How can we design an observational and interactive resource for students studying zoo animal behavior?
Role: Web Development Intern
Timeline: May 2023 - August 2023
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Flutter, Dart
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo had an educational app from 2014 that focused on student educational programs and professional development. I was hired as a web development intern in 2023 to create a user-focused redesign for the upcoming academic year.
The Stanford d.school's Design Thinking Process was the guide to creative problem solving, beginning the journey to configure a new iPad app for the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s educational program.
Design Thinking Model
Empathize
For the app's refresh, the team and I looked to incorporate ethograms (scientific observations) as a tool found in the zoo's current STEM programs. With old app documentation and instructional manuals provided by zoo education specialists, I used these materials to conduct initial research.
To understand and consider my user’s capabilities, I had to consider my audience to be students between grades 1 and 8 and their teachers.
To discover our user base, I created personas to help understand the correlation between student age and their technology background. From the personas, I was able to recognize how a student and teacher’s environment and/or upbringing could impact their knowledge of personal devices.
Persona A
Persona B
Persona C
Persona D
Define
The team I worked with to define the problem statement of this new project included two people with a technical background, and two with education expertise. Together, we were able to form a concise idea to create an accessible app for both students and teachers: how can we design an observational and interactive resource for students studying zoo animal behavior?
I found my requirements through a heuristic evaluation (though it's a typical test phase technique) and recorded the struggles students and educators experienced with the 2013 iPad app. I also posed questions about what exactly we were looking to create.
Heuristic Evaluation A
Heuristic Evaluation B
Ideate
Post evaluation, I created some use cases to further clarify the intended use and purpose of a scientific app. I decided that the students and teachers need to have a specific set of capabilities For example, the students need to record their data from observing animals at the zoo. Additionally, the teachers should track the progress of the students during the field trip. Use cases helped me the app's exact functions.
Use Case
Prototype
The prototyping process began with creating a visual and interactive representation of how I wished to design the ethogram itself. With Adobe InDesign, I began to craft three interactive PDFs to model the different “levels” of ethograms, corresponding with the students' grades.
My low-fidelity prototypes had young students would interacting with a drag & drop interface, middle-aged students with a tally system, and older students completing work adjacent to an ethologist.
Lo-fi Prototype A
Lo-fi Prototype B
Figma quickly became an instrumental part of my vision to create the entire ethogram experience into app form. With its intuitive prototyping tools, the software allowed me to show the education team how I wanted students and teachers to make their field trip interactive.
Bright, simple, and fun vector graphics immediately allowed me to set the tone for the ethogram app. The app is for students, first and foremost, and represented the various landscapes that the zoo animals’ wild counterparts could be found.
Please walk through the high-fidelity prototype below.
From a back-end perspective, the developer on my team began to roughly translate my Figma prototype into an app using Flutter. I learned Flutter has the capability to create apps across multiple platforms at once which allows me to be flexible with future plans about expanding where the app can be used.
Test
Following the app’s creation and the extremely complicated process of releasing an unlisted app through Apple, the deployment phase began. With 60 iPads requiring factory resets, software updates, and unlisted app uploads, the IT team and I worked for an entire week getting the iPads up to speed.
As of August 2023, these videos walk through the current version of the app that is being tested at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's education programs.
Grades 1-3
Teacher
Grades 7-8
Grades 4-6
Closing
I look forward to continuing to communicate with my team and receiving feedback about my app being in the field at the zoo. I would be very open to iterating with changes I learn from my user base, and am very proud and happy to have completed the Cleveland Metroparks Ethogram App during the course of my summer 2023 internship.