Challenge
Develop a system with accurate alerts for a range of environmental conditions. In the initial phase of this product it would utilize data received from sensors within Amazon’s Biospheres in Seattle, WA.
My Role: UX/UI Designer— Research, Sketches & Wireframes, UI Design, Prototyping
Time Frame: 14 hrs
Process
🔎Discovering the problem
Staff at The Spheres regulating the environmental conditions generally consist of horticulturists, building maintenance, and data analysts.
We take care of 40,000 plants and from over 700 species!
- Caretakers at The Spheres
Pain points:
Lots of systems to manage
Too many suspicious values in data sets triggering false alerts
Delay in communication between departments
Hypothesis:
The environmental sensors at The Spheres are causing a discrepancy between system readings and observations by caretakers, subsequently affecting reliability of system alerts and delaying actionable maintenance. Designing a visual system to reflect data anomalies would streamline communication between the necessary maintenance departments.
How might we decrease the amount of false alerts from the sensors and streamline sensory information for caretakers to make simple and effective decisions?
Design
Existing interface
Our Solution
Native iOS app for iPad
After discovering that caretakers usually record their observations with pen and paper we made an assumption that this method of recording observations could be made more efficient if digitized. Horticulturalists at The Spheres can record and report from one device.
Sketching and Ideation
Dashboard would display map view of environment
Alerts would appear based on location of sensors within a zone
Selecting a zone would display the aircuity unit and the readings of each environmental sensor
Once a sensor is selected, a report can be generated and submitted for review
High Fidelity Wireframes
Features condensed for a more digestible view
Systems readings accessible by zone
Prioritizing systems and adding visual cues for easier viewing and navigability
App would allow instant access for caretakers to utilize
Troubleshoot on the fly
Create cohesive communication
Next Steps
• Conduct thorough user research to influence feature prioritization
• Allow reports to include “add media” feature for photo and video references
• Build working prototype to test actual data samples that generate alerts and send reports
🏆 Award
Honorable Mention for Research—Research-driven decisions and flexibility to pivot with new information