ANALYTICS
Situation Analysis
There is no mobile app for Seneca Park Zoo
As a popular attraction and the only zoo in Rochester, NY, there is no mobile app designed for the visitors so far. Although the official website is relatively informative and multi-functional, when users visit the website on their phones, the responsive website layout causes certain amount of problems with usability and navigation. Therefore, a well targeted mobile app
can bring more convenience to the users and elevate user's experience.
Competitive Analysis
Nowadays many zoo have launched native mobile apps, aiming to provide a better user experience for the visitors. This process was helpful in identifying what features existed and how different zoo prioritize the contents.
After completing the competitive analysis, I realized that most of the zoo apps are authentic photos based and have low readability because of heavy text contents. Most of them lack of vibrancy due to the color palates and inconsistent visual styles. I was trying to avoid these problems when designing the mobile app for Seneca Park Zoo.
Define Target Audience & Problems
1. Observations - Visitors
Seneca Park Zoo hosts many events and also is a popular destination of school field trip and family picnic location. Elementary school students(age 6-10) and middle school students(age 11-13) are the main visitors in the zoo.
Knowing that the visitors to the zoo are not necessarily the end users of the mobile app, I interviewed 17 children (age from 6 to 14) with their parents or teachers to try to target the real users and find out their user behaviors, existing problems and expectations for a zoo mobile app. My assumption was: The teachers and parents are the main users for being in charge of arranging events and field trips.
Interview Questions
General
Basic Information (Age, occupation)
How often do you visit Seneca Park Zoo?
What brings you to the zoo?
Do you have a smart phone? (For children age 6-14)
Before go to the zoo
Do you check the website before you go to the zoo?
What do you search the most on the zoo website?
Do you have troubles finding information on the website?
Do you prefer buy tickets on line or by the front door?
In the zoo
Do you check the website when you are in the zoo? What are you looking for?
Do you have trouble finding animals you want to see when you are in the zoo?
Do you prefer paper zoo map or a digital map on your phone?
Interview Results
Children are more willing to spend time on researching animals and zoo information than their parents or teachers before the trip to the zoo.
The reasons include:
- Children have more time
- Children are more excited to explore before the trip
- Children are more motivated by school projects
- Parents are willing to let children be in charge of family events
- Parents try to elevate children's ability of problem solving and being independent
Based on the interview, over 67.7% of children(age 6-14) possess their own smart phones and over 89% of children are allowed to play with their parents' phones on a daily basis.
1.
Other problems:
- Hard to find info when browse the responsive website on the phones
- Long loading time and requires too many data
- Printed zoo maps are hard to read, complicated to fold, easily get caught in the wind and rain
- Have difficulties find animals' locations precisely in the zoo
2.
User behaviors
93% agree their family enjoys seeing animals and participate the events at the zoo
94% feel that visiting zoo teach children about how people can protect animals and the habitats they depend on
79% are willing to support wildlife conservation at the zoo
66% are more likely to buy gifts from the zoo
90% engage millions via social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube
3.
Analyze Users
Based on the interview results, the target audience focus on children age from 6 to 14. Two persona were analyzed, including empathy maps and potential goals to help to gain a deeper insight into the target audience. After immersing into users’ environment by analyzing what they think, feel, hear, say, do and see, the better design solutions were obtained in a much more efficient way.
Persona1
Scenario
Anna is a high school student, recently one of her school project is to finish an observation journal of one animal, including pictures, introductions, personal thoughts and conclusion. She wants to go to Seneca park zoo because it is the nearest one to her home. She wants to check the hours and ticket rate of the zoo and also start picking one animal to observe.
Goals
- Check animal list, including special exhibition, to pick one animal in advance
- Check hours, location and ticket rate
- Book tickets on-line
Empathy Map
Think & Feel
See
Hear
Say & Do
Where is the zoo?
How to go there?
How much is the tickets?
Can I book tickets on-line?
Ticket rates
Current events
Animal exhibitions
Zoo map
Comments
Transportation
Animal information
Plan a visit
Check schedule
Book tickets on-line
Anna Smith,14
Middle school student
Persona 2
Adria Roberto, 8
Elementary school student
Scenario
Adria’s family plan to go to Seneca park zoo this weekend to observe animals, have picnic and get exercise. His father asked him to check schedule and make appointment for the entire family. He also needs to check location to set GPS.
Goals
- Check location to set GPS
- Check ticket rate to get family ticket
- Book tickets on-line
- Check current event
Empathy Map
Think & Feel
See
Hear
Say & Do
Where is the zoo?
How much is the tickets?
Is there a family plan?
Can I book tickets on-line?
