Natur-TEK

A UX design case study of the app for nature lovers

Have you ever been hiking and noticed some berries along the trail and were curious if they were edible? Or even worse maybe your 3-year old already stuffed a couple in his mouth so now you’re wondering if they’re poisonous?

Introducing Natur-TEK – the iPhone app known as the Shazam for Plants! Now you can learn more about your natural surroundings simply by taking a picture with your phone. Amateur naturalists are invited to tap into a vast network of knowledge known as the TEK-Toolkit, to identify the plants, fungi, and insects living around you.

I came up with the idea for the Natur-TEK app because I wanted to find a way to connect people with the ecosystems that they live in. My hypothesis is that most individuals would like to learn more about the plants and animals around them but don’t have access to credible teachers nor have the time to find the information on their own. If the user could take a photo with their phone and instantly have the information at their fingertips they would not only know more about the plant itself but also be able to share that knowledge with those around them. My hope was that the app, by helping others create relationships with their natural surroundings, could build awareness about the impacts of climate change and influence others to know that we need everyone on board to fix the planet.

Identifying User Challenges

The fundamental goal that the app is trying to solve is to expand user access to ecological knowledge in an efficient and easy way. The first thing I needed to do was connect with potential users to determine how they would like to achieve this goal. While I would’ve preferred to have a larger sample size with a wider range of demographics, for this study, I established a target audience and recruited interview participants who fit the description.

Primary Audience: Smartphone savvy, young adults across the Pacific Northwest (PNW), 18 – 45 years old, interested in the outdoors but maybe not as knowledgeable as they’d like to be. May have a young family or pets as motivation for increasing knowledge of the outdoors.

Secondary Audience: General public with an interest in the outdoors either hiking, gardening, or outdoor sports.

To test out my hypothesis I conducted interviews with five potential users of the app. All interviewees were within the age range suggested for the primary audience but not all had explicit interest in the outdoors and one was from outside the PNW. My questions ranged from “Do you have and use a smartphone?” to “Do you notice the changing of the seasons?” to “How do you prefer to learn about plants/animals?”

Takeaways from User Interviews:

The majority of the users (⅘) receive, or at least prefer to receive, their naturalist knowledge first-hand from a more experienced individual.
Half of the users interviewed were interested in learning the medicinal and edible properties of plants and fungi.
More than one person expressed concern that the goal of the app may have negative consequences by encouraging a lot of people to visit the same spots. Ideas emerged to include notes about respect and conservation throughout the app.
I was also surprised at the high level of anticipated participation in such an app/online community.
All participants noticed the seasons changing and for most it was a positive revelation.

Competitive Analysis

Before starting to design my app I needed to see what else was already out there. I started by looking at what other apps were available for identifying plants and animals, via phone-camera and computer vision.

I found three apps that are the most similar to the idea that I had in mind. “Seek,” an app with approximately 28 million users globally. The app aggregates information from observations made by the California Academy of Sciences and their own online iNaturalist community to identify a species. “Picture This,” an app that has an estimated 3 million users globally. The app identifies species via computer vision from their database of over 10,000 species. Lastly, I looked at “Google Lens” which is Google’s visual search engine allowing users to use their phone’s camera function to do a number of things, including using a picture to identify a species. I completed a competitive teardown of these three apps to see what solutions they were offering their users and what opportunities I might be able to grasp from my review.

The “Seek” app has the most extensive database and user community. “Seek” also has the added social component of having the user collect badges for observed species and building in competition with their online community. Since it is a joint venture by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society their content is trustworthy and their imagery is amazing. The “Picture This” app also has a sizeable community with 3 million users and a 95% accuracy rate. The app identifies species through its computer vision AI technology. The last app I reviewed was “Google Lens”, specifically its species identifying feature. While the app has a sleek look and is connected to the most powerful internet database Google, it wasn’t the most user friendly. It took a moment to locate and figure out how to use. Once a species was identified the information was simply a Google search result list.

Takeaways from Competitive Teardown:

Overall most of the apps used the same conventions for the design and layout making it somewhat intuitive for users. As the main feature is the camera it is fitting that most similar apps are visually appealing. The social component within the apps is the most interesting to me and one that I think is important to include in my app since it seems integral to success to be able to bring the user back. I found myself drawn to the feature in “Picture This’” database that notes the seasonality of a species and I think I would like to include that in my app design.

Designing Solutions

At this point I had heard from potential users, conducted market research, and mapped out the current user journey and pain points. From these I was able to develop a list of the main areas of opportunity to design solutions for users challenges.

What is this plant/mushroom/insect?
Is it edible or poisonous?
Can I share my findings with others?
Can I keep a list of the plants/fungi/insects I’ve identified in the past.

Surprisingly the apps currently available don’t meet their number two priority, which is to tell them if the species is edible, poisonous, or had medicinal properties. Taking this knowledge combined with the user interviews, I started to envision a workflow of how a user might make their way through my app.

Design Process: User Journey Map

I mapped out two potential journeys of users who would meet my target user profiles. User 1 is taking their family for a hike and would like to identify berries found along the trail. User 2 is concerned that their pet is sick because it ate the berries in the yard that look poisonous. Looking at the user journeys it is easy to see the different challenges and pain points that they face along the way. Most importantly using the camera function, and identifying a species quickly and accurately.

