Aria Earth
A user-facing dashboard on both Mobile and PC platforms focused on data visualization and user engagement
Role
Product Design + Research
Time
Jan - Jul 2024
Client
Aria Earth, Austin, TX
Context
Full-time Product Designer
01. Overview
Big Impact Starts With A Simple Click
Aria Earth is a B2B2C startup specializing in sustainability, such as tree planting, saving wildlife, and coral reef restoration. The projects are sponsored by our clients: businesses and organizations that are looking to reach their carbon goals. General public users can sign up on the website to participate in various projects and adopt a tree. As a Product Designer, I was in charge of leading the product development process of a user-facing dashboard. The dashboard will be a space for users to keep track of their tree-planting process, be in touch with other users, and for us to advertise our clients. I worked closely with the development and marketing team, conducted several rounds of user-testing, and two rounds of redesign after obstacles occur. The end product will be launched at the end of 2024.
The townhouse
The "big room" or living room
The crowded wall space
02. Research
Eco-anxiety, Loneliness, and Disconnection
Students of CoBHS have classes in the living room, teachers host office hours in the kitchen, and the principal's office is a walk-in closet. The unique home-like environment of CoBHS proposes unique problems. We conducted a contextual inquiry and focus groups to discover how students and teachers interact with the space, and how the environment supports the value of the school.
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The boundaries between private vs. public spaces, and relaxation vs. study spaces were blurry. It feels like home, which means you'll have to share everything. Students and faculties share the space and it can be difficult to find a quiet spot of one's own. Moreover, there's no clear definition of where's the designated study spot.
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It's difficult to incorporate technology into learning and teaching. While students and teachers wish there could be more advanced tools on campus, there's simply not enough space to accommodate the equipment. One teacher mentioned that they only have one TV and one projector, making it difficult to create an immersive and engaging learning environment.
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Students yearn for more opportunities to showcase their work and spark discussions. The curriculum of CoBHS is student-centered and interest-driven, and every student has their own passion projects going on throughout the semester. Students would hang their paintings and posters on the walls, however, the walls were either occupied by previous projects or blocked by objects like whiteboards.
02. Research
A Bit Too Crowded, A Bit Too Lonely
To understand how the physical space impacts students' experience of learning and living in CoBHS, we made cultural design probe kits and put them across the school. The probe kit includes:
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Cards with different pictures on them, short descriptions of the picture, and a question: "Why does it resonate with you?"
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Five boxes in total to collect the answers
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Chocolates to motivate students to participate!
Kits in making
The finished look
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Synthesizing the results
After synthesizing the answers based on the location where were collected, we identified three themes across the answers:
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While CoBHS has a home-like environment, the nature of it being a formal learning environment proposes rules, norms, and different power dynamics. "Being at home" can mean being safe and comfortable, but it can also mean overstepping boundaries.
“There’s a certain mix of feeling, both trapped and protected when home."
“...[High school is] the last place you’ll be told what to do."
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The quiet space next to the library allows the students to introspect their current state of mind, while also distancing the students from their peers and leading to the feeling of being alone and left out.
“I feel unwanted and left behind for later or never."
“I feel distant [and] even drifting away.”
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Although the big room is the place where interactions happen, the never-ending conversation can be intimidating and lead to too much social pressure for some students.
“I feel trapped."
03. Reframing
How might we...?
We identified our target users as the students and faculties of CoBHS, and developed three problem areas and their corresponding how might we questions:
Sense of belonging
How might we facilitate a sense of belonging in the student body through space and technology?
Boundaries
How might we better define the physical and social boundaries by utilizing and categorizing the physical space?
Engagement
How might we encourage open discussions and create an engaging learning environment?
04. Ideation
Changing the Walls into Playgrounds
After brainstorming, we conducted a storyboard speed-dating session with the teachers and students of CoBHS. After discussing our ideas with our target user, we have decided to pursue the idea of a multi-purpose projector that allows multiple users to project different screens at the same time and at any angle. Moreover, changing the wall to a playground for showcasing work, presenting, and commenting can help foster positive social interactions when learning, including collaboration, sharing, and in-depth conversations.
Speed-dating sesh in the backyard
Storyboard winner
04. Ideation
Initial Prototyping
Our projection system will contain two parts: a "vessel" that contains multiple projector lenses that will allow users to project different screens on different surfaces at the same time, and a control center for the system.
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The vessel
Mobile control center workflow
04. Ideation
Iterating the mobile app
After wrapping up this semester, I took the initiative and made some late iterations to the mobile control center to make the concept clearer and add some additional features that would complement the projector vessel.
Iterated information architecture
Iterated UI
Main iterations aside from UI change:
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I added a "community" section, where users can view the current projections and leave comments, which facilitates social interactions and communication
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As the main component, the "projection" section will now allow users to project contents from multiple sources (draft, upload new from phone, or screen share) and preview their projections
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Finally, I added a "me" section that allows users to view their past projections and reuse them with ease
Before
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After
05. Delivery
Multi-angle, Multi-user, Multi-purpose
Community
Projection
Me
Main features:
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Yellow and black for mobile UI, in accordance with CoBHS's theme color
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Shows users which potential projection location is available, acting as a scheduling system for projection locations
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Allows students to showcase and rotate their work, and makes it easier for both students and teachers to present and participate in discussions
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The community feature allows users to view what others are presenting and enables them to add asynchronous comments with more flexibility
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A multi-angle projection system makes it easier to accommodate tight spaces
The "big room" after
05. Conclusion
Design With Users In Mind
We hosted a poster session for a wide range of stakeholders, including the principal and students of CoBHS, and multiple instructors at CMU. We received feedback that this design has the potential to be applied to other spaces, such as museums. Moreover, the students were excited to try this as currently they only have one TV screen and one projector. One instructor pointed out that this design is mainly conceptual considering the cost and technical requirements for actual implementation.
My takeaways from this project:
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In-depth research methodologies - I've learned a lot about how to lead and conduct focus groups and speed-dating sessions, and the cultural probe is an intriguing way to investigate what users are feeling and thinking.
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It's essential to focus on the problem - it's easy to lose sight of this when we're head-deep in the ideation stage, taking a step back and referring back to research helps bring clarity to the pain points and lets us prioritize user needs.