Overview
Beekeeping is becoming more popular, as is the awareness surrounding the important role healthy bee colonies play in our environment. It can be quite an overwhelming or complicating task to take on if you are a new beekeeper.
Using schedule reminders, tutorials, hive check organization and location-based beekeeping connections;
Bee Kind is designed to make beekeeping simpler
for the everyday beekeeping hobbyist.
Duration: 2 months
My Process: I was involved in all areas of the design process including competitor research, user flow, wireframing, user testing and prototyping
Tools: Sketch, Photoshop, Invision
My Role: UI designer
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A place to record hive information
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Seasonal and scheduled maintenance reminders
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Provide information/ education and advice on beekeeping issues.
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A way to connect with other beekeepers in the area and the opportunity.
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A place to purchase beekeeping equipment.
Problem
Watching my Dad navigate the many varied responsibilities as a new beekeeper, I realized there was a lot of information to learn and guidance needed to ensure you were doing the best for your bees.
Objectives
Having one place to record all the details of your hives and having regular reminders would be a helpful way to keep on top of your mainentence schedule.. Either when you are learning the ropes, increasing your colonies or a hobbyist just wanting a simplier way to manage your hives.
User Flow
After considering the different objectives I decided what screens would be necessary for the user to reach their goal. The user flow technique is effective to show dead ends and efficiency in the functionality.
A user flow is important to see the path of the user
Style Guide
SF Pro Text: Heavy 36, Bold 21, Medium 17.
Roboto: Heavy 36, Bold 21, Medium 17.
Courier New : Bold, 52.
Colour Palette
Typography
Iconography
Imagery
Wireframing
Applying the user flow, I mapped out the basic layout and functionality of the app. I needed to create wireframes for both iOS & Android software. Both have different interface guidelines, so I had to consider this throughout my design
Some main examples of these style differences were: -Font
-Screen sizes
-Iconography
-Buttons and
-Toolbars.
Android Software
One major aesthetic and functional contrast is that
Android uses a static navigation bar.
iOS Software
The goal of user test was to see if the users were able to understand how to use the app and whether there was more or less content needed.
The wireframes were reviewed by test users for functionality. This is a very important step in the development of the design as it sometimes takes another perspective to understand necessary iterations.
User Testing
The result of this was made evident by the users. I needed to provide more options in my hive inspection screen as beekeepers check certain aspects of their hives more regularly than I had thought. The feedback was noted and alterations were made.
Once the design was finalized, prototypes were created. With the help of user feedback from the prototypes, the finishing touches were made and the final product was produced.
Final Work
The result of this was made evident by the users. I needed to provide more options in my hive inspection screen as beekeepers check certain aspects of their hives more regularly than I had thought. The feedback was noted and alterations were made.
Conclusion
My original objective was to design an app that would help amateur or new beekeepers to organize their beekeeping.
As I researched this is topic, the more I realized there was a lot of crucial information that beekeepers needed to record than I was first aware of. Because of this, I had to alter the design of the beehive inspection screens, with the emphasis on simplicity and prioritizing what was important information and what was not so necessary. This was decided after user testing, and proved how important the process was.
I am pleased with the functionality of the app although next time I would allow more time for the feedback process. I would plan for more iteration and feedback sessions, interview more users and allow more room for the app to develop through user testing. This is extremely valuable to the success of the app design.
Bee Kind achieved the objective; it creates the organization of managing beehives and simplifies tasks through the functionality.