CLIENT
The William and Mary Institute for Integrative Conservation
INDUSTRY
Academia, Ecology, Conservation
TOOLS
Figma, Maze, Mural, Optimal Workshop, Notion
ROLE
Lead UI Designer, conducted preliminary research and user testing
BRIEF
The client was eager to find a solution to a lack of knowledge-sharing and interaction between professionals working in the conservation industry.
WHAT WE DID
Our team researched existing platforms focused on providing ecological data and research, spoke with professionals, ideated, and designed a platform that addressed their needs and the client's goals.
RESULT
We designed a global online learning platform for conservationists, educators, and researchers to study and analyze region-specific environmental data. The data is represented visually through an interactive map, which gathers information based on input from the platform's users.
Integrative Conservation Clinic
CLIENT: The William and Mary Institute for Integrative Conservation
ROLE: Lead UI Designer, conducted preliminary research and user testing
INDUSTRY: Academia, Ecology, Conservation
TOOLS: Figma, Maze, Mural, Optimal Workshop, Notion
Integrative Conservation Clinic
Problem
We were tasked to develop a solution to the growing problem of a lack of learning, interaction, and collaboration among conservation professionals. Our client shared some initial research and information with us related to the problem which we used in conjecture to our extensive research, both secondary and primary.
Approach
The goal for our team was to analyze the needs of practitioners working in the conservation industry and work on a design that caters to their needs, whilst also taking into account the client's constraints.
Process
Our team conducted a competitive analysis to grasp and synthesize the already flooded market of conservation databases. This highlighted the best practices and areas of opportunity for our team to focus on. Although there were plenty of platforms that provided ecological data, there were few that highlighted building connections with other professionals.
Problem
We were tasked to develop a solution to the growing problem of a lack of learning, interaction, and collaboration among conservation professionals. Our client shared some initial research and information with us related to the problem which we used in conjecture to our extensive research, both secondary and primary.
Approach
The goal for our team was to analyze the needs of practitioners working in the conservation industry and work on a design that caters to their needs, whilst also taking into account the client's constraints.
Process
Our team conducted a competitive analysis to grasp and synthesize the already flooded market of conservation databases. This highlighted the best practices and areas of opportunity for our team to focus on. Although there were plenty of platforms that provided ecological data, there were few that highlighted building connections with other professionals.
Major Insights
Social Connection: For professionals, they had varying channels of communication including asking their colleagues or connecting with others through email. One person said, “We currently communicate through long chain emails that are confusing, hard to keep track of, and take up a lot of space on your device”.
Engagement: Interacting with a tool or platform that engages the user is key to avoiding dissatisfaction and drop-off. One participant said, "There are people out there who don’t understand the complexities of conservation”. Taking something complex, and simplifying it is what a tool should be, something we could enhance.
Content: The problem here isn’t that there is a lack of resources, but too many that make it hard for people to find what they are looking for. Another interviewee said, “I struggle to find information that is relevant due to the mass amounts of information out there”. The information isn’t always applicable to them and their needs.
Upon finalizing the general layout of the site, I began to work on the low-fidelity designs on Figma. We focused mostly on the design of on-site navigation instead of the UI. By doing that, it allowed us to remain true to addressing the needs of the user and to the requirements of our client.
Mid-fidelty designs
Result
After refining the high-fidelity screens and prototyping, we conducted usability tests. These included think-aloud tests and time-on-task tests that provided our team with valuable insights on how to make the experience even better. We found that users appreciated the map feature and found it easy to navigate and intuitive. Over three rounds, we led 20 tests. In Round 1: we identified 85% of our usability errors. That gave us a better understanding of where to focus our next design iterations on. Then in Round 2, we found that there was a 72% success rate. With some tweaks based on user feedback, our final tests resulted in a 90% success rate.
The innovative and well-researched nature of our work earned our team first-place in our capstone class design challenge.
Final designs
Next Steps
For the next iteration, we would design the "Upload Resource" flow, a toggle between the list and map view (which some of the users wanted), and a notification icon in the navigation bar (to notify the user of a new upload by someone they are connected to)
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