EcoTrackers

Overview

EcoTrackers is a mobile app designed to combat air pollution in emerging markets by empowering users to monitor environmental quality, engage in eco-friendly activities, and build a supportive community for environmental action.

Role

Designer & Researcher

Timeframe

3-4 months

Team

  • Jay Patel
  • Samantha Boana

Skills

  • Interview
  • Survey
  • Affinity Diagram
  • Storyboard
  • Wireframe
  • Prototype

Tools Used

  • Balsamiq
  • Figma
  • Qualtrics
  • UserTesting
  • Dovetail

The Project

Challenge

Emerging markets often face severe air pollution, with limited tools to educate communities or facilitate eco-friendly initiatives so we came up with the following HMW question to tackle this problem:
 How might we empower individuals to take informed actions to improve their environmental quality while fostering a sense of community?

Part 1

Discover and understand users

This section is all about discovering and understanding the user's needs, goals, and pain points. We set ourself a few research goals before getting started.

  1. Learn as much as possible about our potential users
  2. Determine if and how we can leverage new technology and innovation

Survey

We sent out a user survey using Google Forms and received 25 responses.

Interview

We interviewed 7 students to get a sense of their understanding of air pollution, environmental issues, and the way they though about current challenges in our climate.

  • Participants think air pollution and environmental issues are urgent and important.
  • Participants think lack of awareness about both the issue and the urgency is the main reason people tend to be apathetic towards it.
  • Participants want more information on why problem exist and and why it matters.
  • Participants want more information on how they can make everyday decisions that will make a positive change to the issue and avenues to promote those decisions.

User Feedback

Here’s what some of the users said when asked about environmental awareness and impact

I know air pollution is bad for health, but I’m not sure what exactly causes it beyond cars and factories.

I recycle and try to use public transport, but I don’t think one person can make a huge difference.

If there were more organized efforts on campus, I’d definitely get involved—it’s hard to know where to start on your own.

I’ve seen warnings about air quality on apps, but I don’t really understand what they mean.

Part 2

Ideation

Affinity Diagram

User Personas

Farah

18 yrs old | New Brunswick, New Jersey | Business Major

Bio

Farah is a busy student balancing academics and a part-time job. They’ve started noticing the effects of air pollution during recent visits home and want to learn more, but they find it difficult to make time for research. Farah is open to contributing to environmental efforts but doesn’t know where to start.

Goal

  • Understand how air pollution affects their health and daily life.
  • Find quick, reliable resources for staying informed about environmental quality.
  • Join small, manageable initiatives that don’t require a significant time investment.

Pain Points

  • Lack of awareness of tools or platforms to track air quality.
  • Feels environmental issues are overwhelming and hard to tackle individually.
  • Prefers actionable insights over theoretical knowledge.

Steven

23 yrs old | Piscataway, New Jersey | Environmental Science

Bio

Steven is passionate about sustainability and often participates in environmental initiatives. While they are highly informed about climate change and air pollution, Steven struggles to inspire peers who are less motivated. They actively use air quality monitoring apps but feel existing tools are not engaging enough for wider adoption.

Goal

  • Raise awareness about air pollution among fellow students.
  • Participate in collaborative, impactful initiatives that involve the broader community.
  • Find innovative tools or platforms to make environmental monitoring more accessible and engaging.

Pain Points

  • Lack of user-friendly tools that combine environmental data with community-building features.
  • Struggles to motivate peers who don't prioritize environmental issues.
  • Feels existing resources lack a clear path to action beyond awareness.

The ideas

Core Features Identified

To address the users pain points I decided to design focus on the following features:

  1. Air Quality Index (AQI): Displays real-time air quality updates based on geolocation.
  1. Personalized Eco-Advice: Actionable tips tailored to the user’s environment.
  1. Make an Impact: Actionable petition to execute and make an impact.

Storyboard

Early Sketches

We started by sketching some user flows and early wireframe ideas.

User flow

Part 3

Wireframes & Prototype

Low-fidelity

The Hi-fi Prototype

All of these elements finally come together in a hi-fi prototype. Users can search login, learn more about their environment, and make a small or large scale initiatives.

Heuristic Evaluation