Allo,

Each time you have a product that seems to be ready to be thrown away, ask Allo and one of its 5 zero-waste experts what to do with that product to avoid the trash.

These experts are here to give you advice on how to preserve your products or give them a new life. For example, with an old orange, Marin, the bathroom expert, can suggest a DIY recipe for dishwasher pods.

Throughout our life, my classmates and I have been more conscious about how much waste we were producing. That’s why we decided to make Allo: the first zero-waste voice assistant to be an alternative to the trash and give another life to every product of your house.

The MVP is made of 3 parts:

• A frontend (NLU/TSS) with whom the user interacts vocally thanks to Snips technology, and that captures the relevant information, then translates them in textual data to send it to the backend ;
• A backend (main.py) redistributing the texts to the associated actions, then receiving the instructions to give the user ;
• A distant backend (API/Database) in charge of the search, save and sorting of the resources (profiles, products, tips & tricks…) to transmit to the user.

Allo evolved a lot during the project. We were first focused on avoiding food waste in store, to avoid users to buy things they didn’t need (you don’t buy = you don’t waste).

But our research (observation in-store, interviews) proved us the decision to buy something was mostly impulsive, rash, and hardly manageable at our level (60% of the people we interrogated improvise their shopping).

We restricted our field of action to the house, after purchase and before putting to the bin. As we interviewed users (« Issue board », quantity forms, « role play » interviews), apart from doing the dishes, waste was a huge pain point. Users don’t know what to do with their wastes or aren’t always equipped to freeze them and feel obligated to throw them away (60% of interrogated people throw away food regularly).

5 categories of people emerged from all that research:

• 1. « I want it to be fast »: food and eating healthy isn’t a priority, recycling neither;
• 2. « I try, when I have the time »: there’s a form of awareness about personal health & planet’s needs, but efforts are really tough and purchases still compulsive;
• 3. « I want to eat quality products »: aware user, starts to add some anti-waste processes in his/her routine, but lack of ideas;

• 4. « I buy almost everything locally »: purchase is reasonable, based on needs, with a shopping list and clear ideas about what to do with the bought products;
• 5. « I’m on a strict diet »: a bit out of the scope, because purchase is particularly controlled, precise, no waste possible.

Thanks to those elements, we identified that 2 & 3 were the target most likely to adopt our product.

Finally, as we did a quality test in-situ of our MVP, several users told us they wanted ideas to use their waste elsewhere than in the kitchen. That’s how Allo became more polyvalent and equipped with 5 experts:

• Paprika, for the kitchen;
• Marin, for the bathroom;
• Polochon (Bolster), for the bedroom;
• Pépin (Seed), for the garden and plants;
• Jack, for electronic products.

From all those tests and the issues we encountered (where to placed Allo, keep conversations fluid and private, avoid the pressure / moralistic feel), we extracted 6 design principles:

• Benevolence: Allo helps you find simple ideas, approachable and frugal for each product that seems damaged;
• Private: Thanks to Snips technology, discussions are kept between you and Allo, stored locally;
• Custom: Your habits, wishes and tastes vary from person to person, that’s why Allo adapts and learn to suggests tips just for you;

• Educational: Allo is your assistant with 5 experts inside, one for each room, so that you can learn at your own pace the problematic linked to waste in your house and how to remedy it;
• At the right time: Purchases made by desire and not need are hard to manage. But Allo fit the cycle of life of a product perfectly, from the time it’s purchased to the moment you think about throwing it away (but won’t, thanks to Allo ;)) ;
• At the right place: Most of food waste comes from our home, that’s why it’s in your house that Allo makes the more sense, in the room of your choice.