Rifiutando: an app for transporting special and hazardous waste

Rifiutando is a startup for companies that transport special and hazardous business waste, materials that need dedicated disposal procedures. Its product is the app of the same name, and its business model is built on hauliers signing up. It collaborates with a network of hauliers and collection centres across Italy.

For every load, the haulier needs to know which category the waste falls into and which collection centre will accept it. Rifiutando asked us for a mobile app that gives both answers on the phone, starting with the nearest centre.

• Hauliers search for the material they are about to load and see which category it belongs to.
• Collection centres can be browsed by region, province and city, and each listing shows the materials accepted.
• Geolocation shows the nearest centre that accepts that type of waste.
• Company and haulier details are entered at sign-up and can be updated in the app at any time.

We started with research among the hauliers, to understand which features they needed and what they expected from the app. From there we mapped the navigation flows and the information structure, and gathered the first feedback on low-fidelity wireframes before moving on to the details.

We then used moodboards to agree on colours, typography and graphic style with the client. High-fidelity wireframes defined every graphic and interactive component. The last step was a prototype tested with real users, and the fixes that came out of those tests went into the design before development started.

The app is built in Flutter, with the same code for iOS and Android. The Rifiutando team works on a React web panel instead, where they follow the companies and hauliers who have signed up and update the list of collection centres.

Both the app and the panel rely on a backend with REST APIs and a PostgreSQL database.