Improving the User Experience of the National Parks Systems App

The primary objective of this project is to redesign the National Park Service (NPS) app, focusing on the Pacific Northwest administrative region. The preliminary app aims to address current challenges, including poor user experience, navigation issues, and limited offline capabilities. The redesign aligns with the NPS mission for education and conservation, providing visitors with an improved, region-specific app.

Our team had 5 main methodologies for gathering user feedback; Think alouds, card sorting, 5 seconds tests, surveys, and questionairs.

Participants are shown the interface for just five seconds and then asked questions about their initial impressions. These questions can include inquiries about the purpose of the page, memorable elements, target audience perception, trustworthiness, and overall design impression. Both qualitative feedback (participants' descriptions of their impressions) and quantitative data (ratings and rankings) are collected.

Over 16 responses were gathered.

the pages shown to users were the home page, passport page, National Park Safety page, and Park Screen

Some of the Short Answer Questions were answered with:

"I'm unclear about the purpose of earning badges. While the profile layout was readable, it's not immediately evident whether it's my own profile or someone else's that I'm viewing."

"The purpose of the outlines wasn't clear. Perhaps making them visible but faded could enhance clarity."

"The functions of the center icons aren't immediately apparent, particularly the warning symbol and others."

Participants are given tasks related to the application, such as planning a trip to a specific park. They are asked to verbalize their thoughts and actions throughout the task using the think-aloud protocol. Researchers observe and document the user's actions, vocalized thoughts, and any signs of confusion or frustration.

We found that the navgation as is was not too clear with the lo-fi's UI and icons.

Users did not pick up that passports worked like profiles

The search functions and pages worked as intended

Several users are presented with a set of virtual "cards," each representing a category or button on the interface. Participants are then asked to sort these cards into groups that make sense to them. Through this process, we gain insights into how users mentally categorize information. We collect data on how different users group items, helping us understand common patterns and preferences.

Results from over 14 participants were gathered. On average, 4 categories were created with each category containing around 7 items. Common categories included: Itinerary, Outdoors, City trips, Alerts, Experiences, Historical, and Details. Displayed below is an example of what what participants were sorting:

- Monuments

- Historic Sites

- National Parks

- Active Alerts

- Know Before You Go

- Warnings

- Fort

- Places

- Trail

- Overlook

- Experiences

- Hours

- Park Info

- Amenities

- Closures

- Events

- Fees

The team leader had the most sway in the design, as she was the team leader, so my job was to take her sketches and make lo-fi prototypes. This can be viewed here:

https://www.figma.com/design/e4uHt2eeN0YSs22dRAq3ZJ/Prototype?node-id=0-1&t=aMS7Y3MS4q5Lcxqk-1\