2020 · sharpen.design challenge
"Design a desktop app for a solar farm"
I based this off the Hampshire College solar panel farm because:
I’m familiar with it.
There have been several articles written up about the panels, providing me with some data and usage inspiration.
I can use the existing color palette and typography.
Problem (made-up):
If solar panels are not being monitored closely, they may lose efficiency in providing the maximum amount of energy possible to the college.
Assumptions:
That each panel could be monitored live, individually.
That this would be a app of its own. In a real life situation, there might be an existing maintenance system to use and work with.
Solution:
An app that lets the maintenance crew manage solar panels, both individually and as a system, and provides analytical data that demonstrates the value of the solar panels.
The top portion is a 1:1 layout of the solar panel field, and a list of open issues.
The purpose of the solar-panel map is to keep the shape of the field and location of the panels visually mapped when trying to locate which one needs attention.
A long list of panel numbers, rather than a map, may be overwhelming and not as informative.
Selecting an individual panel would show an overlay with insight into the health of that panel.
The dashboard section is where aggregate data is shown.
In order to show the impact and overall health of the solar panel field.
The chart tracks total field output over a specific time.
Allowing people to select a timeframe would help them track patterns and answer questions. For example, how much energy si being produced in the fall vs the summer?
Ecological health reports.
In this exploration, I displayed a collection of pdfs, but it could be other things as well. For example, maybe the solar panels have soil sensors that project soil health data to the app.
2020 · collectui prompt
"Design an onboarding flow"
Problem:
Self-isolation (during lockdown, no less) is lonely and can exacerbate existing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. It can also lead people to neglect physical health tasks like drinking water, eating, showering, and tooth-brushing.
Onboarding should:
Be as short a process as possible, to encourage usage
Ask the questions that are needed to provide a personalized experience in the app
Be inclusive, so that as many people as possible are able to benefit from the app
Be simple to understand
Solution:
An app that uses gamification to encourage positive self-care behaviors and improve the well-being for folks in self-isolation due to COVID-19 (or any other reason).
I used a step-by-step flow to break the process into friendly chunks. I asked questions that would set up the app in a way that was personalized for each user. For example, if the person indicated that they were on medication, the app could pre-populate a task to take their medication.
After initial onboarding, the person gets to choose and naming a plant. I assumed that if a person forms a connection with the plant, they'd care more about helping it to grow, and be more motivated to complete their tasks.
There's one plant for each "pillar" of well-being. A person can take care of each plant by feeding it with self-care actions they log before the end of each day. It will also provide resources for some of those actions. For example, providing a link to online workout sessions, if their tasks include workouts.
2020 · collectui prompt
Food info card
"Design an info card"
2020 · self-made challenge
Plant shuffling app
"Design an app to shuffle plants"
2020 · collectui challenge
Notebook/Journal 404 page
"Design a 404 page"
2020 · collectui challenge
Guitar product page
"Design a single product page"
