DINO-SPHER PARK smartphone app
High-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
By Morgan Brennan, Maddie Kortelig, and Emily Charniga
Our Product
DinoSpher is a companion app to the DinoSpher Zoo, a zoo that exhibits dinosaurs from all time periods. It is designed to engage users inside and outside of the zoo, so that they may learn about and enjoy the wonders of prehistoric creatures. Users can learn more about the dinosaurs through the app’s interactive map that holds dinosaur facts, as well as through scanning QR codes at the exhibits. Other features of the app include the ability to purchase tickets to visit the zoo, participate in unique experiences, or attend special DinoSpher events.
WIREFRAMES
Prior to sketching, the group agreed on designing a mobile app so that users may enjoy its features inside and outside of the zoo. Each member explored different app features, information architecture, and user flows through paper and digital wireframe sketches. The explorations ranged from common design patterns, such as purchasing a ticket, to innovative ideas, such as interactive education tools. Commonalities in the wireframes include an emphasis on clear CTAs for users to visit the zoo as well as modern interactions such as scrolling horizontally through a group of cards.
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Emily’s Wireframe Sketches
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Maddie’s Wireframe Sketches
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Morgan’s Wireframe Sketches
High-Fidelity Prototype
The two user tasks the group chose to include in the high-fidelity prototype were purchasing tickets and finding educational resources on dinosaurs. The prototype also included a semi-functioning hamburger navigation (See Additional Links for working files and prototype link).
Task #1: Purchasing Tickets
Visiting the zoo is the primary call-to-action for the DinoSpher app, allowing people to purchase general admission tickets, as well as upgrade their visit to include special experiences and events. We included this as the first task in the prototype so that we could test how usable and intuitive this essential flow is.
Task #2: LEARNING
To keep users engaged whether they are visiting the zoo or not, the app allows them to learn more about dinosaurs through its interactive map or by scanning QR codes at various exhibits. This flow was included in the prototype to understand how useful this feature would be to users who want to learn more.
USER FEEDBACK
Feedback was solicited from 3 users with a semi-structured interview protocol. Users were encouraged to expand on answers and to provide commentary on the prototype as they went through it for the first time. This protocol was developed to assess users’ first impressions of the application and gauge the approximate usability of the functional application based on suggested improvements, points of friction, and user experience. An affinity diagram was then used to analyze feedback by organizing user comments into thematic categories, such as navigation and usability, accessibility and visual design, and user context and flow improvements. This helped to identify key patterns and insights for improving the app's design.
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35 years old – Male - Working professional in scientific field
Background:
This user notes being well-versed in smartphone applications and familiar with similar applications, having used the San Diego Zoo application before.Feedback Summary:
The user expressed excitement about its concept and praised its clear, well-designed interface similar to those of travel applications. While they previously criticized the oversized map icons, small text, and glitches of the San Diego Zoo app, they still suggested including icons in the map to indicate to users that certain items were clickable as well as signify facilities and points of interests. The user finds the prototype easy to navigate, particularly appreciating the bottom navigation for logical placement and ease of use. They noted that including the bottom navigation in the pop-up informational screens could help with navigability. Overall, they find the app intuitive and clear, with minor recommendations for improvement to the “learning” flow. -
60 years old – Female – Retired
Background:
This user is technologically proficient but prefers desktop interfaces to smart phone applications. She has no experience with similar applications.Feedback Summary:
This user loved the design upon opening the application. Their first impression was that it was clear and engaging. She enjoyed the photo-forward interface. She noted that as someone with vision issues, the high contrast colors were helpful, but some of the text sizes were small. Still, this user found no issues in navigating through the flows. She felt that the scan feature is unnecessary and drives users to look at their phones in the park more than needed. She felt informative signage in the zoo was enough and that people should be able to obtain the same information even if they do not own a smartphone. -
31 – Female - Childcare professional
Background:
This user has experience navigating the Philadelphia Zoo and notes the difficulty of finding specific exhibits and facilities. She is a frequent smartphone user, but has no experience using similar applications. She works in childcare so prioritizes an easy way to navigate the zoo when supervising children.Feedback Summary:
This user enjoyed the interface design, praising the imagery and color scheme. They spoke of how the interface lined up with their expectations of how it would look, making it easy to navigate. They relied on the bottom navigation return to home but were confused in scenarios where it was absent. She noted the importance of one-hand use when accompanying children, suggesting an audio component for the directions and simple gestural actions. This user felt that the map screen was logical and clear but would be improved if there were buttons to zoom in and out, so that the action could be performed one-handed. Overall, this user was concerned that allotting important park information to a smartphone application would drive park-users to be distracted and unaware of their surroundings when navigating the park.
DEsign Justification
Design Decisions
The designs for the high-fidelity prototype were determined by commonalities between the group members’ initial wireframes, which consisted of common design patterns and an agreed upon primary CTA, visiting the zoo. Outside of designing the app to be intuitive, we also wanted to give it a unique value proposition by providing users with the ability to engage in paleontology education through our interactive map and QR code scanning features. While more areas could have been explored more deeply, our prototype focused on the top two goals of the app - allow users to visit the zoo in a seamless manner, and give them access to educational resources to stay engaged.
Reflection on the Process
The process of designing flows through a clickable prototype enlightened the group to how extensive a user flow really is. The prototype had to be rebuilt several times to include missing transition screens that made the interactions feel more realistic. The group also had to get creative with certain features, such as the scanning feature, since the prototype could not actually use the cameras of the interviewees’ phones. Overall, the experience challenged our creativity and problem-solving skills, but resulted in a viable prototype.
REFLECTION ON USER feedback
The user feedback provided based on our high-fidelity prototype was overall positive. However, the participants did address potential accessibility concerns that the group would take into consideration in future iterations of the app. Another consideration for future iterations would be rethinking or removing the scanning feature, as users mentioned it was not necessary and potentially dangerous for zoo-goers.
Next steps for this prototype would be to explore and experiment with alternative learning opportunities for users that do not involve the scanning functionality, as well as to give more thought to the interactivity and accessibility of the educational map. Since user education is one of the app’s primary goals, this would need to be more extensively researched, prototyped, and tested. Without this feedback, time and resources would have been unnecessarily allocated to features that would not be valuable to users.