DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGN
Parks Canada Mobile App
The Parks Canada Mobile App helps campers book campsites from the comfort of their mobile phones whether it’s summer, winter, spring, or fall.
This is a project for my Digital Product Design Program at MacEwan University. The client is the Government of Alberta.
ROLE
Product Designer
SCOPE
UX Research
UI Design
Wireframing & Prototyping
TEAM
Patricia Borlongan (me!)
Students of DXDI103 (shared research)
OVERVIEW
BRIEF
Design a new way for people to book campsites quickly.
THE PROBLEM
It’s a pain to book campsites through Parks Canada’s reservation website.
According to the Canadian Recreational Association, 33% of Canadians have been camping their entire lives. 50% of camping households intend to take more camping trips next year.
To book a campsite through Parks Canada, you can only use their website, which is mobile-friendly but requires a lot of learning curve for new campers. There is no existing mobile app or any progressive web app that people can use consistently and instantaneously to reserve a campsite.
SOLUTION
Create a mobile experience for new and frequent campers.
BEHIND THE SCENES
RESEARCH
Learning more about our users
We shared our findings of our potential users with other people in the class. After listing down all the characteristics we gathered from our own research, I decided that my primary users for this project would be:
Ages 25 - 45
Nature lovers
Goes out with their friends a lot
Lives in Edmonton
Works long hours
Does a lot of outdoor activities
Aside from those, we also learned that most of the people who would use the app are digitally skilled and proficient. They also do not experience any physical challenges, as they do outdoor activities frequently.
Usability Testing
I had my interviewee test out the current Parks Canada Reservation website. Here are some key takeaways from the interview:
Persona: Humanizing the data
I created a persona that will help focus on the users’ needs and guide me into creating what is right for the user. Cassie is a hardworking person but forgets to take care of herself. She tries her best to take nature breaks whenever she can.
Research Summary
The research revealed that the reservation process through Parks Canada’s website is confusing, overwhelming, and time-consuming.
Cassie (from the persona above) tells us that camping is a way for her to unwind and relax. Making the campsite reservation easy would benefit her well-being.
An Information Architecture for the mobile experience
This Information Architecture shows the primary and secondary flow of the app - which would be the campsite reservation process.
Wireframes and Mockup
Creating a mobile application for Parks Canada’s campsite reservation would be a great solution to the problem, as users would only need to download the app one time, and they can reserve campsites with only a few clicks on the app without the hassle of going through the website all the time.
Reflection
Things I learned from this project:
Focus on one flow. While working on the project, I got distracted because of the things I wanted to create for the app. I wanted to add a lot of features but didn’t look at the timeline. We only had a few weeks to create a solution for the problem we chose.
Test. Test. Test. Wireframes, even without interactions, can be tested. It’s better to have some data as you work on your designs than to get feedback at the end.