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Rainforest Connection
Reimagining complex data sets into interactive data visualization to Increase engagement and understanding.
The Problem
How might we simplify bioacoustic data in a way that increases usability and engagement amongst both scientific and non scientific audiences?
The Solution
An interactive map that consolidates multiple datasets, enabling users to visually explore and consume project data, without prior project knowledge.
Partner
Rainforest Connection
Duration
4 months
Platforms
Desktop
My contributions
User Research, Affinity Mapping, Ideating, Prototyping
Team Members
Andy Pham, Ava Xu, Ivy Zhang, Miko Wu
CIBC
I spent 8 months working at CIBC as a product designer on the delivery team. I spent the majority of my co-op on a digital card management project.
Project Type
Co-op
Duration
8 Months
Platforms
Native app, Web (static + responsive)
Get an overview of species richness at a glance, and explore the biodiversity in a region of interest
Dig deeper to discover the species detected in the area
Spotlight on any species, listen to its call and view its detection rates
The Context
Who is Rainforest Connection (RFCx)?
Rainforest Connection (RFCx) A non-for-profit that uses machine learning & sound technology to help protect biodiversity and rainforest worldwide. Their main product, Arbimon is an acoustic analysis software tool used by biodiversity scientists.
What does Rainforest Connection do?
Record
Audio recorders are deployed in rainforests around the world
Analyze
Recording is analyzed on Arbimon to identify species call patterns and other sounds
Output
The analyzed data is automatically visualized, and presented on Arbimon’s
project insight pages
The Project Focus
Through the data analysis conducted on the the Arbimon platform, Insights pages are automatically generated and aim to present large amounts of biodiversity data visually.
These pages include:
dashboard, richness, activity and spotlight.
The current experience
RFCx approached us with a high level goal:
How can we improve the insight pages so they are serving the needs of our users?
Since the insight pages were a relatively new Arbimon product, there was little direct insight into the needs and use cases of external Arbimon users.
Research: Understanding a very unfamiliar territory...
As UX designers and researchers, we had no knowledge of biodiversity research, terminology, tasks or needs of our users. We new that developing a thorough understanding of this domain was imperative to designing an impactful solution.
User Groups
Scientists
Both those internal to Rainforest Connection and also independent wildlife scientists.
Project developers
Project developers that work on conservation initiatives are the second user group.
Climate Advocates
Climate advocates or educators who care about biodiversity conservation.
Primary Research
13 representative participants
Sei-structured Interviews
Usability tests of current state
Research Analysis
Participant insights were grouped into clusters to spot major themes
Research Findings
1. Lack of search functionality
Inability to search for specific information across Arbimon projects. Identifying which species, habitats, or regions each project monitors requires either prior knowledge or individual project exploration.
2. Limited Project Context
Project pages are missing key information. The lack of context makes it difficult for those who are not involved in a research project to understand its goals and impact.
3. Scientific data and terminology is not accessible to all audiences
The scientific nature of data presentation creates a significant challenge for non-scientific users to comprehend and utilize the information effectively.
4. Usability Difficulties
Website labels, information architecture, and interaction issues make it difficult for users to complete tasks on the website.
Through the insights uncovered we were able to define a How Might We statement...
How might we simplify bioacoustic data in a way that is relevant and accessible for scientific and non scientific audiences?
Defining requirements and deliverables
While this project consisted of a a redesign of several pages, I will be focusing on the interactive map which I was responsible for.
Requirement:
Scientific and non scientific audience can visualize, understand and compare project data
Feature:
Consolidated Interactive map, visualizing biodiversity data and allowing the comparison of multiple datasets
Ideation
The team ideated on ways to solve the identified problems. We then voted on the impact and feasibility of each idea in order to reach decisions about how to proceed.
Capturing the current app experience
Design
The Challenge
It required a lot of deep thought, concentration, and sketches to wrap my head around these complicated data sets and how they interact together.
To ensure I had a thorough understanding of the scientific concepts, I had to break down the information before being able to ideate on design solutions.
Initial Sketches
I began with quick sketches trying to figure out how to consolidate several maps, spread our across different pages of the site, as well as provide a comparison tool that would be easily understood by non-experienced as well as pro users.
Mid Fidelity Flow
Capturing the current app experience
Usability Testing
What we did
We conducted moderated usability tests with 5 participants to gather qualitative feedback on the designs.
Capturing feedback effectively
As usability test notes poured in, I knew it was important to capture the nuances of the feedback in a contextual and visual way. As the interactive map designer, I created a system for the team to follow to efficiently capture feedback, making it easy to spot commonalities and understand comments in context with features.
A system was established for capturing in-context usability insights for every step of the journey
Iconography instantly symbolized whether an insight was positive or negative
Insights from each stage of the journey were summarized
Iteration
Design Iteration
I continued iterating on the design based on the feedback we gathered in the first round of usability testing.
Additional Testing
It was important for the team to run an additional round of testing to validate our decisions and gather insight for additional improvements.
High fidelity wireframes showcasing the user journey for testing