The problem
The Community Health Center of Caledonia wants to promote trails and parks in the area to improve the community's overall mental and physical well-being. To do this, they want to create a media-rich application designed to connect students and families to the outdoors while giving them an educational and enriching experience.
Community values
Equity: No matter what devices are available to members of the community, Trail Scout is accessible for everyone.
Integrity: Trail Scout provides an educational and enriching experience for people of all ages, abilities, and interests.
Excellence: Trail Scout is a high quality design solution that expresses Caledonia's values through nature and education.
"On a day when my family has been watching too many screens and I am forced to work from home, I want a robust easy-to-use resource to be able to track where we can hike, bike, walk the dog, and maintain our collective sanity."
Trail Scout
Trail Scout is a mobile experience that allows its users to discover trails in and near Caledonia Michigan, while also educating them about the wildlife and nature that surrounds them every day. The Trail Scout Brand ties to the idea of exploring nature through education–similar to the role of a Boy or Girl Scout.
Brand Mark
The LOGO for Trail Scout has a "patch" design that resonates with that of a Girl or Boy Scout patch. It also contains a raccoon figure (signifying the field guide and nature) whose tail is shaped like a trail. The LOGO contains the slab serif typeface, Rockwell, that adds to the adventurous and retro feel of the app.
Type
The brand mark contains the slab serif typeface, Rockwell, that adds to the adventurous and retro feel of the app.
Color Palette
The color palette I chose comes from the movie "Moonrise Kingdom," a film about a Boy Scout and a girl who run away on an adventure to live in the woods away from society.
app features
From embarking on my photo study adventures to local Caledonia trails, I was able to find issues, annoyances, and inconveniences of the current way that users are experiencing these trails.
Taking the insights that I discovered on the trails, I developed a mobile experience with all of the features that a hiker, biker, or dog walker could ever want.
The app run-down
Taking insights from the photo studies, I was able to pin-point the features that would be necessary to have in the mobile experience, and then sort each element into a smaller group to come up with my navigation.
Testing screen flow
I used wireframes to test the app's screen flow in order to ensure that the navigation was easily understandable, and there weren't any missing elements or features.
Mobile Application
Login and Home PageOne of the main insights I gained from my photo studies, was that the layout of this app would need to be user friendly and easy to navigate, unlike the current maps stationed along these trails.
From the Home Page, the user can go straight to their field guide, start looking for trails, or use any of the other navigation to get to the page they're looking for.
Your Account, Activity, and Explore
Once on the Trail Scout App, the user can view their personal account where all of their information, favorite, reviews, and photos are.
On their activity page they can see their weekly goals, yearly or daily activity, and they can also sync their Apple Watch to the app.
On the explore page, the Trail Scout user can find specific trails, species, or activities through the search bar or circle filters. They can also see highlights of what is going on in the area and feeds to see what their friends have been up to.
Trails
Through Trail Scout, the user can find their desired trail through searching, filtering, maps, and reviews.
TrailTime
While gathering insights from the photo studies, one of the main insights I gained was that there needs to be a clear and readable map with more important information such as distances, landmarks, and timing.
In TrailTime, the Trail Scout user can go through the trail in real-time while the app times them, calculates their distance, and gives them updates on landmarks. From TrailTime, the user can also view the field guide if they find a species they want to add.
Field Guide
Taking insights from my photo studies, having information about specific species and plants was a really cool addition. So I decided to integrate a field guide into the experience as an intuitive way to learn about every species in the Caledonia area. The field guide gives incentive to people of all ages to get outside and learn more about the world and species around them.
Field Guide Home Pages
The field guide features an animal and plant guide to all of the species in Caledonia.
From Categories, the user can select the catalogue, search, scan, or filter.
Field Guide Catalogues
The field guide catalogues give information on every species that lives in or near Caledonia.
Your field guide
The field guide scanner allows the user to scan a species of plant or animal that they are unfamiliar within order to find out what it is, and get specific details on it.
Your field guide is a page where the user can see which animals and plants they have found so far on the trails, and which badges they've earned.
Turning Trail Scout into an experience
After finishing the final prototype, I decided to conduct some interviews to get feedback about what target users value in a mobile app brand.
Connecting with users
Taking the main feedback I got from my interviews, I found out that I needed to turn Trail Scout into an experience rather than just a mobile app. To do that, I created an AEIOU map, to find out how I could connect with my target users on a more personal level.
Field Guide Badges
From the interviews, I found out that people like when apps and brands offer incentives. Using my field guide as a learning incentive, I created a badge system where people can earn badges for their discoveries and accomplishments.
Inclusivity
For those without a mobile phone or the app, they can have actual patches shipped to them.
Advertising
My interviews revealed that after seeing brand advertising, my target users are more likely to download an app. I created a billboard and a park sign, both in populated areas where outdoor seekers may see them.
T-shirt and Social Media
Based on my interview insights, target users like when brands offer incentives, merch, and gifts such as t-shirts. My interviews also revealved that when app brands have reach on other platforms, that they are more likely to be followed by users.
