Blue CoLab - Generative study about Water quality index.

A collaboration between Blue Collab team and Pace University Students to develop a Kiosk to promote awareness about WQI among students.

Problem Statement

Final Prototype

Access to water quality information is critical in order for students in university campuses to make health-informed decisions. How might we design a system that display water information on campus to create awareness among students about the water quality index (WQI).

“You have a right to clean drinking water. As important, you have a right-to-know if your water is clean . . . before you drink it.” ~
Blue CoLab Director John Cronin

Team

Susanna Lammervo

Pace University - MS in Human Centered Design - Fall 2021

Naga Vamsi

Pace University - MS in Human Centered Design - Spring 2022

Sankalp Raut

Pace University - MS in Human Centered Design - Fall 2022

Clare DeMarco

Pace University - MS in Human Centered Design - Spring 2022

Irmak Göfer

Pace University - MS in Human Centered Design - Fall 2022

My Role

- UX Designer

- Visual Design

- Information Architecture

Design Process

We developed a plan, using the design thinking process, to identify user problems and create solutions using digital products. This process emphasizes collaboration and a human-centered approach

Strategy

Stake holder/Discussions

Project Vision/Goals

Measure of success

Project Priority

Discovery

Surveys

User interviews

User Testing

Analysis

Persona Creation

Story Boards

Experience Map

Workflow Diagrams

Design

Mood Board

Site Map

Sketching Wireframing

Prototyping

User Testing

Production

Final Prototyping

User Testing

Launch

Research Strategy

To have a comprehensive research we used Generative Research study approach, as it gave us a deeper understanding of the problem and user needs and come up with a solution.
Generative study was aimed at finding drinking water habits & familiarity around the the term Water Quality Index (WQI) among the user sets.
User recruitment criteria was based on people staying in New-York state in and along the water bodies connected to Choate water pond and its extension till Hudson river.
The users had to be of the age group between 18 - 60years, as it helps us to cover the groups from all walks of life who are adult have full access with technology.
For initial recruitment we used google forms as a mean to finalize users that we would take for one-to-one user survey.

45 people took the survey questionare

10 people were interviewed based on the answers

Findings

45% of people consume tap water but are unaware of the water sources that deliver water to their premises.
57% of the users filter their water as a safety measure.
67% of the users in the survey reported to be unaware of the content in water they consume and are unaware of the term "WQI".
45% people reported that this survey itself motivates them to look for the content of water they consume and would like a system that informs them about the "WQI".

These findings helped us to develop a prototype, that will be first tested in the Pleasant Vile campus and can be later executed around the water sources or developed as an application that can alert people about Water quality Index.

User Persona

Design Solution

The solution that caters to the challenge is designing an interactive display kiosk that will provide real time water quality data collected from "Ada" to the students of Pace Pleasant Ville campus as our first phase of deployment.

Why a Kiosk ?

An immersive and interactive experience.
Increased Engagement and Awareness.
Ease of access around the campus.

Meet Ada

“Ada” is the first deployment in a coming series of real-time water monitoring stations that will compose the Choate Smart Pond Network on the Pace University campus in Pleasantville, NY. Every fifteen minutes, it collects water quality measurements from the pond and sends them to a central campus computer located in Elm Hall. Blue CoLab uses that data to evaluate the pond, and create apps, products and presentations to deepen public understanding of water.

Ada provides us with the following information which we translated into an interactive and immersive kiosk:

Temperature
Dissolved Oxygen
Salinity
pH Value
Turbidity

Ada in action at Pace campus

Design Development

After our initial research, we did a card sorting technique to finalize our information architecture and user flow for the kiosk.
The kiosk size and dimensions were fixed, as it was already been made available to us by the Blue CoLab team.
The device that it was presented on was going to be a Ipad pro 11" display with a stand, it was our first prototype for this project.
Following is the user flow that we wanted a user to use throughout the process and it was important to keep it intuitive as the target audience for our first prototype were going to be college going kids.

Information Architecture:

Lo-fi Mid-fi design development:

Below is a low-fidelity sketch concept of a glass filled with bubbles. The user can tap on a bubble to reveal information about the water's constituents and data collected from the Ada bot. This was a very initial ideation of how an interactive dashboard could look like.

Home Screen

Bubble Indicators

Blogs

Bubble Indicators

Hi-fi design development:

I showcase high-fidelity sketches resulting from user testing with participants in our interview program. User feedback and stakeholder input directed the iteration of the dashboard to deliver a modern design. Taking inspiration from the Glass Morphism trend, I successfully redesigned the screens to elevate the user experience.

Home Page

WQI Page

Blue CoLab Blog Page

Weather Page

Water Constituents

Interactive Prototype Link:

Usability Testing & Feedback:

Task Conducted: A 10-14 day study of user behavior within our application was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of how it is used in people's daily lives. The study included at least 10 users and involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods were used with at least 5 of the users to gather insights and report on their experience. The study results provide a comprehensive overview of user behavior, including patterns of use and areas for improvement, which will inform future design decisions and help ensure that the application continues to meet the needs of its users.

Feedback and future improvements:

The kiosk needs to be accessible for all the user groups.
Aesthetics are good, need to work on some visual elements and text that are not legible.
Try to accommodate information of how to save water as well, to have a well rounded kiosk.
Pins on the bar feels like interactive, can be made to look more simpler.

Future scalability

Future application of the WQI ( Water Quality Index) prototype can be seen in the mockups below as a way to create awareness at museums, river fronts, water dispenser units etc.