My Contribution
User Research, Prototyping, Wireframing, UI Design, Usability Testing
Summary
I designed an app over the course of two weeks to help anglers catch fish by directing them to prime fishing spots as well as guiding them on what is the best setup to bring.
As an avid angler, there is a lack of a digital product to allow users to locate, navigate and prepare for unknown fishing grounds. Fishing grounds are spread mainly through the word of mouth and a lot of guess work is involved in terms of navigation and preparation.
As the product would predominantly be used on the go, I decided that the primary touchpoint for users would be a mobile app.
This is a solo project where I worked under the guidance of an instructor.
Design a product that help users find out about prime fishing location.
Improve current wayfinding experience.
Introduce social factors to help users learn from one another.
Explore the use of geolocation technology.
Understand the end-to-end process of how participants are currently planning their fishing trips.
Uncover the different factors that determine their decisions for their trips.
Identify any problems or barriers they encounter on their trips.
Learn about any improvements participants might make to their current decision-making process.
User Interviews
Competitive analysis
Prototype testing
Persona
Affinity mapping
User journey
As this is not an existing product, I was not able to recruit existing users, so I reached out to 10 local anglers to gain insights on their needs, motivations and frustrations to help shape the app solution.
How often do you fish?
What do you need to prepare while you are fishing?
Is there anything else you would need to know while fishing?
What affects your decision to fish at a certain area?
Does it affect the type of gear you prepare?
Could you describe your fishing experience to me?
What do you think could make your fishing experience better?
I need to know about weather condition
Weather is an important factor for fishing and can easily turn an enjoyable fishing trip to a miserable one.
I want to know what gear to bring
With a large selection of fishing related products, making a choice on what to bring is a daunting task and can often lead to post-choice regret.
I want to know where the fishing spots are
The best fishing spots are usually in very obscure places, these spots are typically off commonly used maps and lack proper wayfinding aides. As word of mouth is the main source of sharing the location, this makes most spots hard to find.
I want to share my catch with my friends
Pictures or it didn’t happen. As a common phrase used by anglers is the biggest fish is usually the one that got away, people wants a way to show their friends that they actually caught the big fish.
Following the user interviews, I synthesized the findings and was able to create a user journey and personas.
This served as a foundation for the app solution’s feature ideation and prioritisation.
Newsfeed
Users can get the latest updates on popular fishing spots as well as featured users.
By utilizing a social aspect to the app, users are able to join a community where information is exchanged and are incentivize to take part and share about their experience and knowledge.
Map
Using GPS, users can find information on fishing spots near them or at a selected region. Information includes the type and amount of fishes logged by other users as well as what set up is being used.
Directions
As some of the fishing grounds are in obscure locations, users are able to follow routes plotted by anglers that have been to that specific location. They will be able to follow the path and rely on the images taken and uploaded by the contributor.
Defining the MVP
As fishing is my hobby, I have many ideas on what I would like to see in an App relating to fishing. Being overly ambitious, I actually struggled with my time management and could have used that time to further improve the features that would serve as the foundation of the App.
