A short video for the project

 

Be a part of the solution,
End air pollution.

OwnAir is a localized platform that encourages people to become clean air activists by providing them with the knowledge and support they need. By empowering people to learn about air quality and take action within their communities for cleaner air, OwnAir advocates for stronger air quality policies.

 

My Role

UX Design
Design Strategy
UI / Interaction Design

Date

February - April 2023
(8 weeks)

Collaborated with

Rakshit Khilnani - Digital Product Designer

Tools

Figma
Photoshop
Illustrator
After Effects

❛ San Francisco is a beautiful city. ❜

This is what I heard from everyone I interviewed in order to gain a better understanding of the voices of SF residents. However, the climate has changed so much that even with a good AQI, we are still exposed to three times more pollution daily than in the past, and long-term exposure is detrimental to our health.

The Problem

Most of the residents in SF don't worry about air pollution, which is a hyper-object and is hardly seen how bad it is. However, residents are greatly affected by air pollution and are often forced into unfair situations when pollution levels worsen.

The Goal

As the health hazards of climate change continue to increase, we are creating a community to raise awareness among residents, enabling them to become knowledgeable about air pollution in order to prevent further pollution and influence air polluters.

Solution Area Exploration

Many technologies and groups are not interconnected with one another

Through these exercises, I began to realize this despite the existence of numerous similar services.

This exercise also raised many questions regarding the relationship with residents, such as "What is the level of people's understanding about AQI?" and "How do residents benefit from cleaner air?" After exploring the solution area, we developed a problem statement.

The Challenge

How might we make communities smarter to influence policy to understand benefits of cleaner air?

As a north star, I always went back to the HMW to ensure that our solution was inclusive and beneficial for everyone.

 

Persona

We set three personas - a mother who resides polluted area, an environmental activist, and a regulator.

Customer Journey Map - Current

By creating a customer journey map, I aimed to identify critical touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities for residents in dealing with air pollution. Through this exercise, I discovered that residents require reliable sources and networks that they can reach out to in order to report and monitor their exposure to pollutants.

 

Customer Journey Map - 2040

With the realization that residents hold no ways to participate in advocating against air pollution when they are exposed to it, I began creating a 2040 journey map, depicting where I want it to be. Especially, the end phase By creating residents easily connect and communicate with EA and regulators, I realized that our solution is to bring the community closer together and provide accessible solutions for residents to access the resources they need.

Expert Interviews

We interviewed 2 experts to better understand the relationship between residents, environmental activists, scientists, and policymakers.

 

Concept Map

The interview naturally led me to create a concept map to organize the relationships between all stakeholders and their impact. The map revealed that there are very limited ways for residents to reach out for help and take action, and that the connections between all stakeholders are thin and far apart.

Product Roadmap

Creating a simple diagram helped me give structure to the solution and visualize its impact. Our focus was not to create a new service but rather to create a system using existing services. The diagram shows how these services can be interconnected and provide residents with information such as detailed AQI data, learning materials, community events, and information about local environmental activists and policymakers.

 
 

I divided the product into 3 phases. In the first phase, our goal was to increase awareness through fun activities. In the second phase, we provide participants with opportunities to learn about their community's air quality. Finally, we encourage people to take action to improve their community.

Sketches

Based on the roadmap, we sketched out solutions. Firstly, we generated a lot of ideas and then engaged in discussions. During these discussions, I focused on determining the website's primary objective. The answer was to create a "Localized Page" where participants can input their ZIP code to learn about the air quality in their community. This process functioned as the foundation for creating the initial mockup.

Mockups & User Testing

1st ver. Lo-fi Mockups

I created low-fidelity mockups and conducted user testing. Although I had planned to do 5 user tests, after conducting 2, I started to see common issues that users were facing when interacting with the mockups, primarily related to needing more context on the page without overwhelming users with information. As a result, we moved on to creating new mockups.

I also gained key takeaways, such as users showing less interest in the environmental activists and policymakers section, as well as experiencing confusion regarding the connection between the art installation and air pollution.

 

2st ver. Mid-fi Mockups

I proceeded to add headings to each section to provide more context. However, the headings were slightly lengthy, requiring participants to spend more time reading through them. Verbal feedback highlighted the landing page's lack of a clear "purpose." Furthermore, we received feedback indicating that the colors did not appear clean.

 

3rd ver. Hi-fi Mockups

I revisited the style guide and discussed the usage of colors. I decided to replace the main dark green with a brighter shade to evoke the concept of clean air. To emphasize the purpose of the website, I incorporated a story from "doom to bloom" on the landing page. Additionally, we began transforming air pollution data into visual designs.

Product & Design

This is the design I completed in April 2023.

Landing Page

Dashboard

 

Ambassador Page

5-day-course Email

 

5-day-course Page

Event Page

Feedback

❛ ❜

I think that's a really, really well thought out idea. There's a lot of ways to sort of become involved and you're giving people a really easy entry point. It's still felt cohesive and it didn't feel like "Oh, we're just trying to talk to everybody," it's still had a very cohesive and sort of niche approach, which is one of the keys of marketing is to be very specific. And I'm excited to see what happens with those.

-Brand Specialist

Further Steps

Collaborate with early adapters.

Activism is different from people by people. Some individuals firmly believe in and enjoy changing others, while others find satisfaction in doing something that makes them feel good. The key to the project's success lies in finding a close-knit community of activists who are passionate about spreading their message.

There are numerous small communities dedicated to achieving clean air, such as one that promotes people's understanding of vehicle emissions and another that focuses on improving data visualization of air pollutants. By narrowing the target audience and collaborating with these communities, offering incentives such as including their organization names in the OwnAir program to further promote their brands, and so on.

Cultivate a positive “I feel good“ experience for customers to encourage longer engagements.

We have introduced an Instagram filter to spread OwnAir as one of our touchpoints. For this service, which does not pursue profitability, it is crucial to create an environment that excites members and cultivates moments where they feel good, so that they will be eager to remain as members.

By analyzing the data provided by our members about their preferences for current services, we can identify which touchpoints attract certain demographics. I believe that continuously iterating and improving the service to make it more "cool" will be our approach to increase long-term member engagement.

Some ideas to attract members include hosting pop and fun events with art installations, providing VR experiences of speculative futures, and incorporating comedy into our services.

 

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