The challenge
Maintaining the environment here in NSW is critical, and littering is one of the most unnecessary and preventable environmental problems in NSW.
The NSW EPA engaged The Customer Experience Company to reinvigorate the design of the existing Don’t Be A Tosser microsite with the purpose to educate the NSW community about the impacts of littering and empower them to change their littering behaviour.
The NSW EPA needed an ‘always on’ digital channel that:
- Provided users with accessible information about the impacts of littering (not just during campaign periods)
- Encouraged positive behaviour change and,
- Provided escalation pathways that allowed users to report littering behaviour.
But to achieve positive behaviour change, we faced a difficult challenge: how can we change the boring subject of ‘rubbish’ and make it interesting and engaging to people, specifically those who are core litterers.
The situation
The approach
The research
The findings
The solution
We designed a series of lo-fidelity concepts and tested them with a cross-section of litterers - self-reported, passive, and non-litterers to identify the content that would resonate and how to best present it to empower behaviour change.
This research laid the foundation for our next design stage: an interactive, clickable prototype embedded with localised educational information about the effects of littering here in NSW. The clickable prototype was supported with high-fidelity screen designs for mobile, desktop and tablet. The prototype was delivered ‘build ready’ and backed with a build plan for the NSW EPA to begin implementation.
The user can choose their own adventure and follow litter into the ocean, creeks, and bushland, where they discover the damaging impact of their littering behaviour.
Prompts encourage simple and easy actions users can take to reduce littering and offers an opportunity for users to personally pledge to stop littering and share their pledge with others.
The website is supported with an interactive quiz that uncovers several behaviours users may not realise are damaging to the environment.
The impact
The NSW EPA Don’t Be A Tosser campaign continues to raise awareness and inform the community about littering and its consequences to drive positive behaviour change to put rubbish in the bin. It has laid a solid foundation and groundwork that supports its broader strategy to reduce waste in NSW.
The Don’t Be A Tosser website provides an interactive experience for the community to learn more about littering in an engaging and digestible way, featuring: fun facts, interactive journeys, quizzes and more. Since launch, the NSW EPA has documented an increased website engagement of +77%.
In 2022, the work was awarded a prestigious Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Digital Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