Ticket rates
Current events
Zoo map
Restaurant information
Comments
Animal information
Plan progress
Check open hours
Check ticket rates
Set up GPS
Design Insights
- Graphic based, game feeling, fun to use
- Easy to navigate
- Necessary and informative content only
- Simplistic interactive map solution
- Simplifying the searching process
- Use capabilities of smart phones to create memories
- Improving user's experience
Problem Statements
- Responsive website of Seneca Park Zoo is hard to navigate and use too many data without Wi-Fi
- Paper map is hard to use and easily get caught in the wind and rain
- Hard to locate animal spots in the zoo
Key Features
- Interactive zoo map showing animals and different locations
- Interactive zoo map that can estimate walking distances and time
to any destinations from current location
- Allows users to plan what to see during their day at the zoo
- Check hours, locations and ticket rates
- Purchase tickets on line
- Make daily or monthly donations to specific animals
- Share on social media
- Take photos with specially offered zoo themed frames
UX RESEARCH
Children are not miniature adults and design principles formulated with adults in mind cannot simply be scaled down – children have their own needs and goals which cannot necessarily be met by adult tools. Have those design goals in mind, I start brainstorming and visioning through a story mapping session. Then I prototyping rapidly and iteratively through usability testing. This process would ensure that I deliver design solutions based on user's expectations.
Participatory design exercise
Participatory design, also called co-design, is a fun method for understanding how children see the world. Due to the participants limitation and time constrains, I was only able to reaching out two children to finish this exercise with me. The tasks included storyboarding a simple journey in an imaginary zoo and selecting favorite animal characters. While final design solutions were rarely taken directly from the children’s ideas, this exercise helped me understand the feelings children have towards the subject matter and gained deeper empathy for them.
Other UX Considerations
- Usability test with children
- Parents, teachers, and any adults who may interact with the app are important as well
- Informative contents, usability and functionality are the foundations of the mobile app
Sketches
User flow
Main wireframe structure
Wireframe prototypes were sketched quickly for user testing. I determined the structures of core functional screens first and then expended to all screens for user testing. Consistency and clarity were the main goals at this stage.
Wireframe
User interface for user tests
Considering the main users are children, black and white blueprints can be confusing and tedious for them to focus, I rapidly designed the first version of user interface to improve the testing results. Design insights for user interface focused on a perfect combination of children's game looking and a functional mobile app. Instead of using authentic photos, an illustration based app is able to increase the eye catching effect and fit the target audience's interests better.
Like
- "Love the visual style. Instead of real animal photos, which
have been used in almost every zoo zpp, the pure graphic
based zoo app really stands out."
- "Animals icons are well designed and really appealing."
- "Playful functions, easy to navigate, like playing a game"
- "Interactive map to estimate distance and time is useful
and nice"
- "Love the simplicity. The functions included are well fit for the
zoo, considering how small it is"
Dislike
- Logo can be more vibrant and colorful
- Animal classification is not clear
- Low color contrast of map, hard to read under
strong sunlight
- Too much divided spaces on animal screen, lack impact
- Too many colors on visit screen
- Text on the second line for donations are too small to read
- "Plan a tour" is confusing
- The options for single and monthly donations are unnecessary
- The visual on visit is disconnected with other screens
Design modify & Iterations
Based on the user testing results, I made adjustments to certain visual designs and functions to achieve better user experience. Three iterations were completed before designing the final version.
- Redesign logo
- Change map color
- Direct to map on animal screen
- Wisely use space under donation functions
- Change title "plan a tour" to "visit"
- Classify animals based on species
- Combine donate options together
- Divide buy tickets and visit info to two different screens
UI Design
GRID
COLOR
TYPE
abc
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
Logo
ANIMAL
CLASSIFICATION
Each type of animals has unique theme color to highlight the icon.
ICON SET
Twenty three different types of animal icons, including 16 mammals, 3 birds, 4 reptiles. are designed and used in both mobile app and printed products.
For each type of animal, users can browse information, gallery, location and make donation.
Menu
MENU
ANIMAL
INFORMATION
Check the current location
anytime
DONATE
Users can select single or monthly donation
Select payment method
Add card details
Donate confirmation
Thank you message
MAP
The new map is designed by using animal icons and simplified colors to indicate locations of different animals. Users are able to download the map to their phones. The map can also calculate the estimated time and distance and direct visitors to any part of the zoo from the current location.
Download map to your phone
Type current location and destination to estimate time and distance.
Show restrooms, dining, and different classifications of animals on map.
VISIT
Users are able to purchase tickets, check hours, location and contact information
DONATION & EVENTS
- Users are able to donate to specific animals or to the entire zoo
- Users can check current, popular, or all events by choosing different dates
Indicate Restrooms
Zoo Hours
Donate to any type of animal
Zoo Contact
General donation to the zoo
Indicate Mammals
Zoo Location
Select events based on
current, popular and all
events
Indicate Reptiles
Buy tickets
Select events through
calendar
Seneca Park Zoo
The goal of this project is to design a mobile app for young users of Seneca Park Zoo. The main target audience focuses on children age from 6 to 14. By observing and analyzing the unique expectations and goals that children have, a fun and informative zoo app was designed to improve their user experience.
My...
What I learned
Role
UX Researcher
Interaction Designer
Visual UI Designer
UX Designer
Methods
Observation
Interviews
Rapid Prototyping
Usability Testing
Participatory design (Co-design)
Deliverables
UX Documentation
Motion prototype
Software
Photoshop
Illustrator
Indesign
After Effects
User Tests
After testing the prototype, children and their parents were asked to fill a user feedback form to give feedback of how they feel about the visual, navigations, readability and the usability of the features.
User feedback form
2. Interview - End users
© All Copyrights Reserved by Hui Xu