Arizona WaterSim

WaterSim is a touch screen museum exhibit that helps users learn more about their water supply and demand system. My team researched users’ existing knowledge about water usage, designed and tested prototypes of varying fidelity, and made recommendations for what could be improved. Based on those recommendations, I developed a final design.

Research

User Research

We conducted interviews with 3 rural adults and recorded the zoom calls. We discovered many valuable insights regarding how target users think and what their initial level of understanding is. We also used a marketing tool called Claritas Prizm to determine common traits in rural adults.

Personas

We developed 2 unique personas based on the qualitative and quantitative data we gathered in our research. These provided a guiding light for our design decisions moving forward.

Comparative Assessment

Our team completed an extensive comparative assessment that examined other online water simulations, exhibits, and games. This allowed us to establish best practices and expected features based on related websites and apps.

Ideation

Design Principles

Based on our research (interviews, personas, comparative assessments) our team created the following design principles. They describe the core values of WaterSim’s experience.

It makes education clear and simple
It makes education fun
It feels personal
It feels empowering

Sketches

After generating a wide range of ideas, we chose the most promising ones. A few of my sketches are shown below:

Prototype Development

First Prototype - Low Fidelity

Whereas sketching helped us agree on the direction we wanted to take the design, task flows established the working mechanics of our design. They provided a map for us to follow as we created our wireframe. The wireframe was low fidelity to allow for quick edits.

Second Prototype - Medium Fidelity

We developed a medium fidelity prototype based on our finalized wireframe to use for usability testing. The prototype used live links and interactive features to simulate what the final experience would be like. It still used temporary artwork to allow for quick edits in future iterations.

Final Design

Third Prototype - High Fidelity

With clear findings from the previous usability tests, I implemented the recommendations and created a high fidelity prototype using Adobe Illustrator. I created the artwork to not only “look good” but also address usability issues we discovered in our testing. The result is an engaging and impactful experience for museum goers.