Service Research & Product Design | Texas State Parks
A service and UX research project for improving the digital experience of the service.
8 Weeks | March - May 2023
Inspiration
Texas State Parks is a service I use often!
My Role
Sole Researcher and Designer
Tools & Skills
Service Research
Synthesis
Service Slices
Journey Maps
Competitive & Comparative analysis
LOFI and digital Prototype Testing
Usability Testing
Maze
Mural
Figma design and prototypes
Objectives
Encourage and support the increased interest in the outdoors and our public lands.
Reduce friction in the user experience for the Texas State Parks online website & reservations.
Make the experience of booking a campsite on Texas public lands as effortless and pleasant as booking an Airbnb.
Background
In 2021, 10 million people visited Texas state parks, a 33 percent increase from 2012.
The Pandemic triggered some changes in society’s work-life balance, with more people valuing their time outside of work, picking up new activities and making them a part of their lifestyle. One of the activities that saw a surge of participation: Hiking and Camping.
“Parks and protected public lands help to improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of the air we breathe, provide vegetative buffers to development, produce habitat for wildlife, and provide a place for children and families to connect with nature and recreate outdoors together.
Parks are a tangible reflection of the quality of life in a community.” - Texas Parks and Wildlife research
Phase 1: Service Research
What are the breakdowns?
What are some opportunities?
What’s the value vs cost (do this now or later)?
Problems Found:
People new to the outdoors face 2 barriers
It is intimidating and the state parks online experience doesn’t address that
The amount of information on the website and reservation is complete but overwhelming. There is poor organization and redundancy. There are also multiple paths that don’t resolve correctly. People give up.
Phase 2: Near Future Improvements
What are the low hanging fruits?
What are the industry standards for an online reservation system?
Phase 3: Ideal Future Vision
What are some things we heard from testers and service users?
What can we do to meet objective number 1 (a more lofty goal than the other 2 objectives)?
Design Principles
The wilderness is chaotic and unpredictable, as it should be. The website should be simple.
Not just a reservation system but… also a way to repair people's relationship with nature.
Always be looking for ways to engage the future custodians of the great outdoors.
Value Promise
At Texas State Parks we help you connect with nature and your loved ones, and disconnect from the rest of the world.
You're 5 minutes away from planning your next exploration.
Constraints & Challenges
The proposed redesign has to take into account what the current tech stack is and how to utilize it instead of building things from scratch.
The prototypes are meant to be implemented with the existing backend system so only the user facing webapp will be changed and will be compatible with the existing data structure of the backend.
Outcome
A digital prototype was created and validated through usability testing for the reservation system redesign and near term features to improve the user experience.
Storyboards and Scenarios were created for long term feature vision aiming to -
Reduce barriers for to people new to outdoors and wilderness
Reduce workload for the state parks employees