Interaction Design Sprint

This Sprint began, as expected, with brainstorming. First to speculate, was the user of the app that we would create. My brainstorming was directed by the information that we were to create an app allowing for ordinary citizens to record scientific data concerning water: citizen science. With this information in mind, I began my process of thinking of figures who would willingly take the time to invest in the health of the water around them. That is, who cared enough — who would have a vested interest — in water.

The results of this brainstorming ranged from restaurant workers, to politicians, to environmental enthusiasts. However, what was necessary at this point was to differentiate those who would be effected by water health and those who would actually invest in collecting information about water health. From this point I was able to hone in on one specific group: environmental enthusiasts.

Now the question came down to, what is significant enough about a body of water that it should be recorded. What would environmental enthusiasts care enough about to record? What easily recordable factors reflect healthy or unhealthy water? Reflecting on these questions I came to the conclusion that there are two main components that are easily recordable and reflective of healthy water. First, are signs of pollution. Second, on the flip side, are sightings of life, such as animals. Both of these things are easily spottable, easily describable, and highly reflective of an environments health. Therefore, creating an app focusing on these two factors would allow both visual and type information to be easily and effectively recorded.

The next step was to layout the flow of the app. This app has two main functions: information recording and information observation. The recording of information would allow the user to select the type of observation (pollution or life) and then continue on to give the template allowing type and visual input(a geotagged photo). The app asks custom questions for each type of siting, such as “what does the organism/pollution look like?”and “how much is present?”. The information input pages also have areas that allow the taking of a photo and the adding of location.

The additional feature that I added to this app was the information observation function — called in the app “See The Impact”. This feature would allow access to a map (formatted like an apple map or google map) that would allow the user to search a certain location and see the health of the bodies of water in that area. The health would be determined by the data entries of the user of the apps. Those areas with high records of pollution and low records of organisms would be colored in red, showing an endangered area of water.

I chose to add this function so that those interested in the health of the water around them could not only input information, but also have access to understanding their contribution in a larger context. With the idea that those using this app care about the health of the water around them, I determined that they would therefore be interested in seeing the health of those environments around them. This function is intended to allow a user to see a conglomeration of the information that they and those like them have collected. It allows the user to feel more involved and connected. This was therefore meant to motivate users to continue their participation in the using of this app.

Unlike the previous project, this sprint called for the consideration of navigation. This was a challenging new factor, yet opened my eyes to the complexities in design that allowed for a user to interact with an app in a simple way. In the navigation aspect of this project I focused on making my app as usable and understandable as possible. On each page, I made the “return” function constant. Further, in the opening pages of the app, in which a user determines what function of the app that they want to use, I kept the same visual and technical format. This format was a screen split horizontally, presenting a choice on each half of the screen.

Overall, the functions of this app were made with the intention of attracting and keeping users. The navigation of this app was made with the intention of usability and simplicity.