Summary
- Designed a hiking companion app from storyboards to a high-fidelity prototype using Figma.
- Implemented core features: trail search with accessibility filters, route bookmarking, AI-powered species recognition, community forums, and first-aid resources.
- Applied Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and ensured WCAG AAA compliance for accessibility.
- Conducted Nielsen heuristic evaluations to refine usability, enhancing navigation, voice interactions, and interface consistency.
- Demonstrated expertise in UX/UI design, prototyping, and usability testing while addressing diverse user needs.
This project focused on designing a user-centered hiking companion application that enhances the outdoor experience by integrating accessibility, social connectivity, and intelligent assistance. Starting from surveys, user personas, storyboarding and low-fidelity prototypes, our team defined user requirements, explored their motivations, and mapped their journeys to ensure that each feature addressed real-world needs. Early designs helped us validate ideas quickly, identify potential usability issues, and shape the core requirements before investing in higher-fidelity iterations.
Building upon these foundations, we developed a high-fidelity interactive prototype using Figma, incorporating advanced features such as location-based trail search with accessibility filters, community forums, route bookmarking, voice-enabled search, and an AI-powered lens to identify plant and animal species during hikes. Our visual design choices leveraged Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for consistency and usability, while maintaining a clear, aesthetic, and accessible interface compliant with WCAG AAA contrast standards
To ensure a seamless user experience, we applied Nielsen’s heuristic evaluation method to test the prototype against established usability principles. Through this process, we identified strengths such as strong visual hierarchy, intuitive navigation, and efficient voice input capabilities. We also uncovered areas for improvement, including the need for help documentation, gesture-based shortcuts for advanced users, and unified back button behavior.
Overall, this project demonstrates my ability to take a concept from ideation through to polished interactive design, while balancing technical feasibility, usability, and accessibility. It highlights my strengths in user experience design, prototyping, and usability evaluation, while also showcasing teamwork in iterating based on structured feedback.