Current Status

Tweet is a mobile app design I have been working on recently and for which I am currently developing a web application version of in my Database Management Systems course.

While I am still working on refining this design and adding or modifying functionality according to user testing, I am really happy with how my idea for this app design has come to life as I continue to flesh out the design over time.

Concept

My family and I are avid birdwatchers and love to take part in bird photography. On our birdwatching outings, we often find ourselves hearing a bird singing and having difficulty identifying the call. We always joke about wishing we had a "Shazam for bird calls" that could listen to the bird singing and identify it. So, I decided to design an app that does so!

Tweet is a comprehensive birdwatching app that provides users with an all-in-one source for bird identification, consolidation of photos/videos and field notes, sighting reporting, and building a community with other birdwatchers.

Contextual Inquiry and Analysis

I began my ideation process by drawing on my own experience as a birdwatcher and bird photographer and identifying aspects of birdwatching that I feel could be improved, or common frustrations I have experienced during my time birdwatching. By doing this, I was able to identify gaps in my experience as a birdwatcher that could potentially be filled by an app.

However, I also wanted to consult with members of my family that are also birdwatchers in order to get the perspectives of other potential users experienced in birdwatching and identify common trends and recurring patterns.

These are some of the main patterns I noticed:

Difficulty identifying bird calls
Forgetting locations of bird sightings
- Trying to keep track of landmarks through photos to help remember the locations of these sightings
Enjoying the use of Facebook groups as a community for bird watchers and photographers
Having "bucket list birds" that are rare or a goal to identify and spot in real life

Ideation

After identifying main patterns (including limitations and points of emotional investment) in users' workflow when birdwatching, I used these patterns to brainstorm some ideas for potential solutions or improvements to the current workflow through the use of a mobile app.

But first I wanted to identify the main potential personas that would most likely using this app. For example:

John Turner, age 65, enjoys nature walks and bird photography during retirement, has difficulty adjusting to new technology
Kate Smith, age 42, beginner backyard birdwatching hobbyist, unfamiliar with many bird species and wants to learn more
Kerry Murphy, age 30, professional nature photographer and birder, wants to travel the world and document as many bird sightings in a year as possible
Tyler Stewart, age 18, high school student with no prior knowledge of birds, doing a school project for biology that requires bird observation and documenting these observations

The first thing that came to mind was the "Shazam for bird calls" concept that my family and I constantly mentioned to each other. Being able to identify birds via sound would speed up the identification process and aid birdwatchers in knowing what features to be looking for in their environment.

In addition to this, I knew I wanted to provide a way to log sightings while keeping track of locations and providing a way to document visual landmarks or include bird photos, as many birdwatchers are also photographers.

I also wanted to incorporate the positive experience of building a supportive online community with other birdwatchers as is often done through Facebook groups.

I continued this process by making some initial sketches to begin fleshing out my idea and move into prototyping.

First Iteration

Second Iteration

Prototyping

After ideation, the bulk of the time I have put into this project so far is in the development and refinement of my prototype, an interactive wireframe in Figma.

All of the art included in this prototype (the bird images and profile pictures) I did myself using Procreate to draw them digitally.

My primary focus while creating my prototype was to keep an open mind and not be afraid to go back and iterate upon my existing design where necessary (which happened many times).

I also made sure to utilize Figma components wherever I could to speed up my design process by making changes easier and consistent throughout the design.

As an example of an iteration I made on this design, see these two versions of the "Sightings - Map View - Specific Sighting" frame of my design.

The design on the left was my initial design, with longer paragraphs of information that would almost always require the user to press "Read More" to get all the information they needed to identify a bird.

On the right is the second iteration of this frame, which split the primary information into data-value pairs to make it more readable and informative at first glance.

Final (For Now) Prototype

Here is a frame-by-frame carousel of my current prototype prior to user testing and significant iteration.

User Testing

Work in progress! I am currently working on scheduling times to meet with experienced birdwatchers of varying ages as well as people with little to no birdwatching experience to gain feedback on the usability and intuitiveness of my design so far. After this, I will iterate upon my design again and make changes where necessary.

Ideas for Future Improvement/Iteration

While a lot of this will be made more clear after user testing and evaluation, some ideas I already have are:

Adding functionality to group field notes/posts by "trips" to different locations
- Potentially change "add new sighting" plus button to be a generic plus button, and have the option to add a new trip, field note, or sighting in one spot
Animation between the home screen images of the bird singing while in the loading state
Significant user testing to evaluate what features should be in Field Notes
Community page to view friends posts in one spot (ex. Instagram feed)

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