Featured on Design Rush.
FreshAir is an iOS app designed for young adults who want to schedule more outdoor time into their lives.
Results
I designed an outdoor app that lets users:
- Schedule outdoor time blocks in their current lives
- Rediscover outdoor areas in their local area
- Set their own goals and personal activities
The Problem
During the summer holidays, I used to experience a struggle between going outside and staying inside. Even though I knew that spending time experiencing nature and getting exercise was good for me, I often chose to stay indoors.
There are also no tools in the app store, or a website for the average person who wanted to go outside – only resources for outdoor adventurers and fitness junkies. I wondered if there were others who struggled to get outdoors as well.
In other words, how did the average person make time to go outside?
The Solution
A mobile app that helps users to rediscover their city’s “greenspaces” and schedule outdoor time into their current schedules.
Tools Used
Adobe XD (for each deliverable)
Pinterest (for inspiration + moodboard)
Your Approach
FreshAir was intended for a specific audience: young adults who wanted to benefit from spending more time outdoors than they already did. These were users who did not spend their free time adventuring outdoors, nor were they regularly exercising outdoors (such as jogging).
I quickly realized during the research stage that one either had to become an outdoor adventurer, or begin a habit of exercising outdoors. There was no in-between option, so I decided to create one.
Each Phase of Work & Deliverables
1. Research (survey + personas + journey map)
I began my research by exploring the reasons why young adults might not be spending as much time outside as they “should”. The results were surprising: young adults typically can’t go outside, due to other priorities – it’s not that they don’t want to go out, it’s because they have priorities such as homework and other extra-curricular activities first.
To test out the knowledge I’d found, I created a survey and asked other young adults in my area about their outdoor habits and activities. The results from the survey were also surprising: most young adults would go out if they were in a bad mood, and most of them preferred to spend more time outdoors than they already currently were.
Taking this information, I built two personas and imagined their thoughts and actions through a journey map. Going outside regularly was difficult, especially when one was busy and did not have a habit of doing so. Where to go, what to do, and who to invite can quickly lead to decision fatigue, and it may be easier to stay indoors than leave the house.
2. Planning (user flow + wireframes + sketches)
Through the personas and the journey maps, I understood that the user needed to be able to create blocks of time that would allow them to go outside whenever they wanted to. They also needed a quick way to find local “greenspaces” within their area, and be able to decide what they would be doing outside. So I built a user flow that connected these needs together, which built the foundation for the design.
The goal of the user was to go outside, the app itself needed to be simple and quick. It was a complementary tool to aid them on their outdoor journey. The sketches reflected a minimalistic design, which would help the user to see all the necessary information and head out the door. I transferred these paper sketches to digital wireframes, adding details and information that I’d missed while sketching.
3. Design (visual design + details + moodboards)
According to colour psychology, the colour green symbolized nature and growth, so I decided to go with a dynamic colour palette, full of greens. This would help the user recognize that this was an outdoor app, ready to aid them on their outdoor journeys. As for the moodboard, I chose pictures that would focus on the activities that people did outdoors, whether with their friends or alone. The title of the app, which became FreshAir, was tested on young adults and was confirmed to be the ideal choice for an outdoor app.
As I added colour to the wireframes, I realized that the homepage was not working alongside the visual design details. I redesigned the homepage to focus solely on the scheduling aspect of the app – that way, when the user opened the app, they would be greeted by their own plans, and nothing else. The menu in the corner became a navigational bar at the bottom, allowing the rest of the features to remain in separate spaces in the structure.
I originally had not planned to add illustrations to the app. However, when I was designing the onboarding section and the logo, I realized adding leaves would welcome the user in and connect them to the branding. So when new users open the app, they are greeted with an “outdoor personality test” where they are asked questions about their outdoor habits and are given a type. Depending on their “type”, FreshAir would recommended certain green spaces over others (such as parks over hiking trails).
4. Launch (user feedback)
Once I’d completed the final mockups, I released them to my test group to receive feedback. The results were positive, with one important piece of feedback: there was too much green.
All the different shades of green made things blend in. Nothing stood out, so I decided to change the colour palette to include an accent colour. I chose navy blue, because it matched the overall hues in the design, but also because blue is generally favoured amongst users. It made the details in the design clearer, and highlighted areas of importance, such as the schedule and typography.
I returned the finished mockups to the test group and received favourable reviews on the improved design. It had changed the overall mood of the app from calming greens to a dynamic, memorable outdoor app.
Challenges & Key Learnings
My number one challenge was focusing on functionality instead of only visual design. I learned to prioritize the planning stage, which eventually made the overall design of the mobile app better.
- Sketching: I used to skip the sketching phase and just transfer my designs from my brain to the computer screen. But in this project, I wanted to challenge myself to sit down and produce rough sketches before I started designing. I was able to plan out my design by focusing on the functional aspects before the visual aspects, and I believe that the project benefitted from the extra step.
- Functionality: I spent a long time in the planning stage because I knew how I wanted things to look, but I didn’t understand how all the features of the app worked together. In my previous projects, I would figure out the functionality of a website or mobile app during the design stage. But with FreshAir (and with all my future projects), I wanted the UX to be strong, so I prioritized the planning stage over the design stage.
Project Credits
Back icon icon by Icons8Add icon icon by Icons8
Edit icon icon by Icons8
Gardening Tools icon icon by Icons8
Leaf icon icon by Icons8
User icon icon by Icons8
Increase icon icon by Icons8
Search icon icon by Icons8
Marker icon icon by Icons8
Checkmark icon icon by Icons8
Clock icon icon by Icons8
Settings icon icon by Icons8
Calendar icon icon by Flaticon
Journey Map Template by Geunbae “GB” Lee