Unlocking National Parks: Discover Adventures with RangerBot
Duration: 2 Weeks
Type: Add-a-feature
Role: UX/UI Design, Research
Tools: Figma, Curve, Optimal Workshop
The Problem
The National Parks Service (NPS) app, a digital guide for park enthusiasts, struggles due to limitations affecting its outdoor experience delivery. The app, offering information like maps and park history, aims to enhance visits for adventurers, nature lovers, and families. However, it faces several challenges, including but not limited to:
Lack of real-time updates: Users navigate outdated information on trail conditions and park regulations.
Engagement gap: Educational content fails to captivate and inspire.
Ethical disconnect: Fostering responsible outdoor practices like Leave No Trace principles takes a backseat.
To truly become an indispensable companion and preserve the magic of our national parks, the app must evolve. It needs to adapt to changing user needs, address these issues, and ultimately guide visitors towards responsible and enriching adventures.
I want to design a feature that empowers park exploration with an AI companion, guiding users with confidence, igniting curiosity about nature, and nurturing responsible habits.
Through user interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis, I identified opportunities to support users in their National Parks exploration.
Process & Methods
Empathize
“[...] The info on the website doesn’t go into the amount of detail needed to select and plan a hike. In most parks you have to physically visit the park to get a flier or talk to a ranger to learn more about hikes. I want to know length, elevation, location, conditions (real time).”
Interviews and surveys helped in understanding the motivations of park-goers, and shed light on their needs and preferences. A competitive analysis of three similar apps revealed gaps in information that users are looking for to help them know what to expect during their park visits.
Users will often either take their chances with information from one resource, or switch between multiple apps and resources to effectively plan their outdoor adventures.
Respondents have various ideas regarding resources or information that would be helpful during their park visits. Some of their suggestions include:
Emergency contact information for park rangers, local authorities, and signs on how to react in the presence of dangerous wildlife.
A categorized list of trails (e.g. family-friendly, accessible, wildlife-focused).
Enforcing conservation principles like packing in and packing out and leave no trace.
Modernizing apps and marketing to inform visitors about available resources and trip planning.
A collective repository of entry requirements, animal activity seasons, campsite availability, and ideal visiting times for each park.
Detailed hike information, including length, elevation, location, and real-time conditions.
“I’m pretty familiar with the parks I visit so I just make sure I have the materials I need; I’d research it on Google or AllTrails and check the reviews and difficulty and look at pictures.”
Study results highlight the need for easy access to a wide range of information in a central location. The development of new features for the NPS app should focus on enhancing trail information, providing real-time weather updates, offering safety guidance, and delivering engaging educational content. Further, designing a feature that has offline capabilities ensures that visitors have the tools and information they need to have a safe, enjoyable, and informative park experience, even in areas with limited connectivity.
Define
Refinement
I wrote a summary of my results, built a persona for Jessica, and created a user journey map for our park visitor.
Insights Discovered:
I learned that users who are familiar with the NPS app find it difficult to navigate, finding that the information needed to plan their park visits is either couched behind several taps, is incomplete, or doesn’t exist on the platform.
Resources outside of NPS are prioritized, like AllTrails and Facebook Groups, reflecting a need for a feature that will increase user engagement and retention.
Further, over half of survey respondents believe the presence of educational content to be moderately to extremely important. The expressed interest in wild flora and fauna, cultural and historical sites, safety information, conservation, and responsible outdoor practices.
Brainstorming Ideas
With a profile of my target audience and goals in mind, I crafted twenty potential feature-adds that would benefit users.
As I curated this list, it dawned on me that the biggest challenge that my research participants face is in regards to information and education. What if you could ditch endlessly tapping and scrolling and just ask questions?
An AI-driven hybrid chatbot would balance the needs of users and act as a guide in planning visits to any National Park, all in one screen! An AI companion can understand your goals, answer burning questions, and unlock hidden gems, transforming the NPS app into a dynamic and engaging adventure partner.
RangerBot is partially inspired by Ranger-guided programs, a valuable service found at all US National Parks. Learn more about them here!
Information Architecture
Treejack testing and a short survey in Optimal Workshop were used to test an unobtrusive route to access the chatbot, and it was quickly learned that, while feasible, most users preferred to access a chatbot from a FAB.
Findings:
50% of users expected the floating action button to serve as the entry point for the chatbot.
Only 10% of users expected the chatbot to be nested underneath the global menu.
Results of the Treejack test on two tasks, with the chatbot integrated into the global menu.
Task & User Flows
With a simple task flow, I began exploring what a user flow for a chatbot would look like, mapping out alternative routes for unanswered questions and maintaining the happy flow as a baseline.
Ideation
Wireframes
Using Curve, I sketched out some ideas for a basic chat interface, and refined them in Figma. I took inspiration from my own experience using chatbots, as well as screenshots found on Dribbble and Pinterest.
This process allowed me to visualize the user experience easily and make changes early.
Chat with Menu
Chat with Link
Exiting the Chat
Icon & Feature Name
Every chatbot needs a recognizable icon! Using familiar indicators and brand guidance, I sketched out several ideas for the NPS app.
The name RangerBot was chosen through polling several options.
Test
User Insights
Four participants agreed to test RangerBot. Testers were asked to complete two tasks:
Interact with RangerBot and learn about the National Parks in Virginia.
Find the chat history.
“If I was looking for a trail, having a bot to ask questions within the app without having to leave is exciting.”
Testers shared an overall positive experience with the new feature, with one user describing the interaction as “delightful”. Users noted that RangerBot feels on brand for the National Parks Service, and they like how the chatbot is organized.
Feedback for RangerBot was simple and straightforward, I elicited two main points to iterate on based on user feedback:
Include more park suggestions while prioritizing the best match.
Move chat history from the global menu to a menu in the chat header.
Dylan graciously took a break from camping to check out RangerBot.
Before
After
Improving Visual Hierarchy for Better Discoverability
Iterations based on usability learnings:
Added other park options to the initial suggestion, prioritizing the best match with a badge.
This allows users to easily browse a variety of possible destinations right away, without having to prompt RangerBot to generate more.
Before
After
Intuitive Chat History Access
Iterations based on usability learnings:
Moved the chat history from the app’s global menu and into RangerBot.
Integrating chat history directly into the chatbot reduces context switching and keeps users immersed in their park adventure.
Design
Visual Identity
Using the existing NPS app, I pulled colors for RangerBot’s palette and matched the icons and typography as closely as possible. I went back to the custom icons I created earlier and after choosing one, applied the selected colorway.
Prototype
Swift Link: Easy Access to Adventure Insights
RangerBot is right where you expect it to be, for instant access to your AI park companion and guide anywhere on the app.
Confidence at Every Tap
As a hybrid chatbot, RangerBot prompts users with menus as a guide, but can also respond to direct user queries, igniting Engagement and deepening exploration.
Seamless Recall
Chat history is more than just a convenience; it's an investment in user experience, knowledge retention, and data-driven design.
This enables RangerBot to curate a more personalized and adaptive experience, and allows users to reference past interactions.
Reflection
Next steps for building out RangerBot are to explore menu options further, and iterate on how different types of information is presented within the chatbot.
RangerBot is my first feature-add project, and I’m pleased with the reception it’s gotten from my mentor and user testers (and anyone who will listen to me talk about it!).
The National Parks Service is an invaluable organization, full of surprises and underpinning conservation efforts through land preservation, education, and research. I believe that adding an AI chatbot to their existing app would be a boon to their initiative, as it can help users navigate their visits, answer any park or wildlife-related question, and encourage users towards responsible park visits.
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