A mobile app that introduces a historical local park in Atlanta,GA and gets you involved in the community. This project was my work at the park's organization - Olmsted Linear Park Alliance (OLPA).
Overview
Industry | B2C Education and Lifestyle
Platform | iOS
Role | Design Lead, UX Research
Date | 2018 - 2019
Problem
OLPA was trying to attract more people to the park and have them become members to the organization to raise fundings to preserve the park. Yet current platforms were not doing good.
Goal
Build a digital product to connect the user, the park and the organization.
My Responsibilities
• Led product and UX design (designing and iterating IA, interfaces, interactions)
• Assisted UX research (survey analysis, product evaluation)
• Held discussion with engineers during the design process to balance product creativity and feasibility
• Worked closely with stakeholders to ensure the design reached the goals
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Research
Understand the Park and Identify Users
I partnered with another designer and exposed ourselves to potential users.
We observed and recorded that 80% of park visitors and OLPA event attendees were people in their 50s or older. They sometimes brought their younger family members with them, whom we believe is an achievable potential group of users. All age groups carry their smart phones to the events, with iPhone 6, 6s being the most common models.
The Partner / Competitor
There was another Olmsted park in Buffalo, NY that had their digital product - a mobile app. We examined its features and online reviews.
We got back with OLPA afterwards and decided to publish a survey to confirm if we can also do a mobile app.
Survey
The survey was distributed to both OLPA's connections and residents around the park area. We asked their mobile app usage and desired features. The result showed a mobile app would be appreciated by the user if it told the plants and history in the park.
Personas
The survey result also helped generating user personas. We focused on OLPA's connections and residents who loved gardens / parks.
• • •
Design
The idea was to attract the user to the park first, then we leave clues in the stories that lead them to the organization.
IA Iteration
I worked with another designer and started the design from the most desired features. Then we validated the ideas with developers and also with users using paper prototypes. The information architecture was iterated several times based on the feedback. More sections were added and prioritized later from OLPA's business perspective.
Branding
I used OLPA’s primary branding colors in addition to black and white. Nothing too fancy, considering the age and social status, etc. of most end users. Professional, clean, easy to read yet also modern enough to be appealing to the younger generation.
Features
Discover plants and landmarks on the map
Plant library
Learn park history
Plan to attend an event
Testing
We met 15 users in person and tested the prototype with them. We gave them a set of tasks to complete in the app and collected their feedback, which was then used for future improvement.
• • •
What's Next
I worked with OLPA as partners on this product as my thesis design and stopped when the ready-for-development prototype was iterated. It was a great experience though I would love to see through the whole product cycle until it comes to life.