The Client
Scenic Hudson, a non-profit organization in the Hudson Valley, dedicated to preserving, and protecting land for public usage.
Designing a Parks App for the Hudson Valley
The Objective
Creating an intuitive digital parks guide, propelling the organization, Scenic Hudson, into the forefront of technological innovation in Upstate New York.
Role & Tasks
As the sole product designer, I first developed a cutting edge design system for digital platforms, before creating wireframe concepts and then high-fis of the park discovery, trail navigation, and the visitor guide.
About The Project
Fostering a shared vision across multiple departments meant having to manage expectations. The communications team and I worked together on aligning goals, and feasibility of app features within a strict budget and timeline. Gaining the trust of other departments, including the client's designers was crucial in the process, in order to collaborate effectively.
Understanding the Purpose
I needed to get a clear understanding of the organization's vision and goals, in order to design a successful app for the parks organization. Scenic Hudson provided a list of business requirements, which I then translated into features for MVP and future release.
The Digital Parks Guide will launch as a mobile-first resource for Scenic Hudson park visitors, offering content and functionality to make them feel welcome, safe, and informed. It will help users identify, locate, and learn about parks, and provide tools to share and consume content from other visitors. Additionally, the DPG will raise awareness of Scenic Hudson’s work and offer opportunities for engagement through content channels, events, volunteering, and advocacy.
Understanding Competitors: Popular hiking Apps
Getting to know Park Visitors through a Survey
Survey Results; investigating influencing Factors
Reviewing the survey results, I investigated factors that might have influenced and skewed the responses.
I learned that variables such as location, time of day, and season can significantly impact the responses. Other notable correlations include the frequency of park visit and duration of stay, reasons for visiting and whether people come alone or with company, and unsurprisingly, the correlation between mobility levels and preference for trail ratings.
Personas: Understanding the Target Audience
The former College Athlete, and active Family Man
The Hiking Novice, who prefers walking on paved trails.
The Career Man, and Thrill Seeker for Adventure
Inspiration for ad-hoc Branding for Mobile Screens
I started the design process with a mobile-friendly branding system for Scenic Hudson. Their design guide was incomplete and missed components for mobile formats. I took inspiration from the shapes of print documents and the website and then reformatted the green and blue colored shapes to represent the rolling hills and the sky. Knowing that most people use obscenely big phones, I applied the shapes as a frame around the content. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Updated branding treatment for Mobile Screens
Introducing the visual treatment as a Splash Screen Animation, upon downloading and opening the Scenic Hudson App
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I applied the branded framing elements on visitor guide pages
On the hamburger menu and footer, I chose to
The Splash Screen
Opening the Scenic Hudson app, the branding elements on the top and bottom frame the brand identity.
* check back tomorrow for a smoother animation ; )
The Visitor Guide
The park discovery map
Branded bottom drawer holds park information, while filters can be accessed from the split button in the search bar.
