Milieu Centraal aims to make sustainability accessible. We were tasked with designing two critical online tools: the Keurmerkenwijzer, to help users decipher the complex world of sustainability labels on products, and the Afvalscheidingswijzer, to provide clear, localized guidance on household waste separation. The goal was to create intuitive, trustworthy digital experiences that empower users to make informed sustainable choices effortlessly.
About Milieu Centraal
Milieu Centraal, an organization dedicated to empowering Dutch consumers with reliable, actionable advice for sustainable living. This project involved designing two key online tools: the Keurmerkenwijzer (Sustainability Label Guide) and the Afvalscheidingswijzer (Waste Separation Guide).
My role & responsibilities
As UX Lead, my responsibility extended from client communication and team guidance to hands-on design and ensuring a user-centered approach throughout. Our process included:
- Foundation & Strategy: We began by analyzing personas provided by the client, advising a shift towards Mindsets to better capture diverse user motivations and contexts. Stakeholder workshops helped align on the project’s ‘why’ and understand Milieu Centraal’s core objectives.
- User needs research: We dove deep into understanding user needs through journey mapping, identifying pain points, and uncovering opportunities for improvement in how people seek sustainability information.
- Ideation & Design: We brainstormed solutions, sketched initial concepts, and moved into Figma to create wireframes and prototypes. A key focus was developing a robust design system. This system was built using advanced Figma capabilities, ensuring components were reusable across both tools, consistent, accessible, and easy for Milieu Centraal’s content team to manage. All designs were meticulously based on an 8-pixel grid.
- Testing & Iteration: We validated our concepts through user testing with sketches and prototypes, ensuring a human-first design that truly met user needs and addressed the identified challenges. Feedback directly informed design refinements.
The solution
We delivered two distinct, yet cohesively designed, online tools available on desktop and mobile. Both tools leverage the shared Design System for a consistent, trustworthy, and “playful but professional” user experience, optimized for providing quick, reliable answers.
Keurmerkenwijzer: An intuitive guide allowing users to quickly search or browse sustainability labels. It presents clear, multi-dimensional scores (e.g., environment, animal welfare) and explanations in an easily digestible format, catering to both quick checks and deeper understanding.
Afvalscheidingswijzer: A user-friendly tool enabling users to easily input their location and search for any household waste item. It provides specific, municipality-accurate guidance on correct separation, handling ambiguity and edge cases gracefully.
The tools used
Design & Planning: Figjam (for strategy), Figma, Jira (for project tracking), Pen & Paper, UX Lab
The result
- Empowered users: Provided consumers with easy-to-use tools to quickly find accurate answers about sustainability labels and waste separation.
- Successful user journeys: The designs facilitate efficient task completion, aligning with the user need for quick information gathering.
- Enhanced trust: The clear, consistent design and reliable information reinforce Milieu Centraal’s position as a trusted source.
- Sustainable foundation: The Design System provides Milieu Centraal with a scalable and maintainable foundation for future digital developments.
