Take Back Scheme

Background

Discovery and research into River Island’s new clothes recycling scheme which launched as a trial. The goal was to increase user awareness and improve the usability.

Timeline

2 weeks

Role

UX Researcher
UX Designer

Team

Myself
Associate UX Designer
Content Team

Stakeholders

Sustainability team

Tools

UserZoom, Figma

View the live page
Tack Back Scheme screens on mobile and desktop
Discovering User’s Needs
The discovery process
The Challenge

How can we raise user awareness of the Take Back Scheme, and encourage them to participate?

Usability

In order to participate in the scheme, users need to know the steps they need to take in order to do so, and to be able to do it with ease.

Metrics to evaluate success

Number of customers participating in the scheme, number of £5 discount vouchers redeemed.

UX Analysis
Goals:

Identify the key pieces of information users need to know in order to participate in the scheme, and pain points that may prevent them from doing so

Findings:
  • The minimum amount of items needed to receive the incentive was unclear.
  • Unclear that clothes from all brands are accepted.
  • No imagery of the recycling bins - how will users know what they look like in store?
  • Unclear that users can have their items collected by courier.
  • Large blocks of difficult to scan through text
Original take back scheme screens, email and webpage
Unmoderated Usability Testing
Usability testing quote - I don't like the idea of recycling clothes without knowing what will happen to them. I feel like this is a way for brands to virtue signal
Goals
  • To find out if the email is informative enough to customers.
  • Is the Take Back Scheme webpage is discoverable to customers?
  • To identify any barriers to the adoption of the scheme.
  • Unclear that users can have their items collected by courier.
  • Large blocks of difficult to scan through text
Participants

16 women between the ages of 25 - 35.

Tasks
  • Read the email and feedback
  • Find the Take Back Scheme page on riverisland.com
  • Read through the Take Back Scheme page and feedback
Findings

Customers are less likely to participate in the scheme if

  • They don’t see the value.
  • They don’t feel fully informed and therefore confident.
  • They’re unable to easily discover the information they’re looking for.
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Competitor Analysis
Goals
  • To find what the clothes recycling scheme landscape looked like.
  • Understand what features we needed in order to compare with our competitors.
Findings

M&S and Levi’s had the most user friendly and informative schemes amongst competing retailers. All relevant information was provided upfront, with the steps for how to participate broken down into an easy to read and process format.

A screenshot of Levi's clothes recycling scheme
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Solutions & Recommendations for Email and Webpage
Solutions
More detail
  • Make the name of the scheme clearer
  • Explain if the scheme has a deadline or not
  • Display the Terms & Conditions
  • Make it easier to scan through list of participating stores
  • Clothing from any brand is accepted - make this clear
  • Imagery of the Donation Bins
Further clarity
  • What happens to donated clothes?
  • What happens once items have been donated in store? - And what does the customer need to do next?
  • Make the Take Back Scheme page easier to find - add links to the footer and sustainability page
Suggestions
  • Is it possible to reduce the minimum spend? The £40 min spend was a barrier to most participants.
  • By doing this, we can compete with other fashion retailers offering a similar scheme.
Design Exploration
Description of scheme Design one
Full screen video Design two
Detailed steps Design three
Calls to action Design four
Design Hurdles

One of the challenges of this project was managing the expectations of the Content team which included Copy Writing, Graphic design, and Branding.

We had to make sure the user’s need and research informed and was at the forefront of all design decisions. This meant that there needed to be pushback and changes on some copywriting decisions and graphic design elements in order to ensure the redesign was fully accessible, user-friendly, easy to navigate and left the user feeling fully informed.

Results & Next Steps
Initial Results

+ Increase in clothes donations
+ Increase in £5 vouchers redeemed

Final Thoughts

The scheme launched officially in January 2023 online, as well as being expanded to 204 stores. Unfortunately, the deadline for the redesign was a very tight one, which didn't leave room for usability testing before going live as I would have liked. However we were able to monitor engagement on ContentSquare, and watch session recordings which show us outright if their were any pain points users were having issues with.

If the timeline allowed for it, I'd launch a usability test on UserZoom to test the designs with participants before going live.

Final designs

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