Design Process: Sketches

From here, I could start to envision what my user was looking for so I started sketching out some ideas for how my improved app could meet the users needs. During this brainstorm I wanted to remain open to new ideas and solutions so I sketched out three completely different designs for each of the apps main pages. The Home Screen, where users land upon logging in. The user’s collection of observations which I’m calling their “Field Notebook”, which is essentially also their profile page. Last, the Species Identification process and page design, which is integral to the functionality of the app.

Design Process: Flowchart

Before moving forward onto wireframing, I needed to make sure that I’d thought fully about my apps components and interactions. I needed to make sure that the user had clear paths to navigate and move through my app – before designing what those paths would look like. Through a number of Flowchart designs, I realized that I could simplify the navigation by ensuring that a search function and a users profile was accessible from almost all pages. Most navigation would lead back to the Home page which displays the four main categories. It was also in the Flowchart that I realized that most individuals aren’t interested in creating a profile right away but it would still be important to get them to access the site. So I came up with the idea that from the login screen (main access screen for the app) would be an option to take a photo to identify a species without signing up for a profile. Most importantly mapping out the flowchart helped me realize how underdeveloped my ideas for the TEK toolkit and Bingo game are. Over the next couple of iterations I’ll need to dive into those opportunities a little further.

Design Process: Wireframes

I started my design by learning Sketch and putting together some simple wireframes. During this stage I kept things open and created two wireframes for each of my apps main pages. I took various components from my sketches of its main pages and combined them to create these wireframes.

Luckily I created them because some of the feedback I received during the Wireframe critique was crucial.

For starters, the navigation within the app was lacking. Even though my flowchart enabled me to minimize the navigation
I also hadn’t developed the user profile and ability to edit settings and update permissions.
I hadn’t quite figured out all the features that I want on the Identified Species page and those reviewing really wanted to dig into what information was out there for the species.

Design Process: Prototype

After incorporating the feedback I received on my wireframe designs I set out to create a more visually compelling prototype of my app. I added color and content, as well as developed the logo and tagline. After putting all the page designs into InVision and setting up the interaction functionality I realized that a few it would benefit from a few more pages so I added in the profile page as well as Bingo landing page. Overall I think this helped make it feel like it had more functionality as an app. The InVision prototype can be accessed via this link: https://invis.io/K3V2IOG4HG6

Testing it out!

After putting together a draft prototype I set up a usability study and recruited three users to test it out. My main goals of the usability test were to determine whether ir not the target audience understood the purpose of the app and how to use its main functions. Next I wanted to see which features were most important to the user. I put together a testing plan, making sure to allow the tester to make their way through the app with minimal instruction.

Takeaways from Usability Testing:

Analyzing the first round of usability testing the app design received some great feedback. For starters users seem to easily grasp the purpose of the app and are excited to try it out. The main design was for an iPhone layout which caused some trouble with users unfamiliar with the apple environment, but the users memory quickly grasped on. Many of the test participants anticipated that the Species Identification process would either be automatic once the image came into focus, or that the user would simply press the image of the species (rather than the camera button) to take a photo. It also became clear through Task #2 that most users assumed that the camera function would also be available via the user’s Field Notebook page – which it should be so that is great feedback. One test taker noted it would be ideal to be able to view observations at full screen size. One test taker noted their concern that the app didn’t ask for permission to access the camera before being able to take a photo. Multiple test takers noted their concern that the app may cause negative impacts to the environment by increasing foot traffic and that the app should include more obvious notes of trail etiquette and conservation tips.

Opportunities for Future Iterations

The main feature of the app is the camera so naturally the first priorities lie in getting that functionality working superbly. After that its increasing the users awareness of trail etiquette and conservation, while also enabling them to make greater connections with the Natur-TEK Community.

First priority – is to update the camera function so that users can tap directly on the image of the species they want to identify, to take its photo.
Second priority – is to include access to the camera function while users are viewing their Field Notebook. To be truthful it made me realize that the camera function should be available on almost every page of the app. Wildlife rarely waits for you to get your camera ready to capture the perfect moment, so the app needs to allow the user to be ready.
Third Priority – After the camera, the other main area of opportunity supports the foundational goal of the app which is to increase awareness of our natural world. The next iteration of the design has to include a more obvious call to action on conservation. One solution would be to add consistent and fun notes of conservation throughout with messages like “stay on the trail” and “remember to pack out what you pack in”, etc.
Fourth priority – would be to increase the social component of the app. The Bingo game and Profile pages need to be developed further to see how best to share and compare with the greater online community.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am pretty happy with how the first iteration of the app has manifested itself. It was a great opportunity to walk through an entire UX design process. I most enjoyed the design phases from sketching, to wireframing, to prototyping. I thoroughly enjoyed getting real-time feedback from users during the testing phase and then implementing them into the various iterations of the visual design. I think it’s clear from the feedback that there is still plenty of functionality to build into the app before it hits the app store, but for now the concept seems solid and is meeting the main goal which is to inspire users to connect with their natural surroundings.

Sydney Cain

Natur-TEK

A UX design case study of the app for nature lovers