Focus:
This session focused on designing an app that allows a specified user to log census information about animals.
Process:
Like the previous session, to increase idea generation, I worked in a small group. This allowed us to hear different perspectives efficiently and within time limitations.
Step 1 — Determining target market: First we thought about the specific types of animals that information could be collected on: wild animals, domestic pets, or more specific genres such as outdoor cats, squirrels, rabbits, etc. Next, we thought about what types of people would be seeing these types of animals in their day to day lives; for example, hikers would see wild animals, family would see domestic pets, a gardener would see squirrels and rabbits.
Step 2 — Designing towards the target market: unlike the previous session, at this point the group split up into individuals to separately design an app for census data collection towards a demographic of his/her choosing about animals of his/her choosing. For me, my target market was roadtrip hikers who collect information about all the wild animals they encounter. With this in mind, my first thought was “hiking trails are often so confusing! They’re never clearly marked like streets are”; thus I decided to include a trail navigation feature in the app to give the user a useful incentive to continue using the app. After that side thought, I got back to the main point of information logging. Since it’s often hard to predict what animal you’ll see next in the wild, I thought the app should allow the user to input the type of animal, number of animals, its current behavior, and add any additional comments. On top of that, many hikers enjoy seeing wild animals (at a safe distance of course) so I thought to add the feature of seeing what and where other users have logged on the app. After that, the ideas just kept coming. When the user selected a behavior that was deemed aggressive, the app would warn the user and proceed to ask if they would like to send their current location to the nearest park ranger. Afterwards, the app would tell the user how to act in the current situation they’re in as well as the ranger’s estimated time of arrival. The main page also contains a side menu that allows the user to view their profile, other national parks, previous logs, and toggle settings. Lastly, there is a feature that stays on every page of the app labeled “send help!” that the user can select at any time to contact the nearest park ranger. Jotting down all these ideas, I started to design the screen pages that the user would see and used Marvel to connect them all in my own paper prototype. Each time I added a new screen, I would run through the app to see how it was running and I would often find new, better ways to improve app navigation and features.
The link to the paper prototype of the app is here.
The link to the short video describing some of the features is here.
Reflection:
Similar to the previous session, every decision during this process was made with the user’s interests in mind. I learned that the process is lots of finding a need or want of the user, and fulfilling it. Learning from the UCD Charrette, I accepted every idea that popped into my mind. With each new feature I came up with, more followed but often a new feature would replace an old one. By prototyping the app, I was able to easily make changes or additions before even considering a final product. This process was a great way to get a small idea of what interaction design is like for bigger projects and products. We can see in all the apps out there that there are always ways to improve and features to add. People always have things they like and dislike about products and although a product that satisfies everyone is impossible, each improvement brings us closer. In fact, by using the app myself each step of the way, I found things I disliked that led to changes and improvements. Overall, products can always be improved and this interaction design session allowed me to get a glimpse of the early steps of a bigger idea/project.
The Next Step:
With the experiences I’ve gained from designing this app, in the future I would like to do more research on the target market, possibly survey a handful of the demographic and ask them what they would like to see in an app or what they dislike about the current ones on the market. Like I stated before, new ideas sparked more ideas resulting in more features; however I can see that if too many features were added the user would be overwhelmed and that finding the balance between too basic and too complex of an app is just one of the many difficult tasks of interaction design. I understand that there is no perfect product now because not only will different users prefer different things, but it seems that there are endless ways to improve my application even though its original sole purpose was so simple. This process is applicable to everything in the world that’s created by man. Everything was designed with user interaction in mind. Like I stated before, new ideas sparked more ideas resulting in more features; however I can see that if too many features were added the user would be overwhelmed and that finding the balance between too basic and too complex of an app is just one of the many difficult tasks of interaction design.
