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The Project
The Project
The product
Le Toquecan is a service that helps ecologically-conscious people make a difference in saving the rare endangered toque-wearing Arctic Toucan bird of North America. The duration was approximately 2 months (Jan – Mar, 2022).
The problem
The Arctic Toucan species of bird native to North America is at risk of going extinct. Local bird enthusiasts and nature-lovers are eager to help save this unique bird, and together it truly is possible! The primary goal of this project is to drive meaningful, quantitative change to the Arctic Toucan species of bird. Current populations are monitored by conservationists, so positive changes in numbers can be observed.
My Role
UX Designer on the Le Toquecan Arctic Toucan bird conservation adaptive design tool from conception to finalization.
Project responsibilities included: initial user research, paper and digital wireframing, low and high fidelity prototyping, competitive auditing, conducting usability studies, accessibility design, and iterating on designs.
The User
The User
Initial Research
Research for this project was a mix of secondary research and competitive auditing.
Overall the results of the combined research showed two primary themes. The first is that the best way to drive meaningful social change from the service is to actually have users using the service. This means the focal statistic should be user retention which can be given attention by adding features that bring users back regularly. The second theme derived from user research was what fundamentally drives users to use this service: their ecological consciousness. Knowing that entertainment, financial reward, or utility aren’t driving use factors allows effort to be spent on the correct areas. This feeds right into a primary assumption made: users create a positive feedback loop using the app by feeling like they’ve made a difference.
User Pain Points
Ease of Use
All tasks and features should be easy and as straightforward to complete as possible. As a non-essential app, any additional inconveniences could lead to a lost user.
Positive Feedback
People enjoy seeing the fruits of their labour. Especially when working towards a big goal such as conserving a species.
Interest
Helping conserve a species is usually not the most glamourous job. Users will benefit from additional features to ensure higher retention.
Persona: Jimmi
Jimmi is a bird enthusiast and conservationist who needs a way to provide assistance to a local endangered bird species because he wants to make a difference in their community and help a species in need.
Age: 42
Education: Bachelor degree
Hometown: Singapore, SP
Family: Wife, 2 kids
Occupation: Researcher
Goals
Wants to be able to report unprotected nests.
Wants a “how to” on making special birdhouses for them.
Wants a visual bird identification section
Frustrations
“I don’t want an app that’s bogged down by too many features”
“I want it to be clean and easy to use.”
Bio
Jimmi is a loving husband, caring father of 2, avid bird lover, and hobby conservationist. He moved to Canada at a very young age from Romania and grew up in a larger city. Ever since he can remember he’s loved watching and identifying birds.
A local species of toucan is endangered and Jimmi wants to do his part to save them from going extinct!
Persona: Tammy
Tammy is a park ranger and bird lover who needs a way to ensure her favourite bird doesn’t go extinct because She has a special connection to the species and believes it’s the right thing to do.
Age: 22
Education: College diploma
Hometown: Calgary, CA
Family: Parents
Occupation: Park ranger
Goals
Doesn’t want to see Arctic Toucan go extinct
Wants to help
Wants some basic information and facts about the Arctic Toucan
Frustrations
“I don’t want the app to be too annoying to use.”
“I want to do my part to help but I don’t know how.”
Bio
Tammy has been a huge lover of nature all her life. From a very young age she used to love going on nature hikes and see all the local wildlife. As she grew up her love for the wild never ceased and transformed into a love for wilderness photography. She then started submitting her wildlife photography to contests and later in life won first place in a very prestigious magazine. Her first place win was of an Arctic Toucan which led to her special attachment to the species and desire to save them from extinction.
Initial Design Process
Initial Design Process
Competitive Audit
The primary theme derived from the competitive audit was the driving factor in using a conservationist service. This is that someone doesn’t use this type of service for personal gain but to make a difference. Knowing this, emphasis is put on areas that reinforce the positive impact the user is making to help create a positive feedback loop of returning to the service.
Paper Wireframes
Initially, I used a crazy eights approach to quickly ideate potential screen ideas. Then, I created a general paper outline of some of the main screens I plan to use based on aspects I liked from crazy eights.
Digital Wireframes
The main factor driving retention is the social media toucan sightings function. Users can take pictures of and geolocate sightings (within a radius) and see other sightings on a map. Test users/ peers really liked this feature.
Hero image of the Arctic Toucan creates an emotional response
A social media function of sharing sightings with geolocation for tracking and creating hype among users.
Lo-fi Prototype
Overall not much changed from a UX perspective between the lo-fi and hi-fi prototypes. This gleans as much information as finding many issues with the lo-fi prototype in many ways. While this could be a user testing methodology issue, I did not pursue this avenue and proceeded to the next steps.
Usability Study
Study Type
Unmoderated usability study
Location
Canada, remote
Participants
2 participants
Length
15-20 minutes
Findings
Users love the social media Arctic Toucan reporting feature.
Users want a simple UI home screen.
Users want value added in multiple ways. Additional offerings were planned to bring users value in other ways.
Refining the Design
Refining the Design
Mockups
Most of the design stayed the same, except for a value-add conservation status of the Arctic Toucan so users can see how they’re doing over time. Also some minor layout changes to ease navigation.
Hi-fi Prototypes
I took a mobile-first approach because the primary use-case will be users outside, away from a desktop computer. The easiest way to report sightings is using a phone camera or location data from a mobile device. There are aspects of the service that just work better on desktop, such as the DIY birdhouse, due to the nature of a longer step-by-step set of instructions.
Mobile Hi-fi prototype in Adobe XD
Responsive Design
Full prototypes were made for both mobile and desktop experiences. Tablet is only in mockup stage but is essentially a hybrid of the other two.
Tablet
Site Map
This IA for this service follows a matrix model in that apart from the reporting feature, users make their own journey. Depending on their current need, they will access this tool in a different order each use.
Desktop
Accessibility by Design
Accessibility by Design
Users will primarily access this service outside, potentially with harsh weather conditions, which poses an accessibility issue. This can further amplify accessibility concerns such as eyesight or motor issues.
Strong information architecture was established to ensure users understand the stage they are currently on for all screens.
High contrast typography and UI elements were used to improve user navigation in any conditions and assist users with poor eyesight.
Going Forward
Going Forward
User Impact
Quantitative measurement of the impact this service provides can be measured by the population growth of Arctic Toucans. Conserving an at-risk species also has a tangible impact on the biosphere and local ecosystems.
Lessons learned: I learned the importance of planning for multiple screen sizes right at the start. I had trouble coming up with value adds for the various sizes. I also learned how drop-down menus work and how to make a clean UI.
Next Steps
Build out the tablet screen-sized prototype. It currently doesn’t exist but would likely get used due to its mobility.
I would like to have more value-adds to improve overall retention.
Some forms are unfinished and link to a 404 page. I would like to build them.
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