“Water Matters” Interaction Design
Design Process
“Water Matters” is a water quality data collection app designed to collect data from people to help scientists learn more about water quality all over the world. It mainly focuses on collecting water pH level for projects related to pH level.
The users for this app are people who care about water quality, including fisherman, house owners, parents, etc., students who love science or are interested in science, people who travel a lot. I included travelers in the user type because they would provide data that otherwise wouldn’t be easily collected. Since a large number of travelers take photos, I decided to use photo filters in social medias to be the motivation where people can redeem their points collected by uploading data for filters.
I also included a discussion platform where users can see what other people have uploaded anonymously so that people who care about water quality can look for information. For example, parents can look for the water quality for the school their children go to. I decided to include a “preferred language” choice when users register an account for people who are not native English speakers.
Reflection
When I was trying to design the app, I was thinking from the users’ point of view and trying to think what would make their user experience the best. After finishing designing, I started to use the app and I realized every little detail did help me as a user to navigate better. I love that I get to be on both sides and see how my design actually works. It is like when thinking about a conflict, there is always both sides. We want to try to put ourselves in others’ shoes and try to understand others better.
Vision
I think this technique would be great for designing websites, apps, phones, laptops and even presentations. When designing a Powerpoint, we can always try to think about who are the ones listening to the presentation, how well they can understand from their background knowledge level, etc. I think it is especially helpful for projects that are very user-based and really emphasizes on user experience. On the other hand, it might not be appropriate when designing things that are highly focused on performing the task other than user experience, such as a defibrillator.
