Envac Reflow
Envac ReFlow is a mobile app that helps Stockholm residents track their waste habits and discover new ways to reuse and share items within their community. I was part of the design team from the very beginning, contributing to the end-to-end design of the app.
While the project spanned multiple features, I chose to highlight the community sharing feature here because it was the part of the app where I took on a leadership role. From research to concept and detailed design, I drove the process of transforming user insights into solutions that made sharing simple, trustworthy, and low effort.
Duration: June 2021 to May 2022
My role: Design Lead
Team: 1 Team Lead, 1 Product Lead, 1 UI Designer, 2 iOS Developers, 2 Android Developers, 1 QA
Designing for sharing, not just sorting
To support Envac’s goal of reducing waste and encouraging conscious living, I led the design of a new feature that would help neighbors share, borrow, and give away items instead of throwing them away.
In Sweden, up to 10% of the items thrown away at recycling stations are fully functional, including furniture, electronics, clothes, and even bikes. We saw similar trends in local recycling rooms in Stockholm. People wanted to live more sustainably, but the system didn’t make it easy.
The goal was to create a simpler, more accessible way to keep these items in circulation, while also fostering a stronger sense of community.
Early on, I helped reframe the challenge around a few key questions:
How might we make it easier for people to borrow and lend out items?
How might we make it easier to dispose of bulky waste?
How might we show users that “waste” isn’t always waste?
How might we increase the sense of community?
These questions helped shape the Sharing feature and guided my work as I designed a new experience within the app, one that made reuse feel useful, social, and easy.
Defining the problem
The Sharing feature started with big ambitions, but also a lot of open questions. To create focus, I organized and facilitated a workshop to align the stakeholders on the purpose and scope of the feature.
We asked questions like:
Who is this for?
What value does it bring to the user, to Envac, and the city?
How does it support more conscious, circular living?
That session helped us step back from assumptions and define the real problems we wanted to solve. From there, we narrowed the scope to three core user flows: borrowing, lending out, and giving away.
I also ran competitor analysis and user interviews to understand how people currently share items, what motivates them, and where friction tends to show up.
User research
To better understand people’s attitudes and behaviors around lending, borrowing, helping, and donating, I conducted a series of user interviews. The conversations revealed important themes:
Trust was a recurring concern, especially when lending items. People wanted guarantees that their belongings would be returned, and some even asked for features like ratings or insurance.
Awkwardness often came up in borrowing scenarios. Users worried about putting neighbors in uncomfortable situations, especially without an existing relationship.
When it came to helping, many said they were willing, but felt unsure how to offer support if others didn’t explicitly ask.
For donating, behavior varied: quality items were passed on to family and friends, while others were given to collection points or charity organizations.
From this research, we identified not only gains such as sustainability, community, and economic value, but also fears around damage, theft, or misuse. Users expressed wishes for features like verification, accountability, and clear communication.
Personas
To make these insights actionable, we grouped users into three personas that captured their needs, motivations, and behaviors. Each persona was paired with a user journey to illustrate how they might encounter the product, what would motivate them to use it, and what pain points needed to be addressed.
Through this process, it became clear that the concept should focus on simplicity, trust, and low effort. These three principles became the foundation for designing solutions that felt reliable and easy to use.
Next, I began mapping out the user journeys in detail, showing how each persona would experience the product from start to finish.
User journeys
After completing the user interviews and grouping insights into personas, I organized a workshop with key stakeholders to start mapping out the foundations of user needs. Together, we defined the main tasks users would go through when borrowing, lending, or giving away items.
We then mapped the questions people might have at each stage, many of which revealed pain points around trust, ownership, and clarity. For example, borrowers wanted to know how to find reliable tools, how long they could keep them, and whether they could trust their neighbor. Lenders asked how they could be sure their items would be returned in good condition, or whether there should be contracts and insurance involved.
Finally, we explored potential features and functionalities that could address those needs and reduce uncertainty. Ideas included verification steps, clear information on ownership, in-app chat, notifications, filters to find the right items, and ways to make the exchange feel safe and transparent.
This exercise helped us translate abstract user needs into concrete design directions and laid the foundation for the concept. It also reinforced our focus on simplicity, trust, and low effort as guiding principles for the product.
Next, I began defining detailed user journeys for each persona to visualize how they would move through the experience from start to finish.
Cross-functional collaboration
As part of the early concept development, I facilitated a collaborative ideation session with the team. It built on the research insights and helped us quickly explore directions for the three core flows: borrowing, lending out, and giving away.
We used a Crazy 8s format to generate a wide range of ideas in a short amount of time. Each team member chose one of the flows and sketched eight rough concepts in eight minutes. This exercise helped surface unexpected angles and ensured everyone, from designers to developers, had a voice in shaping the experience.
