Connecting your ears to an ocean of sound

Orcasound is a group that I joined during a hackathon event, I remained with the group afterwards volunteering as a UX designer for a few months. Some of my work have been to update design systems and create wireframe mockups, below is my most notable assignment to the group.

Context

UX Design Volunteer

Contribution

Design, Ideation

Timeframe

Sept 2021 - Dec 2021

 
 

WHAT’S THE CONTEXT?

Orcasound’s goal is to promote listening to orcas for users to enjoy, raise awareness surrounding orcas, and to encourage users to donate to conservation organizations. They work towards the conservation of orcas by using hydrophones (underwater microphones) placed around the Puget Sound area that’s connected to a live feed online. They rely on volunteer efforts to report sound activities, whether orca or anything that can be disruptive to marine life for data collection.

I have been assigned to ideate concepts for a learning interface, a guide used for educating users on orcas, reporting sound activity, and learning about conservation efforts. I reviewed our user research, defined the problem, and ideated a wireframe concept.

 

THE CHALLENGE

Conservationists interested in the southern resident orcas in the Puget Sound suffer from a lack of in-depth knowledge about orca vocalizations, which makes it hard to galvanize the public to help in conservation efforts to protect the species.

There is no single online learning platform that allows people on the internet to help them identify the sounds of southern resident orcas in the Puget Sound, compared to other marine life in the area.

 

OUTCOME

My concept was well-received by the other designers and engineers on the team. They thought that the gamification concept was a creative idea that could be worth exploring in future ideations. In the end, my concept was not the one chosen to move forward with for further testing, but I still enjoyed my experience working with real professionals and learned a lot.

 
 

User Research

What did our Subject Matter Experts have to say?

We interviewed 4 Subject Matter Experts to hear their insights on the current state of Orcasound’s website and to better learn what can be used in our learning interface. Here is what we synthesized:

 
 
 
 

  • User Needs

    • Learning Interface that educates users on orca conservation.

    • A feature to listen to orcas on a live feed.

    • Updated newsfeed on the latest orca research.

  • User Goals

    • Learn about orca conservation through interactive activities.

    • Listen to orcas.

    • An organized curriculum on orcas.

    • Contribute towards orca conservation.

 

OPPORTUNITY

How might we develop a fun and engaging learning interface that is challenging and gives users context as to why their learning is important to advance science?

 

 

 

Service Concepts

  • Reporting

    Hydrophones have been set up around the Puget Sound area, users can listen to a live feed with this learning interface and report their call vocalizations.

  • Mini-Games

    Users can enjoy another user’s sound report and make a guess on their type of call. This adds a sense of community and helps filter for false positives.

  • Badges

    This learning interface rewards points to users for reporting sound activity and reading articles in the newsfeed. Badges give playful titles such as ‘Whale Enthusiast.’

  • Newsfeed

    A timeline that offers updated orca research and other related news on a daily basis. This is an opportunity for users to advance their knowledge and gain points.

 

How does it work?

What’s the user process?

The flow of the learning interface begins with users gaining context on how Orcasound works and how users can contribute. After learning the context and the types of orca vocalization, users can begin eagerly listening for orcas on the hydrophones and confidently report sound activity. The report will be sent to Orcasound, which will be sent to conservation organizations for research. Then there is a newsfeed feature for users to enjoy reading up on the latest articles related to orcas.

 
 
 
 

Design Principles

  • Beginner Friendly

    The learning interface begins with educating users on the bare minimum they need to know.

  • Gamification

    Adding game-like elements into Orcasound’s curriculum will challenge and encourage users in their education.

  • Continuing Education

    The newsfeed encourages users to return to the app to follow new research and orca related news on a daily basis.

 

 Final Thoughts & Takeaways

  • Considering the amount of information there are on orcas and the data that Orcasound have collected, designing for a website would have been more appropriate.

  • Since the assignment was to create wireframes, I could have been more efficient with my time by experimenting and designing more lo-fi wireframes.

  • I was still learning about Orcasound while working on this assignment, so I should have asked my team more questions to get a better understanding of the context.

  • This was my first time working alongside professional designers, and I had a good experience presenting my concept and learning from them.