Wayfarer

Plan your next outdoor adventure to State and National Parks with ease.

Wayfarer is a mobile application that will provide extensive information on State and National Park details and amenities for users to tailor their next park visit based on their interests and needs. It will allow users to compare park amenities such as campsites, hiking trails, and photography locations based on quality attributes like shaded areas, seclusion from other visitors, and difficulty of the activity. Additionally, users will be able to pay for park admissions, campsite reservations, and any other rentals through the system.

Roles

• UX Designer
• UI Designer
• UX Researcher
• Product Designer

Deliverables

• One-on-one interviews
• User personas
• Conceptual model diagram
• Journey map
• Card sort activity
• Site map
• Usability testing
• Mid-fidelity prototype

Specifications

• Class: Introduction to User-Centered Design
• Duration: 10 weeks
• Tools: Axure, Figma, Stormboard, Mural, and Optimal Workshop

Problem Statement

State and National Park systems provide too much general information with little value to individual park visitors. The Wayfarer system will allow users to streamline their park visit planning by providing comparable information that is specific to their interests. It will also make the reservation process easier.

Target Audience

This project targets users who are looking for a way to plan outdoor activities at national and state parks. It aims to simplify the process of planning multi-day outdoor trips with detailed itineraries, as well as single-day trips for users interested in one specific feature of the park such as running/bike trails, lakes, canoe rentals, guided hikes, etc.

Additionally, this project aims to provide information for those who are having trouble finding outdoor activities in their area or within the desired location. This project serves as a one-stop resource for all outdoor enthusiasts ranging from amateur to experienced to enjoy the outdoors.

Concept Analysis

The following table shows activity-related concepts that our users will encounter, create, and manipulate in order to accomplish their goals in our two focus scenarios. In addition, there are the operations that the user would perform on these concepts and the attributes of the concept.

Concept	Attributes (of concept)	Operations (users perform)
Park	Park type, size, activities, location, fees, description	Search, locate, filter, view, favorite, share
Profile	Account, settings, contact information, favorites, billing information	View, edit
Activity	Activity type, description, location, difficulty, length	View, locate, reserve, favorite
Campsite	Elevation, location, shade, cleanliness, seclusion, nearby landmarks, description	Reserve, search, view, locate, favorite, share
Reservation	Park, campsite, activity, dates, cost, cancellation policy	Create, pay, cancel, share, save to calendar
Map	Scale, grids, compass, landmarks	Zoom in and zoom out
Landmark	Icons, color, description, location	Save, view, favorite
Search	Terms, filters, sort, location, landmark, park, activity, campsite, results	Filter, sort, and submit, view, delete, refresh, share
Location	City, state, country, region, coordinates	View, navigate, favorite
Description	Name, information, location, type	View
Message	Subject, content, recipient, sender, date/time	Create, view, reply, save
Calendar	Notifications, reservations	Search, filter, share, sync to personal device
Notification	Date, time, description, title, type, action	Enable, disable, view, delete, snooze
Favorite	Parks, landmarks, campsites, activities, locations	Save, unsave, view, locate

Conceptual Model Diagram

Shown here is the conceptual model diagram that visually represents the activity-related concepts from our analysis and the relationships among the concepts.

Interface Metaphors

• Search: You can look up multiple activities happening within the park and compare campsites.
• Reservations: You can add/remove items from the shopping cart.
• Payments: The total cost of all of items that the customer owes to make a purchase. These items include campsite reservations, park admission, and other activity fees. All items are purchased with a single collective transaction.
• Map: Paper maps use labels for streets and landmarks to help readers navigate directions. Iconography is used to concisely mark common landmarks. In our system, it is important to allow users to discover new parks, hiking trails, campsites, and other outdoor landmarks in a map context. Users can determine the best way to get to a point of interest through a map visual.
• Reviews: A community bulletin is where information can be shared by the public regarding reviews on activities/campsites, advertisements, public messages, safety info, and event announcements. This information can be utilized by users for decision making and planning.
• Support: An information hotline is a 24/7 number that can be utilized by users for assistance and information. This provides users with open communication to assist with their needs.
• Calendar: A calendar is used to keep up with special dates and events. In our system, the calendar displays a user’s upcoming park reservations.
• Notifications: This includes confirming and reminding about appointments or tasks that need to be done. Our system serves as a personal assistant to the user.

Interaction Types

• Instructing: Users can instruct the app to perform tasks such as searching, filtering, refining, saving, reserving, and downloading. The user can also select multiple options within the app by clicking on landmarks, activities, campsites, calendar events, and profile features. The user can manipulate/change profile and reservation information.
• Direct Manipulation: User is directly doing a physical action while on the app.
• Manipulation: Users can zoom in and out of the map to locate specific routes or landmarks within the app.
• Conversing: Users can contact a technical support technician or park rangers via messaging. This type of system results in a conversation that is two-sided to help answer the user’s unique concerns.

