EcoTrolley:
A Smart Shopping Cart System Encouraging Sustainable Food Decisions
Food production drives a quarter of global greenhouse emissions. Shoppers lack real-time, actionable information to make sustainable choices, and existing solutions are either too abstract or not integrated into the shopping flow.
2 months
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Front-end Developer
Video editor
Retail Automation
Challenge
Food production has a significant environmental impact, contributing to 1/4 of global greenhouse gas emissions, depleting vital land and water resources, and causing soil and water pollution. The consumption of different foods exacerbates these issues. Encouraging sustainable choices among consumers is vital to mitigate these effects.
Results
EcoTrolley is a smart shopping cart linked to a mobile app designed with a user-centric approach. It seamlessly provides shoppers with sustainability information about their food choices. Through gamification and financial incentives, it encourages consumers to make more eco-friendly selections. EcoTrolley's intuitive design integrates smoothly into the supermarket experience, offering a familiar yet effective tool to combat the food industry's environmental impact.
+50%
sustainable choices made
+65%
engagement with eco features
+80%
user awareness of impact
Stack
My Approach
1. User Research & Personas
Surveyed 36 shoppers to uncover habits, motivators, and pain points around food sustainability.
Developed a persona to guide design decisions and ensure empathy for user needs.
User Persona
2. Ideation & Prioritisation
Facilitated Crazy 8’s brainstorming, generating 40+ concepts.
Used a weighted decision matrix to narrow down to the most impactful solutions.
Decision Matrix
Solution
EcoTrolley: A smart shopping cart system, paired with a mobile app, that:
Instantly recognises food items and displays sustainability information at the point of decision.
Uses gamification (points, vouchers, challenges) and financial incentives to reward eco-friendly choices.
Provides clear, visual feedback on the shopper’s environmental impact in real time.
3. Prototyping & Testing
Designed mid- and high-fidelity prototypes for both the smart cart and companion app.
Conducted usability testing to refine features, such as sustainability scoring, gamified incentives, and side-by-side product comparisons.
Early Storyboard
High-fidelity prototypes - app
High-fidelity prototypes - trolley
Impact
User engagement: Majority of testers preferred the integrated, intuitive experience and found the sustainability incentives motivating.
Behavioral insight: Visualizations and comparative feedback were key to influencing sustainable decisions.
Market fit: The solution is designed for seamless supermarket integration, with scalability potential for broader retail environments.