Breathing new life into the Park Finder application through a full redesign, complete with data from user testing to set the direction of the site moving forward.
My role for this project was to design and prototype the UX/UI components, plan, conduct, and analyze all user research, and assist with refining the Park Finder web app.
Prince George’s County Department of Parks & Recreation offers hundreds parks, facilities, and activities within one of the largest counties in Maryland. Park Finder aims to give Prince George’s County community members efficient information about the vast number of parks, facilities, and amenities available. Breathing new life into the application through a full redesign with data from user testing to set the direction of the site moving forward.
Park Finder 2.0 was designed collaboratively using Adobe XD, creating the mobile design first and desktop design after. Components were created using department- approved colors and font styles.
Prototypes explaining the interaction design for both web and mobile formats made specifications clear in the hand-off to developers.
The web and mobile prototypes were handed off to the developer through Adobe XD files. Over the next two weeks, the web developer created the web-app, after which we collaborated to make the necessary refinements to the design, layout, and user interaction details. Once the details were refined, it was time to begin usability testing.
In this evaluation, we conducted usability testing with eleven participants. I guided the users through different sections of the site following a scripted task list comprised of eight total tasks. This method allowed the team to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
Quantitative data was collected in the form of task completion rates and qualitative data was collected via think aloud protocol. As users navigated the site to complete the tasks, they described how they went about navigating the site, aspects that surprise them, expected or unexpected elements, and feedback on likes/ dislikes.
Testing focused on three main sections of the site: drop-downs, filters for accessible assets, and search results functionality.
Users search parks that they know are in their area, and therefore would like a way to search by zip code or another way to search within a boundary.
Users require more detailed information, such as what amenities are offered, about the individual park facilities within the database.
The database providing the site with assets for users to find is incomplete and needs refinement prior to launch.
Project Park Finder 2.0 was one of the first projects that I’ve worked on from beginning to end. I found being part of a small, four-person team has benefits in our ability to work quickly together. Because our team is small, we also have the opportunity to collaborate more on each other’s areas of expertise. Learning more about the development process was a big part of this project for me, especially without having much experience with web development.