Card Sort Activity

Tools: A web-based, open card sort was used to test users. The card-sort survey can be found at this here.

Results: Most users grouped things you would find in the park such as campsites, restrooms, hiking trails, lakes, parks, picnic areas, swimming areas, and canoe rentals. Many users grouped activities in its own group as this did not seem to fit with other categories. Many users wanted to see a location group where they placed search, compass, directions, and map. A large majority of users made a profile area with the categories such as my account, favorites, and bookmarks. They also made another main group for help and support. The last main grouping among users was that of the shopping cart, calendar, checkout, reservations, notifications, and features.

Navigation Sitemap

The following sitemap was designed based on our results from the open card sort. This is the most commonly used navigation amongst our participants.

Usability Testing

We conducted usability testing with eight users. Subjects were mainly selected based on their availability to complete the test by the date needed. Majority of users had interest and/or experience in camping/hiking

Focus Scenario: Camper Plans Park Trip [Before]

Imagine that you want to plan a camping trip with your family. You would like to reserve two campsites for a multiple-night stay.

1. Find a park that has available campsites for next weekend near you
2. Select a park of your choice
3. Add park admission to the cart, if applicable
4. Find two campsites that best suit your needs
5. Add both campsites to your cart
6. Pay for campsite reservation added to cart
7. Add reservations to your calendar
8. Find existing reservation

Focus Scenario: Hiker Returns Home [After]

Imagine you just returned home from a day hike with friends. You really enjoyed the experience and would like to leave a review and share photos of something interesting you saw on the hike.

1. Find most recent park reservations visit
2. Add a review for a past reservation

Mid-Fidelity Prototype

Data Analysis

• Six users found the distance from me information on the park results page useful.
• One user did not find the maps useful because it did not have an indicator of their location.
• Four users did not understand what “$$$ per vehicle” meant on the park page.
• Four users did not know what amount was added to their cart when pressing “Add to cart”.
• Three users clicked “go back” from the park page when trying to find a campsite.
• All users navigated to the shopping cart via the bottom navigation icon instead of the “View Cart” button after adding an item to a cart.
• Four users expected to put in their email address when checking out so they could get a receipt.
• Six users found their upcoming reservation quickly.
• Six users easily found the area to write a review.
• Six users liked the division of “upcoming reservations” and “past reservations”.
• Six users successfully completed the first task scenario.
• Six users successfully completed the second task scenario.
• Seven users said they would recommend the application to someone else.
• Three users said that they would want a calendar that is updated to the current day.

Lessons Learned

• We conducted extensive user research within this project before performing any prototyping. It would have been helpful to create more than one iteration to improve upon, such as a low-fidelity prototype or sketch, instead of jumping straight to the final design concept.
• We used an open card sort for surveying users, but we may have benefited more from a closed card sort because there was a large variety in the categories they chose to group together, making it difficult for our team to decipher what groupings worked best.
• The usability testing for our mobile prototype was performed on laptop and desktop screens, which reduced the validity of the evaluation and made it more difficult for users to scroll to see all information on each page.
• For usability tests conducted via Zoom, asking users to share their screen made the evaluations less natural for them.
• The feedback from testing may have been skewed in a more positive direction due to our pre-existing relationships with our evaluation participants, whereas lesser known participants could have provided more honest and useful feedback.
• Users seemed to get distracted away from the task at hand at times either by going off track of the questions and speaking about extraneous details or from others in their environment interrupting the meeting.

Next Steps

• One finding from our usability testing that users would have liked to see is adding more locations to the search bar such as city, state, and park as opposed to just searching by zip code.
• Another design revision needed is to create more realistic data that is consistent and free of typos across the prototype, especially for reservation dates, descriptions of parks/activities, search results maps, individual park maps, as well as a “You are Here” indicator on maps.
• We then took into consideration supporting multiple languages (ex. English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, etc.) to make the application more accessible to various types of users.
• Users expressed interest in a separate payment experience for guests and signed-in members. Guests will need to provide their email address/phone number and signed-in members will already have this information stored in their profile. Also, including a nudge for guests to sign up for an account during the checkout process will increase user engagement.
• Next, adding the ability for users to review purchases/totals before submitting payment information, as well as the option to undo removing something from the Shopping Cart or Favorites will ensure error prevention.
• An important piece needed in the next steps is a social component within the app under My Profile so users can connect with other campers/hikers before, during, and after their trips.