Industry analysis
UI brainstorm
Flow sketches
Busy schedules with school and extracurriculars
Unfamiliarity with the area
External pressures of existing apps
Disconnect from nature affects their overall personal and academic growth
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Is active, disconnected, and busy
Frustrated with...
being unfamiliar with the region
social media pressures with existing apps
unmotivated feelings related to poor weather
Grace (F): 18-24 yrs old
Targeted User Persona
User Persona
Goals are to...
implement time in nature in daily routine
strengthen connection with nature to improve health
This was a final project for COSC25.01, Intro to UI/UX Design at Dartmouth College. As an introductory class to design, we spent the first weeks learning about design thinking and were challenged to apply what we had learned in our final project.
Project Overview
Description
3 Weeks
SKILLS
TEAM
DURATION
2 Designers
User Research
Wireframe
User Flow
User Persona
UI/UX Design
User selects journey
from home, map, or feed
Navigates to journey
Takes notes and photos along the journey
Does guided reflection
Creates AI summarized post
Public or Private Feed
User Journey
My Nature Journal
Explore new aspects of nature and reflect on your journey outdoors to promote mindful experiences outside.
A platform that encourages users explore nature through trails, water activities, and scenic locations. My Nature Journal was created in hopes of making time in nature more attainable and easier to navigate to. When your friend shares a cool waterfall she discovered, you can navigate directly to the area, explore, reflect, and share.
Features:
Daily Activities filtered by weather
Personalized feed from friends
Public and Private posts
Navigation to the journey
Prompted Reflections
AI generated summarized posts
My Nature Journal
Problem + Solution
The culture of college life can create a disconnect between students and the outdoors.
The lack of familiarity with the area they go to school restricts their connection with nature.
External pressures of existing apps do not encourage mindful connection.
Limited time outdoors affects their well-being.
Limited time outdoors hampers their overall personal and academic growth.
Problem
Solution
We interviewed students from Dartmouth College and University of Utah, both educational experiences surrounded by nature. Our interviews revealed that a connection with nature is a universal desire among students. This insight has been instrumental in shaping our digital solution, which aims to bridge the gap between busy student life and the importance of time outdoors, enabling students to find inspiration and motivation in the midst of their academic pursuits.
Research
Understanding our user
Key quotes:
“When it is raining outside, I notice that I just feel a lot more sad and less motivated, which really affects my day
“I would love to spend more time outside doing things that are interesting to me...sometimes these activities are difficult to find.
“Everything that we experience we do to show other people rather than doing it for ourselves”
Design Process
Goals
Bridge the gap between students and nature
Enhance students’ experiences in nature
Allow students to their time outside without external pressures and distractions
Take away the anxiety of exploring new areas
Encourage time in nature as part of daily routine
Industry Research
Competitive Analysis
Goals
Brainstorming
Feature Flows
User interviews
Empathy Maps
Personas
UI Research
Hi-Fi Prototype
Style Guide
Usability Testing
Embracing Feedback
Next Steps
Key Takeaways
IDEATE
DEFINE
RESEARCH
PROTOTYPE
TEST
REFLECT
Feature list from the initial brainstorm:
Nature journeys filtered by weather
Map where the user can filter through specific types of journeys
Navigation to selected journey
Ability to add friends and see what journeys they have taken
Prompts of user reflection after journey and AI generated post (made private or public)
Brainstorm
Favorites Feature
Community
Mindful Engagement
The user feedback provided valuable information to further our design. We wanted to personalize the design so we added the ability to add a journey to their wishlist, and easily find it when they want to take a journey.
We wanted to embrace the aspect of community within this design and create a highlights the users friends journeys. There is no response to the journeys or feedback, as we wanted to limit the social media aspect of this app. This feature encourages one user to another to discover something new. Our users would get inspiration from their friends reflections and interested in the accessibility of that journey to them.
The primary objective of this design was to cultivate a meaningful and healthy connection between users and nature. By structuring the user journey to include moments of reflection, we aimed to simplify the process for users to be fully present in their nature experiences. The thoughtful design encourages users to engage actively during their journey, fostering a deeper connection, and provides an intuitive pathway for reflection and sharing afterward.
Low-Fi grayscales
Crazy 8’s
Based on our user interviews, we made these refinements
add a wishlist/favorites page so that you can save for later
keep journeys or reflections consistent language
add water temperature
make the first journal entry page more similar to the public/private view of your journal entry
add a note that says AI generated at the bottom
High-Fi grayscales
Key Screens
High-Fi Grayscales
User Feedback
Implementing UI
We aimed to do as many different UI iterations as possible so that we could settle on the best option. We found that a blue color scheme was the best option with secondary colors of green and yellow as accents. We used images from unsplash also helped to incorporate unique design.
Iterate
The Final Design
And more!
Emma Sinclair