Evaluating the Usability of University Waste-Sorting Systems

Abstract

Recycling is a widely adopted practice that can reduce waste in landfills and increase profits for companies, corporations, and universities, such as Clemson, that sell recyclable materials. For these materials to be sold at a competitive price, however, they must be uncontaminated. This is a considerable barrier for Clemson University because users’ knowledge and experience with recycling do not align with Clemson University’s expected recycling practices. In an effort to bridge this gap, we followed human-centered design practices to generate and test prototypes of new system signage. We found that users were more accurate and confident in their sorting behavior when interacting with the new signage. Users also perceived the new signage as more usable than the old signage. In addition to these findings, the results of this research include a user testing methodology and experimental protocol that can be implemented in other contexts where large populations sort waste.