As a student here at Utah Valley University, my professors have given me a variety of prompts to help expand my design abilities. Throughout this last school semester, I have learned so much more about Figma and App Design. I am excited to share my thoughts and the things I have learned.
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This project is all about designing an app for one of the many National Parks around the United States and prototyping as much of it as we can so that potential test users would be able to get the full experience without having to code.
Goals: ​
Design an app to improve the accessibility of Yellowstone National Park by designing and prototyping the following features:
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An animal report system to improve the chances of seeing an animal.
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An interactive hike map to allow users to easily access hikes.
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A geyser eruption tracker for Old Faithful and other geysers.
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A picnic, bathroom, and campground map that informs the user of their locations throughout the park.
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Plan a day at the park through the use of a calendar or list.
Audience: ​
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This app is made for adults planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park.
​Concepts & Sketches
I chose to do Yellowstone National Park for my project since I knew it the best. The first thing I did was write out some ideas. I thought back to my experience at Yellowstone and realized that my favorite part of the park is always the amazing animals that you can see everywhere you look. I decided that the main feature I would want to see in my app would be the ability to track animals through other users reporting through a system similar to a Google review. That would allow more people to see animals that may be close to them within the park. After getting a few ideas, I decided to sketch them and turn them into digital wireframes.
Make it Pretty & Prototyping
The next few steps I needed to do included adding color, words, and pictures. I decided to go with a solid green color because I wanted something outdoorsy and simple. Choosing the pictures for the images was fun, as Yellowstone is so beautiful! Once the app looked good, I worked on figuring out how to get some of the harder aspects of the design prototyped. This was by far the hardest part of the project. The map tracking feature was difficult because I couldn't figure out how to move the image around and how to get location indicators to show up on the map when selected and disappear when unselected. After watching (and pausing the video a million times) I learned that you can use frames, components, and variables to do all the things that I wanted!
Reflection​​
I thought the work I did was very good! I was happy with the functionality of the designs. I was very proud of the things that I learned about prototyping and utilizing Figma. If I had more time, I would definitely explore more of the features that can be found on my app design, perform some usability studies, and research some new ways of planning a trip. Overall, I am proud of the work that I accomplished and the Figma and prototyping skills I developed.