A User-Journey in Citizen Science Apps

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 19:38

For Citizen Science projects, it is essential to understand the needs of the user and how to design interactive products and apps to guarantee good usability – which is highly involving. Researching and observing should be an experience with added value. Therefore User Journeys are often used in the progress of developing a new Application.

The term "user journey" is part of the "user-centred-design" and wants do understand the "user's goal", their motivations and current pain points. These questions serve as the base for visualizing user requirements and help in terms of interface design for your specific application. Because first of all, a well-designed Citizen Science App should be easy-to-use and give positive feedback to the users - while they contribute to a better understanding of our world and improve scientific data-quality.

The following motivation- and community-features have positive affects on the User-Experience and help to increase the scope, as well as the quality of the entire project:

1. How-to Citizen Science

The app-intro is an introductory welcome message for all citizen science beginners. It's the first step of the whole user-experience and explains the handling of the Citizen Science Smartphone App. The start of a discovery-journey. In the case you want to foreground an aspect of your research project, we will gladly implement individually designed Intro-Slides – for a lasting first impression.

2. Enter a dialogue with the user

The centrepiece of the SPOTTERON Citizen Science Apps is the App-Spot-Dialog. Visually matching your project, it leads the user to their first spot – their first scientific observation. The dialogue is hierarchically structured and consists of different types of selection-fields. Icon- and picture-based buttons enhance the usability and help display complex data in a simplified way. For every Citizen Science Project, we conceptualize the Add-Spot-Dialog in collaboration with our partners.

More about spots & observations

3. Motivate

A successful Citizen Science Project lives from the long-term motivation of the users. To reward them on their expedition, all Apps on the SPOTTERON Platform include features, such as badges, user-ranking and spot-collection.

More about the User-Motivation-Pack

4. Social-Community-Building

What would a Citizen Science App be without an active community? In the end, the citizen scientist wants to share discoveries, follow other people's observations and be part of a vibrant community. We developed a range of Community-Features, which are included in all SPOTTERON Citizen Science Apps. We are continually developing new features in collaboration with our partners to improve the user's experience and to provide them for every running project on the SPOTTERON Platform.

More about the Community-Pack

We're here to help.

User-Journeys and User-Experience are practical analysis- and design-tools to determine the vision of your research-project and ease the entrance into the world of Citizen Science. Here at SPOTTERON we are happy to assist you. Contact us here!

Example Horizon Europe / Horizon 2020 Collaborations

Horizon 2020 Invasive Species Monitoring App

The IPM-Popillia Horizon 2020 project aims to address the challenge of a new risk to plant health in Europe's agriculture and food safety: the invasion of the Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica. This invasive species was introduced accidentally to mainland Europe in 2014 and can quickly spread by transportation and trade. As a species with a wide range of feeding plants, P. japonica threatens the entire agricultural sector, urban landscapes, and biodiversity in invaded areas.

Learn more about
IPM Popillia | Integrated Pest Management of the Japanese Beetle

Horizon Europe Citizen Science App

EFFECTIVE, a Horizon Europe initiative, targets the emerging threat to the EU's Mediterranean Blue Natural Capital. By leveraging advanced science, technological nature-based solutions, digitalization, and social implication, the project aims to develop a comprehensive scientific knowledge base and practical guidance for the application of Ecosystem-Based Management to promote large-scale marine protected areas establishment in the European seas.

Learn more about
EFFECTIVE | Protection and Restoration Management of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas

Horizon Europe Citizen Science App

TRANSEATION, funded by Horizon Europe, aims to validate a new level of ecosystem-based management by integrating social implication digitalization and nature-based solutions to safeguard and restore marine ecosystem health and services. The project focuses on demonstrating the effectiveness of marine and coastal hybrid blue-grey infrastructures and developing digital tools for monitoring, analysis, and social involvement, addressing societal challenges and promoting sustainable management practices.

Learn more about
TRANSEATION | Advancements through Hybrid Blue-Grey Infrastructures in Marine and Coastal Areas

Horizon 2020 Citizen Social Science App

In Europe and globally, substantial numbers of young people are at risk of social exclusion. Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop more knowledge and innovation to create inclusive and youth-friendly societies. The Horizon 2020 R&I Project YouCount contributes to these needs by developing 'actionable' knowledge for social inclusion of disadvantaged youths in the European Union and creating better means for social inclusion through citizen social science.

Learn more about
YouCount | Youth Citizen Science

Horizon 2020 Citizen Science App

The impact of plastic pollution on soil health is largely unknown. However, the amounts of plastic entering soils are equal to or possibly even more significant than those entering our rivers, seas, and oceans. MINAGRIS, an EU Horizon 2020 funded project, will investigate how plastic affects soil biodiversity, soil functions, associated ecosystem services, and agricultural productivity.

Learn more about
MINAGRIS | Micro and Nanoplastics in Agricultural Soils

Health Citizen Science App

University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology

StreetMind contributes to a better understanding how environmental factors like urbanicity or climate change influence how individuals across Europe and the world feel, act, and behave. Participants make up their minds with fellow citizens and scientists and share their daily experiences of their surroundings and the environment where they live, work, and interact.

Learn more about
StreetMind