Zion National Park App – Pania's Design Portfolio

Optimizing Zion National Park Visits with Intuitive Access to Essential Information and Live Data

Client

Zion National Park

Delivered

2021

Dixie Tech had the opportunity to create a mobile app for Zion National Park. I became the Android designer about a year into the project. Although, I assisted with all the designs.

When I signed on to this project, they had already built several iOS designs. They also had a homepage design they were pretty set on. This project was funded through the school with limited resources, and they wanted to hire students or recently graduated students. This became one of my first true tests of app design and user experience.

The Problem

The Zion National Park app project confronted significant challenges: an overwhelming influx of visitors with repetitive inquiries, and the ambition to integrate live updates within the app. The initiative was constrained by a minimal budget, reliant on a fluctuating team of student designers. Compounding these difficulties, the advent of the pandemic necessitated an abrupt shift in focus towards real-time information dissemination regarding shuttle schedules and park alerts, further straining the project’s limited resources and complicating the development process.

Scope & Goals

Create an accessible app with essential Zion Park information and FAQs.
Integrate live updates on weather, trails, and shuttles in the app.
Provide guidance on optimal visit times and alert on park changes.
Work within budget and team constraints to deliver the project.
Prioritize immediate visitor needs in response to pandemic challenges.

Constraints

Limited Budget: Financial restrictions impacted the scope and scale of the project.
Changing Team Composition: The team consisted of students and recent graduates, leading to variability in team members and skill levels.
Development Skill Variability: Differences in team members’ technical abilities limited the complexity of features that could be implemented.
Tight Timeline: The project was constrained by a strict deadline, influenced by budgetary limitations and project goals.
Pandemic Impact: COVID-19 introduced unforeseen challenges, including park closures and the need to shift focus to real-time health and safety updates.

Research

Starting Point

Signing onto this project so early on in my career was intimidating. Thus, I asked for plenty of background on the park, the users, and the team. Luckily Zion has been recording stats and analysis on guests for years. I also had the opportunity to talk with a UX Researcher who had years of experience. Another helpful resource was studying the Material Interface guidelines. Fun fact, this was my first time designing for Android.

Findings

The most active demographics happened to be families or adult men in their 30’s
They wanted to target young adults age 18-29 for the app
The app was inspired by shuttle questions and hiking trails
They offer a large variety of activities most users don’t know about
Users associate red with Zion
Most visit between the months of Oct-Nov

Survey

I wanted to answer a few questions after my initial meeting with everyone. I felt the best way to do this was to create a quick survey with some of the criteria I was looking for. How many visitors are residents of Utah? What information is most important to users? What interests bring people to Zion? What age groups are most likely to download an app?

Psst…my survey is still live, feel free to take it!

User Flow

Flow Chart

I needed to map out what had already been established while also referencing future paths for the app. I tried to keep this as current as possible. The live version of the app only has green areas completed and the settings tab. Red were screens we would wait to design for future versions.

The weather screen was originally intended to be pushed during the first version but ended up being scrapped. This was unfortunate because a large amount of my time was spent here. Although, we had settled on a design and began the initial code. It was too much work and information to store with our limited resources.

Design

Home

This was a design I didn’t have too much say in, as they had already settled on it before I signed on. The designed home page would have 9 access points, not including the navbar. As resources became limited we scaled back and set out to design for different versions of the app that would launch.

Simplified 1.0
This version was our very first push to app stores. At the time of development, we didn’t have the manpower or team to do too many updates. The designs were already done and we had all the live data up and running too. Ultimately, Zion was pushing to get something out sooner than later so we scaled back.

Version 1.1
This is a more current version. We were slowly able to introduce more options. The grid then starts to change to accommodate that.

Problem areas

text on the image has difficult visibility at times. To compensate we have added overlays that help.

Weather

One of the first screens I was able to really take the lead on was the weather screens. I knew that we wanted to give visitors current conditions along with forecasts. I started by breaking down the weather into days, weeks, and months. Before long I had a very detailed weather setup for anyone to access.

The problem was I was overcomplicating the details. Did we need 3 devoted tabs to understanding weather? Was I using the screen real estate wisely? It was time to reevaluate what was necessary.

The Weather Solution

After some time I came up with the following design changes.

I kept the original card that gave you the current temperature
We did a dropdown to allow the user to decide which region they wanted to know the temperature for
I also added a simplified hourly graph so you could identify which parts of the day would be the hottest
The next card gave the high and low forecast for the week. Which eliminated the weekly tab
We did another filter to plan ahead. You would select a month and from there it would give you the averages and what to expect

Trails

I worked with the iOS designer who had a good starting point for the trails main section. From there, she asked me to handle the trail’s detailed screen. This would be where you would find all the info on a specific trail.

I already had a pretty good idea of the criteria I needed to include and spent time sketching it out so I could figure out the weak points. I also tried to work with the developer on what he felt comfortable crafting.

Conclusion

Results

The Zion Park app’s journey has been quite the ride. We’ve got a working app that’s making life easier for visitors, despite having to dial back on some features. The key lesson? A solid base is crucial for an app that needs regular updates. There have been some glitches, but hey, it’s all part of the process.

Working with this team has been amazing, and it’s inspiring to think about how much more we can do with this app as we keep learning and evolving. Onwards and upwards!