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Seacast App
Seacast App
Seacast App
Timeline
10 weeks, Winter 2021
Role
UX, UI, Visual Design
The weather app designed for swimmers / beach-goers to maximize their day
Seacast is a mobile app that provides single detailed views for specific weather factors. The app's focus is to provide all weather and sea factors to maximize the user's day. The user will have a unique weather experience by being able to customize their widgets that see on the home screen. The goal of Seacast is to help the target audience achieve their goals by understanding the needs and limitations of the user. Seacast provides them the ability to experience a product on their own terms.
The challenge
Specialized weather delivery
The standard weather information has made it a struggle for the swimmer/beach-goers to check in one place. Users have expressed that they have to check multiple apps to get the information that they need. With the credibility of standard weather apps, how might we deliver customized weather information based on sea and beach weather conditions?
What's out there?
In order to design a weather app for swimmers/beach-goers, I had to conduct a competitive analysis on credible weather apps to understand the needs and goals of the everyday user.
Understand the users
Knowing the strengths of the competitors, I kept that in mind for user research. The competitors have company loyalty and high user retention. I learned through user interviews that most use weather apps based on convenience and credibility.
1
Credibility
Knowing that participants use apps based on convenience and credibility, how can we generate buzz for Seacast.
2
Customization
All users want a customized experience on the app. They want to be able to choose what they want to see.
3
History
Users want to be updated on global warming and sustainability efforts. All participants want to include a graph of historical data.
4
Visual Design
Engaging animations and icons are important to the user. They want to make checking the weather a fun experience.
Target Audience
From the user interviews, I created three user personas. Each persona represents a different user that has different needs and goals. Persona development progresses into a user journey and an empathy map.
1 Josh Target Market
2 Dale Target Market
3 Mary Target Market
1 Josh Target Market
1/3
Product Goals
User research and persona development projected me into the path of starting to map out information architecture. I wanted to keep in mind the main objectives for Seacast as I create the site map.
1
Customized Widgets
Create a solution for users to customize the home screen by adding and subtracting widgets.
2
Color Association
Give users a visual aid with color association. Each category will be distinguished with a specific color.
3
Multiple City Views
Implement multiple city views to break the limitations of viewing one city at a time.
4
Visual Aids
Allow the user to extract important information by providing graphs for easy consumption.
Wireframes & User Testing
Development of wireframes started to progress as users' needs were established along with the site map. I conducted usability testing on the wireframes to see if any problems arose with navigation and overall usability.
Final Design Composition
From the user testing and feedback, I finalized the screens to the final prototype. I learned that customization was important to all users and that the feature should be available to them first.
Brand Indentity
Establishing brand identity is just as important as conducting usability testing. This will heighten credibility and finalize the product delivery. I conducted preference testing on the logo to see what users identify with.
Project takeaways
Swimmers and beach-goers alike want a customized weather experience
Something I learned the most through the exploration of this project was that users like the ability to customize their own experiences. Weather information can be overwhelming and hard to read. My goal was to make the information easily digestible and available to the user that needs it. Users may not check all weather factors but, will be selective on what they want to see. This is one of the first projects that I worked on that made me go through the entire UX process from market analysis, user research, ideation, visual design, and branding. The UX design process allowed me to deliver a finished product with marketing in mind.
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