tech for good
DemocracyLab - Orcasound
While networking on LinkedIn, I found DemocracyLab & Orcasound. I currently collaborate with the team here.
The Gates Foundation supports DemocracyLab.
The Project Overview
Orcasound is a free open source web app that allows users to listen to & track orcas through hydrophones (Underwater microphones.) Currently, three hydrophones are located within the Salish Sea.
The Stakeholder wanted to understand how Orcasound, including the listening web app, should be designed to meet the users' needs.
My Starting Point - Personas
When I first joined the Team, I worked with our researcher and we began collaborating to discover our personas. Using Miro, gathering and analyzing the data.
- Results: Our 1st Persona is The CITIZEN SCIENTIST. This is my focal persona along with school children grades K - 10.
The Challenge
Orcasound has three main sites on multiple platforms. The sites lack a uniform design, and some house a mammoth archive of past blogs/articles.
We need to find out what/where our pain points are.
How do we implement change while keeping most archived material and meeting users' needs?
Comparative Analysis of Similar Sites
- Research competitor sites
- Document pages, layout, hierarchy
- Share findings with the team
- Save for later use in Version 3.0 design
Pain points on current site- Gathering Data - Affinity Mapping
- Collaborated on Pain Points regarding the user feedback form.
- Using Miro & Airtable, gather data from user surveys.
Team; Scott Veirs - Founder
Brendan Thatcher - Researcher
Myself - UX /UI - Product Designer
Carina Cheng & Catherine Zeng - UX/UI Designers
Port of Seattle Awards Orcasound - a great honor
Orcasound wins the 2020 Environmental Excellence award from the Port of Seattle!
While amid many projects, this was the first logo I designed for Orcasound. It was an honor to see it displayed online and on the plaque. Below to read the social media post.