • Wants to gather a lot of experience
• From France • Wants to move to Silicon Valley
• Graduate program at IBM CIC • Doesn’t want to stay in Groningen for
Groningen more than 2 more years
Profile Behaviours
• Lazy
• Does not recycle or reuse waste, relies
on parents.
• Sometimes throws plastic on the ground.
• Doesnt like adults giving advice
• Martijn
• In a relationship • Going out with friends
• From Netherlands • Unsure what and where to study
• High-school student • Achieving a high ranking in Clash Royale
Proto Empathy Map
What can I do to live more sustainably?

I don’t have time to separate my waste.
This info is in Dutch only.
Thinks & Feels

The city is clean but bins
Gemeente Groningen is a are hard to find.
backward municipality. Gemeente’s posters in
Hears Sees
Gemeente Groningen town about waste.
doesn’t recycle. Garbage collection bins are
Says & Does often broken or full.
Sustainability is super important.

Uses bins in town to throw on-the-go waste.
Does not recycle on a daily basis.

Final Personas
Final Empathy Map
Needs Analysis - Survey

Explanation of Relate, Create, Donate principles
(Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998)
The first principle, ‘relate’, refers to people’s ability to be

engaged when collaboration between peers takes place,
as collaboration increases motivation to learn (Kearsley &
Shneiderman, 1998).
The second principle, ‘create’, implies that people
are more motivated and interested in a subject when
conducting their own projects (Kearsley & Shneiderman,
1998).
Lastly, ‘donate’, suggests that engagement can be
reached when students make a useful contribution while
learning (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998).
Appendix C
Development
Mobile app (Phase 1) by Gemeente Groningen

Wireframes

Preliminary Sketches of Creative Concept
Lo-Fi Wireframes
Appendix D
Design
Communication Product: Mobile App

Wireframes before Evaluation (Testing)

Appendix E
Evaluation
First Round of Prototype Testing

Focus Group @ University Library (UB) Groningen

All Wireframes After First Round of Testing

Survey Questions - Second Testing

Survey Results - Second Testing

All Wireframes After Second Round of Testing (only the wireframes that feature changes are shown)

H. Anti-plagiarism statement
I herewith certify that I am the sole author of the attached paper without having used any
other primary and/or secondary sources other than those indicated and referenced
appropriately.
All passages in the paper used from published and/or unpublished texts have been
acknowledged by source references and are included in the attached bibliography/
reference list.
This paper has not previously been submitted in its present or similar form.
Signed by
Student name: Matteo Sabbatini
Student number: 342124
Signature:
Date: 7 June 2019
Town: Groningen


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A digital solution towards a waste-free city

NON-CONFIDENTIAL Program: International Communication

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 1

Hanze University of Applied Sciences

Company supervisor: Thomas Miedema

Student number: 342124

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 3

The mobile app, which originally allows users to

Notifications with the aim of:

The designs are tested twice. The first testing is

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 5

WORD COUNT: 2023

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 7

1.1 — A Waste-Free City (Miedema, T., personal interview, February 26th,

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 9

2.1 — Problem Statement

Figure 1 - Problem Description Model (based on De Haan & De Heer, 2015)

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 11

Public & Private

Stakeholders other than the client include:

3.1 — Main Goal (Desired Situation)

3.3 — Measurable Goals

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 13

Sub-Goal 1 Sub-Goal 2 Sub-Goal 3

Measurable Goals Measurable Goals Measurable Goals

3.4 — Influencing factors

Figure 4 - Goals and Influencing Factors

4.1 — Communication Objectives

01. Raise awareness on Gemeente Groningen’s organizational goal - to make

02. Inspire behavior change towards sustainable waste consumption amongst

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 15

Phase Deadlines Tasks Communication Resources

Gemeente Groningen (2017). Impulsplan Zwerfafval Groningen 2013-2022.

Hall, M. (2019, March). Personal Communication. (Sabbatini, M., Interviewer)

Roles and responsibilities of provincial government, municipal government and

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 17

WORD COUNT: 4,986

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 19

The purpose of the design document is to summarize all design requirements

1.2 — Problem Statement

1.3 — Research Objective

1.4 — Research Approach

Design Thinking Research

Needs Analysis Functional Analysis Context Analysis

Creative Tools Creative Tools Research Tools

Key Concepts Key Concepts

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 21

Figure 6 - Deriving concepts to research questions (Needs Analysis)

Previous Literature Design Thinking Tools

The Theory of Planned Behaviour is a valuable framework in determining the

• Interest in • Attitude oof • What makes it • Willingness to

Figure 8 - Unraveling concepts (Social Learning Theory)

Environmental Cognitive Behavioral

Knowledge Attitude Awareness

• Ways to reduce, reuse, • Client’s organizational

A Digital Solution Towards A Waste-free City 23

2.3 — Research Methodology Graph 2 - Nationality

The preferred social media channels are Instagram

Graph 3 - Frequency of use of social media

However, the main items that are usually recycled

Sub-question 2: What is the general opinion Graph 7 - Most recycled materials

Groningen’s young civilians are interested in