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Academic, Politecnico di Milano
Interaction Design
EVERLOOP
Turning what’s broken into beginnings.
Waste reflects cultural values, economic systems, and personal choices. While some societies value repair, others favor convenience, fueling disposability. Many reusable objects end up in landfills not from damage but from a lack of knowledge or inspiration. Despite rising sustainability awareness, practical tools that bridge intention and action remain scarce, especially for culturally rooted reuse.
Our research explored how interaction design can reframe waste as potential. We combined desk research on cultural attitudes with seven qualitative interviews on emotional repair narratives, a survey of 53 respondents on repair behaviors, and a dataset linking object types, materials, repair methods, and cultural origins.
The result was Everloop, a mobile-first app using image recognition to identify waste items and AR to deliver hands-free, real-time repurposing guidance. Designed for eco-conscious users aged 12–45, it balances function with emotional resonance, supporting both novices and skilled makers.
AR overlays align instructions with physical objects, reducing cognitive load and enabling intuitive, embodied repair. Through iterative testing, Everloop became more than a tool, it invites users to see brokenness as a beginning, restoring both objects and personal connections to making, memory, and meaning.
This project was done as part of the Interaction Design Laboratory. Politecnico di Milano
Professors: Mathyas Giudici | Palu Matteo
Collaborators: Marta Figueiredo | Srujan Unavane | Vera Vasconcelos | Kamila Mammadova
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