This session was one of several touchpoints that helped us move from abstract ambition to concrete, testable ideas. It also gave us early alignment on some of the key UX challenges, like how to design for trust, how to keep the process lightweight, and how to support item discovery without overcomplicating the app.
Concept: feed and contact
One of the core ideas that emerged from our research was the importance of making exchanges feel simple, trustworthy, and low effort. With that in mind, we designed the community feed as the main entry point for discovery and interaction.
In the feed, users can scroll through posts from their neighbors, whether someone is lending out a tool, giving away furniture, or requesting help. Each post contains enough context to build trust at a glance: who the person is, what they are offering or requesting, and when it was posted.
To make browsing even easier, we introduced filters that allow users to sort posts by topic (for example, giveaways, borrowing requests, lending out) or by location (their building or wider neighborhood). This ensures that people only see content that feels relevant and manageable to them, reducing noise and increasing confidence that they can act on what they see.
From here, the interaction needed to feel as seamless as sending a message in any familiar chat app. We added a clear Contact button, which opens a direct conversation thread. Users can then exchange details, ask questions, and confirm logistics without friction. This not only streamlines the flow but also helps build confidence in the exchange, as communication is transparent and easy to track.
By combining a familiar social feed with lightweight messaging and intuitive filters, the concept transforms what could feel awkward or uncertain into something natural and approachable.
Next, I will show how this concept evolved into additional features that support verification, trust, and transparency in the platform.
Increasing trust
One challenge we identified in the research was the need to keep posts accurate and relevant. Users worried about reaching out for items that were no longer available, which could quickly undermine trust in the platform.
To address this, I designed a lightweight chatbot interaction inside the conversation flow. After two neighbors connect, the bot follows up to confirm whether the item has been given away or not. With a single tap, users can update the status of their post directly from the chat.
This ensures that items marked as available in the feed really are available, reducing wasted effort and preventing frustration. At the same time, it removes the burden of manually managing posts, keeping the system simple and low effort for users.
By embedding the bot in a familiar chat interface, the solution feels natural rather than disruptive and helps maintain trust, clarity, and efficiency in the community.
Next, I will show how the concept expanded into additional features that support verification and accountability.
Concept: adding items to lend out
Another important part of the concept was making it easy for people to proactively share what they are willing to lend to their neighbors. From our research, we knew that trust and transparency were essential: people wanted clarity on what items were available and assurance that their belongings would be respected.
To support this, I designed a flow where users can add items to their lending inventory by tagging them in the app. Common suggestions (like hammer, drill, or ladder) are provided to make entry fast, while a search field allows users to add custom items. Once items are added, the app automatically notifies the owner if a neighbor requests something they’ve listed, so they can decide whether or not to lend it out.
To build additional trust, all loans are insured by Omocom, which gives lenders extra peace of mind. This layer of protection addresses one of the key fears uncovered in user interviews: the risk of items being damaged, lost, or not returned.
By making the process simple, transparent, and backed by insurance, this feature helps users feel more comfortable lending out items, ultimately strengthening the sense of community and resource sharing.
Concept: new post
When designing the posting flow, one of the challenges was ensuring the feature didn’t turn into a general discussion board where people could complain or argue. To guide the experience in a constructive direction, we introduced pre-selected topics for every new post: giving away an item, borrowing an item, lending something out, or sharing news. This structure keeps conversations focused and ensures posts are actionable.
In addition to topics, users can also add tags to their posts. Tags make it easier for others to find relevant items and allow owners to receive notifications when a neighbor requests something they already listed in their inventory. This connects directly with the lending flow and helps match needs with available resources more efficiently.
We also allowed for optional photos, so requests or offers feel more tangible and trustworthy. By combining clear categories, tags, and visuals, the posting flow balances freedom of expression with community structure.
This design choice not only makes the feed easier to navigate but also prevents misuse, keeping the platform focused on its goal: helping neighbors share and support each other in simple, trust-based ways.
Leading the Community Sharing feature
Designing Envac ReFlow was a chance to contribute to an app from the ground up, but this feature in particular marked a turning point for me. I took a leadership role in shaping the community sharing flow, guiding the process from early user research through to concepts, workshops with stakeholders, and detailed interaction design.
The result was a set of solutions that balanced user needs with business goals: a structured feed with filters to keep content relevant, a lightweight chatbot to keep information accurate, a transparent inventory system supported by insurance, and a clear posting flow that encouraged constructive participation. Together, these elements delivered on our guiding principles of simplicity, trust, and low effort.
For me, this project wasn’t only about designing features; it was about learning how to lead, make design decisions with confidence, and ensure the user’s voice stayed at the center of the product.