OZONE

Lead User Experience Researcher
University of California, Merced

Department of Sustainability

Accessible Data Visualizations for a Sustainable Campus

Research Skills:

Interviews (group and individual)
Paper prototyping
Co-design
Guerilla usability testing
Translating academic literature to actionable design content

THE CHALLENGE

CREATE A MOBILE APP

that integrates live data of campus energy use and waste consumption.

CONSOLIDATE CAMPUS RESOURCES

(e.g. water bottle refill stations) into an approachable, ready to use campus map

CONSTRUCT A USER INTERFACE

that supports and encourages campus-wide engagement with sustainable resources and practices.

DESIGN AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

PRELIMINARY USER INTERVIEWS

Held 50+ unstructured interviews to identify the usability needs of students, faculty, family and campus professionals.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Researched and adapted experimental archetypes for user studies when developing navigation-based mobile applications.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

Used paper prototyping and participatory design sessions to engage end-users during design process. Later adapted paper prototypes to develop a wireframe in Axure RP.

INTERFACE EVALUATION

Completed iterative evaluations of paper interfaces and wireframes with students, families, and professional staff in lab sessions.

Evaluated wizard-of-oz prototype using guerilla testing during a campus-wide visit day for new students and families. Engaged 100+ prospective and current students and 50+ staff and faculty in usability testing.

DEPLOYMENT

Coordinated with campus professionals to establish app for continued use on campus.

RESULTS

COMPLETED A WEB/MOBILE-BASED APP FOR CAMPUS-WIDE USE IN 5 MONTHS.

Competed in the university's "Innovate to Grow" Mobile App Challenge and placed second for "Best Software Pitch" among 20 other teams.

SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATED LIVE BUILDING EMISSION AND RESOURCE CONSUMPTION DATA TO:

Allow any user to customize their visualizations and assist administrators from Department of Sustainability with managing back-end processes of the application.