2021
A bright world!
Connect, Collect & Create
Meaning of Kenaz
Literally: “Torch” – Esoteric ‘Ken’ or Knowledge
Kenaz represents the brilliant flame of divine inspiration: Rebirth through sacrifice- Creation through fire.
Keywords: Enlightenment, curiosity, learning, knowledge, exploration, technical ability, light, torch, environment, and creative power.
Existence begins from an initial state of emptiness, yet through constant interaction between people, opposite and complementary elements, the cosmos and life, creativity is born.
We as human beings have certain habits, needs, motivations and aspirations.
The elements that we rely on are basic, and yet living in a consumerism world our values had shifted to create negative habits that has a negative impact on our well-being as individuals, as a small community and as a broader globe, in which it started reflecting into a negative impulse.
We all want a healthy happy body, mind and soul.
About
Kenaz is a non-profit woman owned start-up that is focused on the future. The start-up resembles the active curiosity that seeks answers through conscious exploration.
The main key elements: Community, Art, and Energy
Kenaz's proposed application aims at connecting people with each other from within their small or large communities to work on art projects from their household recycle material, which will be displayed within their local communities and perhaps extend to the public areas of their city.
A collaborative community effort will focus on collecting scrap material, old furniture, and unwanted belongings that people are ready to throw in the dumpster, donate, or simply send to a recycling station.
Goal
Today, as the pandemic cloud hovers on top of our globe, we learn a new essential lesson about our well-being as individuals, and about the extreme value of having people in our lives.
Staying connected, working together through transparent digital screens, becoming more compassionate towards one another, and creating more room in our minds to appreciate the health of our planet, mother earth.
The human self that needs reassurance of existence for hope to come back, for fear to subside, and for life to go back to normal.
People are motivated by being connected to one another, and perhaps for those who do not care about the environment, art is a universal language of unity that speaks the same language across the globe.
Target audience:
A. Small Communities
(To begin with as a measure of the apps success)
B. Larger Communities:
(Such as: Social clubs, community centers, corporate companies, and government sectors)
My role: UX Designer
Team: N/A
Problem Solving
Problem: Year 2019-2020 COVID-19 trauma and the fear of indoor interactions for safety measures that led to the utter remote life, and the increase of house repair and remodeling work, which adds to the pile of junk that needs to be dumped somewhere.
Solution: Brining a sense of community and inner illumination to increase self motivation within the safety measures of outdoor interaction, recycling household items to raise mindfulness and awareness about our globe, and to keep people/neighbors sane by staying busy with working on up-cycle creative projects.
Users
My neighbors were my first target audience residing in the USA, I also included users from different parts of the globe in my online survey and usability test to study the feasibility of the application on a wider spectrum of people and regions.
Age group: 30-70
Stakeholders
The globe
Kenaz App did not include any stakeholders' interviews, nor fictional stakeholders feedback, due to the nature of the project's agility.
Nonetheless, I took into consideration that my stakeholders can be anyone who is willing to take her/is first ecological footprint.
Everyone should be able to look forward to a bright future where we all thrive within the means of the planet.
We are consuming natural resources faster than they can regenerate; we are using the Earth's future resources to operate in the present, and we need to embrace the fact that together as stakeholders of our globe can save and continue to build a brighter world!
Research
Growing Success
An extensive research was done to cover 3 different applications in the current industry from Recycle Apps, Community Apps, and Art Workshop Apps.
The competitors:
Sharewaste, Recycle Nation, RecycleSmart, Nextdoor, and Design Hunt
I was slightly challenged during the research phase, my 3 main pain points were finding the following:
1. Recycle apps for small communities
2. Existing up-cycle apps
3. Apps that collectively combine the concept of Kenaz
The overall result of the research was very good as it linked different applications, it was an eye opener experience as it gave me the chance to look into and study more than one application.
Online Survey
Affinity Cluster
The conducted online survey was completely useful it included questions that revolve around housing status, donation stations, community premises, community common interests, volunteer work, indoor & outdoor recycling bins, artistic hobbies, opinion and intake on joining Kenaz app.
In conclusion to the online survey I created an affinity cluster, in summary the affinity cluster was divided into 3 main sections: The community users' needs, the product requirement, and the future product plan. I was able to come up with a constructive wording that laid a foundation for the true value of Kenaz.
Information Architecture
Structural design
The art and science of organizing and labeling steps for Kenaz created a solid structural design for the application.
I stretched my imagination during the creation of the personas mainly focusing on people's passion and love for their environment.
The link between sustainability and art is a creative force, most people tend to enjoy collecting items, reusing them by adding their own artistic touch, in the past decade it has been noticeable the move towards sustainability is expanding, and the number of environmental advocates have been increasing which is a positive sign.
Below slides showcases the principles of my design for the structure of my information environment.
Personas
Empathy Maps
App Map
Road Map
User Flow & Task Flow
Mid-Fi To Hi-Fi
Brand
Shapes & Colors
Kenaz holds an illuminated value that is expressed in their slogan “A bright world!”
The value of earth, the community and the creative motivation of the human race expressed in the form of art to sustain our forgiving earth.
Choosing or making decisions isn’t always easy. Kenaz advises us to let ourselves be guided by the light of reason and knowledge.
With Kenaz we renew ourselves, we sustain our environment, we abandon old habits and old vices; every obstacle for us becomes a challenge to grow and learn something new, both of a personal conscience and of collective existence.
Kenaz's color palette is full of vibrant colors that remind us of all the elements on earth, the sun, the water, the air, the ether, and the earth. The rune shape highlighted as in the logo has a dominant green color related to the recycle symbol and earth.
Logo Design
Branding Message
Experimentation
Action, set and go
New solutions and beginnings are only one step away to reaching the final Ideation of the UX design process, there are several techniques for ideation, the best practice I choose is make my users feel completely relaxed about their opinion, I also pick diverse users to better understand and evaluate how a design is going to be flexible and usable all over the world.
Kenaz ideation was short and sweet, the design was straight forward, and attractive, during the design I put a list of How Might We scenarios to better understand what would be the ideal pattern of the application.
In summary, the desk research that was done for several application helped me structure the app in a simple way that connects all the elements needed for a successful interaction.
Prototype
Reaching the prototype section is always fun, I get excited to see how the fruit of my design will come out, and what my users expectation is going to be.
Anticipating a result creates an adrenaline rush.
During my usability test for Kenaz App, I had received constructive feedback from my users, the overall views were very positive and pleasant, few adjustments were made to the intro pages, and the final UI design.
Usability Test
Participants
Conclusion
This is the second App I design during the course of 10 months with DesignLab. Kenaz's Application new concept revolved around 3 main key elements "Connect, Collect, and Create."
I wanted to draw attention to sustainability through an artistic touch, and an affirmation that people love to interact and definitely copycat each other when they see something they like at their next door neighbors's house.
The result was very positive, my users loved the idea, enjoyed browsing the App, and I was very pleased with the agility of my work progress in crossing the Ts' with my UX design journey as a student and hopefully as a successful future designer!
