Barefoot

Timeline: 10 weeks

Tools: Figma, Mural, React

Team:

Katrina Liou | Product Designer, Rachel Leou | Product Designer, Grace Zhang | Developer, Anthony Xie | Developer

Problem:

Technology has made it incredibly easy to live a sedentary lifestyle and lose touch with the environment around us. This lack of environmental education and care towards nature makes it difficult for individuals to take action to live sustainably.

Challenge:

How might we encourage individual connections to nature and sustainability?

Solution:

Our team hopes to help people foster a deeper connection with the nature through immersion and contextual learning. We conceptualized a educational hiking platform, so users can seamlessly interact with nature and learn about the flora, fauna, and history of their surroundings, while strengthening their appreciation and awareness of nature. We hope this in turn promotes more sustainable living. 

 

Needfinding: Informational Interviews

Using MURAL, we analyzed our empathy maps (What do users say, think, feel and do?) and identified key insights and corresponding needs.

 

Creating POVs

POV 1: We met Conrad, a middle aged physical therapist and triathlete from New Zealand who now lives in the Bay Area.We were amazed to realize that Conrad uses kitchen graywater and biodegradable soap to water his garden and plants in order to save water and eliminate the need for sprinklers. He also doesn’t own a dryer because California weather is good enough to air dry clothes. It would be game-changing for people to recognize and address more avenues to repurpose and reduce our waste like Conrad

POV 2: We met Dennis, a Stanford sophomore who cares deeply for animal life and was a camp counselor for many years. We were amazed to realize that children are more engaged, receptive, and passionate about the subject their learning about when they are immersed in interactive activities. It would be game changing to Create more opportunities for people to learn about sustainability through interactive activities.

POV 3: We met Andrew, a 4th grade male student living in the Bay Area. We were amazed to realize that even though he didn’t know what “sustainability” was, he was eager to take action and share what he learned in school about renewable energy. It would be game-changing to give children more of a voice when it comes to living sustainably in their home life. This could lead to a domino effect from the influence of an unsuspected age group.

 

How might we

  1. How might we increase individual and community connections with nature and sustainability?

  2. How might we get people to integrate repurposing into their lives?

  3. How might we inspire kids to lead by example and break the barrier/ age gap between adults and kids?

  4. How might we use technology as a tool to promote individuals to engage in more sustainable living?

 

Concept Video

 

Ideating Solutions

Defining Key Tasks:

  1. Task #1: (simple) explore and learn about nature in context 

  2. Task #2: (simple) follow previously published trails

  3. Task #3: (complex) create and publish your own trail

  4. Task #4: (moderate) invite a friend directly to follow a trail

Exploring Platforms(VR, wearable, mobile, AR, web)

 

Platform storyboards

 

Low-fi prototype, testing, and iteration

Low-fi prototype #1

Testing; 4 interviews, remote over zoom using Figma, 4 tasks/ user flows

Observed: verbal and non-verbal reactions, time spent to complete task

Findings: It became clear to us that the largest issues with our design were

  1. Users were confused with the function of the play button

  2. Users could not access the menu when they wanted to during a hike

Our users also suggested adding in useful features like adding landmarks as you hike, different sharing options, and adding tags to trails.

Changes:

  1. Add in a static menu bar instead of hamburger slide-out menu, so navigation is accessible at all times.

  2. Change play and stop button to record, pause, and stop buttons which allows users to be in control of how much of the trail they want recorded

  3. Define publish button to be publish, save, and send privately and minimized # of screens after finishing trail

Low-fi prototype #2

 

Med-fi prototype

Limitations:

  • Couldn’t store published trails in memory (including associated pictures, ratings, reviews, tags, etc.)

  • No access to location or camera functionality native to device

  • Viewing a specific friend’s posts and other profiles

  • No audio built in for education component

  • After publishing, no posting functionality

Hard coded features:

  • Landmarks and facts shown on map were hardcoded (because no access to location)

  • Trails shown in discover page, (should be based on location)

  • Initial profile info pre-loaded

  • Reviews pre-loaded

  • Map

 

Wizard Of Oz:

  • Upon starting a trail, facts would “pop up” based on the user’s location and movement

  • Upon sharing with a friend, the trail is assumed to be sent directly to the friend through the platform 

  • For trail preview, app curates certain pictures for trail advertisement 

  • Filter trail by category

 

Heuristic Evaluation

Example changes:

  • Label buttons and rename share to send

  • After ending hike, option to save or delete trail

  • Onboarding tutorial and reconfigure recording pages

  • Bold icons on current page

Example problems:

  • Unclear what it means to share a hike vs. publish. What happens when you share?

  • No option to delete recording

  • Unclear what recording button is for. Unclear what pause and stop buttons are for

  • Unclear which page of menu is currently selected


High fidelity prototype