2 months
Product Design
UX/UI
Research
This product combines a sentenced-based initial search function —that greatly simplifies the entry point to actionable data—with a much more intuitive dashboard/table than the current options available today. Most professionals in this sector are not scientists or data specialists; they need to be pointed in the right direction. The Species Protection Platform is being built to do just that.
Despite massive amounts of time and money spent, these efforts have failed to end deforestation and biodiversity loss. The inability of organizations to get quality data and analytics is one of the greatest threats facing Africa’s rainforest. Without good analytics, bad policies are adopted, and bad policies, in turn, lead to an underfunded sector. Conservation actors are not scientists, and the same goes for the inverse.
With revenues finally on the incline again after more than a decade of losses, a realigned music creation ecosystem could capitalize on the increased demand and accessibility of content creation and consumption.
The growth of digital also increased accessibility to music production and consumption at a time when recording studios are closing en masse therefore leaving a large void
This interface would also provide the framework for all future Project Canopy applications, meaning that a lot of thought had to go into formatting a universal framework that could serve many different subjects. Future builds would focus on forestry data, air quality, and more.
A conversational-based search over a traditional dashboard interface helps users get to the right data by understanding the story behind the data
Industry-first modular production facilities that adapt to budget + needs
Integrated professional and social spaces
Presets allow the experts to direct users towards important data sets and patterns that they may not even know to pursue
Bring your findings with you into the field
Actionable information for proper enforcement
I was given the design lead on the Species Protection Platform after the initial research stage was completed and the scope was defined to be a web-based dashboard/table to display the vast amounts of data that the founders had gathered. I would guide the project through ideation and testing several prototypes, finally landing on a final design that I have been building with a developer.
Before I could begin the ideation process, I would need to understand everything the founders had gathered along their years-long journey –– encompassing many interviews with conservation NGO's, government agencies, investors, activists, etc –– and what their users would identify as valuable insights.
An intensive week consisting of 4 interviews with the founders, competitive analysis, would preempt any attempts at designing a solution, and help me gather insights on the conservation industry and what conservation actors need.
My discovery process would entail:
• Access to comprehensive data at an accessible level.
• Insights to help know where to dedicate conservation efforts
• Quick access to reference data on-the-go.
• Simplified, democratized information at a level she can understand
• Endless data points
• Searching for data from many different sources and figuring out how to connect them
• Searching disconnected and inconsistent data from country to country
• Attempting to enforce unclear, inconsistent, or outdated national laws
• Not being thoroughly versed on scientific terminology and
Summary:
(+) Comprehensive data but siloed
Sumary:
(–) Disorganized and inconsistent
Summary:
(+/-) SIloed and only scientific names
Summary:
(-) Too time consuming
Summary:
Too complex for non-scietists
Large expensive studios with lower budgets
Disconnected community that needs each other
Antiquated design misaligned to
modern needs
New solution must realign to the new normal of lower revenues and artist independence.
Designed for a previous, pre-crash generation, much of the old floor plan, infrastructure, and tools go to waste now. We found a lot of opportunities for adapting and realigning to meet modern workflows.
80% of creator respondents said that the growing disconnectedness between the industry and themselves was greatly hindering their careers.
This industry depends on interlocking talents, especially with in-person capabilities
for production AND community needs. In-person, physical interaction, and curated trust were a huge factor
The speed of the modern industry has increased exponentially but to find facilities and talent still takes word of mouth recommendations, chance availabilities, and
Growing user-base met with shuttering old-model studios necessitates the need to curate for many users at once, unlike traditional studios
Of the current workspace of options, no facility could accommodate the current combination of needs, and even the best of “personal production spaces” still required a large up-front investment and continued management and maintenance. Equally notable is users felt that digital networking
The initial design ideations presented a promising step forwards in synthesizing, presenting, and guiding users through to actionable insights but there were still improvements based on feedback, namely that people did not know where to start and what it all meant. Sure, they could explore and experiment with the information within all the dropdown fields but they really wanted to be guided more. We had a hunch that this still wouldn't fully achieve the goal. The standard dashboard screen still functioned under the assumption that you knew exactly what you were looking for, and the breadcrumbs you would need to follow in order to make the category selections, but the truth is that most conservation actors needed a new gateway to the data.
Narrowing down the search criteria to the 4 most important distingtions
Resizable and hide-able panels
Selectable graph regions that zeroed in on species classifications and displayed the list of species within those classiications in the farthest panel to the right
I imagined a start screen that could already get a user halfway to their goal by the time they reach the often confusing data dashboard or table. Now, once at the dashboard they are already familiar with the data they are observing.
The sentenced-based initial search allows, mostly non-scientist, users to understand the questions they need to be asking and then provides a guided jump off point from there.
Each underlined word could be changed to reflect different aspects of the data set.e
The answer button. Once this is pressed, the data shown on the dashboard is already curatd and easy to understand.
Selectable table section allow the user to hone in on species within any particular category
The "Preset" feature allows the user to simply select from a small amount of curated choices and be immediately shown species of interest
The sentence based question from the initial start screen remains at the top of the screen—this time in statement form—allowing for further adjustment to that query. Changes in the sentence (and vice versa) are reflected in real time in the graph.
