⏳ 1 month | 📱 Mobile App & ⌚️ Smart Watch | Conceptual Project
Hobby Metal Detecting
What to do if one loses a ring on the beach? Searching for it among sand or stones is not an easy task. That's when metal detectorists come in. Metal detecting is used in various professions, from archeologists to police investigators, but many people do it as a hobby. They enjoy finding old items and collecting them. That's the type of metal detecting I focused on for this project.
Overview
It's a concept project that I designed long ago when I just started learning UI design, and that's how it used to look:
p.s. I don’t know what made me do the closing icon on top of the bottom nav and search bar, probably I wanted the map to be more visible, xoxo :)
I decided to rethink my solution. I started by conducting online interviews and a survey on the Facebook group amongst Ukrainian metal detectorists.
User Research
The main research goal was to learn about the metal detectorist routine, understand their needs and determine whether they would find it convenient and helpful to use an application that supports their activity.
The target audience is people involved in metal detecting in fields and forest areas.
The target audience is people involved in metal detecting in fields and forest areas.
All the participants shared the same problem of findings the best place for metal detecting.
Most of the interviewees demonstrated an interest in having statistics of their findings. However, it was triggered by a different motivation.
Priority Map
Even though the project is conceptual, I wanted to evaluate my ideas from the development and cost perspective. After ideating solutions based on research insights, I prioritized the features that would satisfy the user and would be achievable to implement. I have found this part of the design process the hardest since I had to let go of some of the great ideas due to their complexity and find a value-cost compromise.
Prototype
Mobile
Watch
Note: the idea of creating an app for smartwatch comes from the fact that the moment when metal detectorist finds something, they are usually in dirty or dusty gloves. The phone might be further in a pocket or backpack, so marking the current location using the watch is much faster. Later this info can be edited from the phone, and such details as finding names or photos can be added.
Usability Testing
Three Main Insights:
Three Main Insights:
I Learned
I learned how to make animations using only the prototype navigation and hide some components on the scroll, making the prototype more realistic (which gives a feel of the actual app). I also learned that it's important to focus on the main features of an app that have the highest impact to create a minimal viable product.
If I Could Go Back in Time
For this project, I had a chance to go back to my old work and do things differently. Now I completed UX research and could approach the problem with the insights I got from that.
At this point, the project is in a better state, and further improvements are listed in the next steps section.
At this point, the project is in a better state, and further improvements are listed in the next steps section.
Next steps
• It would be nice to conduct interviews with users in different areas to appeal to an even larger audience, as metal detecting in different climates also varies, and the needs may be different
for example, metal detectorists' approach on the beach vs. fields or woods is different.
for example, metal detectorists' approach on the beach vs. fields or woods is different.
• Design registration/login flow.
