fishcious
Comprehensive aquarium tool and social community where fish lovers can track and maintain their aquarium health easily, access interactive guides, and mitigate mistakes by chatting with verified professionals.
[My Role]
Solo Project
[Platforms]
IOS & Android
[Areas]
Tracking Tools, Guidebook, Marketplace
PROJECT OVERVIEW
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Reduce mishandling/misinformation that leads to unnecessary animal/plant death or a decline in the overall aquarium health.
Provide a comprehensive tool for hobbyists and access to professional help/advice for beginners.
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End-to-end product design from UX research to final UI prototype. This was a solo project with a total of 64 screens created on Adobe XD.
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4 month project.
Why HOME AQUARIUMS?
It’s no surprise that during the pandemic the US saw a jump in households owning aquariums. And with already more than 140 million fish kept as pets annually in the US (Statista), the aquarium hobbyist community is continually vast and growing yet lacks sufficient maintenance and educational tools.
Hobbyists often rely on unprofessional sources such as social media for information, which, although helpful in some aspects, can be misleading. Both new and experienced owners alike often struggle with effectively addressing the wide array of issues that can arise in an aquarium, leading many animals or plants to die due to personal mistakes. It has happened to me and to 95% of my 139 survey respondents.
“Have you ever had animals or plants die because of something -you did wrong?”
[01] research
What’s wrong with other sites?
When researching the market I found that hobbyists mainly use blog-based sites or social media like Reddit or YouTube videos to find advice/information.
What are my main takeaways?
Most platforms are geared towards experienced hobbyists and are hard to navigate for beginners.
Finding accurate information is challenging since many sources consist of forums that rely on personal opinions and are hard to verify.
Searching across multiple platforms is inefficient.
UI on existing aquarium apps is underdeveloped.
Many apps lack a range of features.
Beginners suffer the most with the current state of aquarium sources, as they have a harder time deciphering what could be misinformation or deceptive marketing practices.
[Competitive Analysis]
Conducting a user survey led me to find the features most valued by users - the image on the right represents the percentage of respondents wanting the features listed. Some of these features are provided by existing apps, many are not.
The most desired feature - access to info about aquatic animals/plants - was not a feature I found on any other apps as they solely focused on providing logging features- like a notepad.
[User survey - 139 respondents]
[Other survey questions + results]
What did I learn from Interviewees?
[Insight]
The most important and also difficult part of owning an aquarium is maintaining proper water parameters. This is even more difficult when owning a saltwater tank.
-> Hobbyists need GUIDED tools that help with water maintenance and tracking.
[Insight]
One of the best ways for hobbyists to get informed answers is by asking aquarium-related professionals, however, most people will not travel to stores just to ask questions.
-> Incorporate a system where users can ask questions to verified professionals and rate their feedback.
[Insight]
It’s extremely common to see beginner hobbyists misguided by deceptive marketing practices both in-stores and online.
-> Aquarium setup guides would help beginners avoid complicated research and misinformed mistakes.
[Insight]
There aren’t any aquarium-specific apps that seem to be well-known or popular to the masses leading to people utilizing the internet for answers which can be generally misinformed.
-> An aquarium app that provides a general database of professionally verified information could decrease the need for people to rely on unverified sources online.
[Insight]
Professionals are used to seeing hobbyists make the wrong choices and feel that if they had better outreach they could help more people avoid mistakes.
-> Give further incentives for professionals to provide guidance to users through the Fishcious platform.
key opportunities
After the initial primary and secondary research, I was able to solidify the main opportunities in the market…
1] Misinformation or lack of education leads to unnecessary animal death.
2] Hobbyists want tools to make tracking aquarium health more efficient.
3] It’s hard to find consistent and convenient sources of verified information.
4] Professionals want to help others and grow their outreach.
I knew I could design an -education and maintenance tool- for aquarium hobbyists so that they would have access to the -professional answers- they need in minutes.
[02] deFINE
WHO ARE THE “fish lovers”?
I accumulated all user research into three personas to represent the key users. Then I broke it down into a chart of the primary goals/needs so I could make sure to hit all the most important issues for all three categories of users.
[User personas ]
[Experienced Hobbyists]
People with years of experience owning/setting up aquatic tanks
[Beginner Hobbyists]
People new to owning an aquarium
[Professionals]
People who work with aquariums professionally
HOW WILL USERS INTERACT WITH THE APP?
Primary User Goals/Needs
mapping it out
Fishcious is a complex platform with many features meaning being intuitive in creating the architecture was very important. I revised this architecture multiple times to adequately address all the user scenarios.
[Information Architecture & User Flows]
tHE sKELETON
In the initial wireframes, the five main navigation pages were explored. This framing was changed later as some features were found to be more seamless when placed under a different section.
[Wireframes]
[03] tEST & REFINE
Testing goals:
Extensive user testing was imperative for such a multi-featured platform
Ensure that the main goal of the app is properly addressed (helping users understand and find information about aquarium setup and maintenance) and that this goal is clear and thoroughly integrated with the entire platform.
Test the flow of pages - ensure easy navigation and confirm that users can find all main features.
Identify hang-ups in UI - find where users get stuck or where users wrongly click when trying to complete a task.
Inquire about the thematic elements- if the aquatic theme is consistent and apparent throughout.
Gather feedback for missing features, information, or visual elements.
What did I learn from tESTERS?
[Insight]
-> There needs to be a way to verify the professional profiles- suggestion: an application to become a professional user.
[Insight]
-> Rating system needs to be refined, and the on-boarding of the app needs development.
[Insight]
-> Beginner hobbyists may need excessively detailed guides in order to limit confusion, but this information needs to be easy to read and displayed in a way that is not overwhelming.
[Insight]
-> The search page was not intuitive enough for finding content- A thorough Discover page should be created.
What CHANGED?
The hierarchy was refined by changing the spacing and encircling titles with color blocks.
Contrast was increased by changing some secondary colors to make the words more readable.
Profile’s image grid was too similar to Instagram and I felt that rounded corners would make the images pop, I also wanted space to add titles for “guide” posts.
The rating bar was not intuitive, so I changed it to a line of 5 bubbles (instead of the familiar stars) and showed the individual's score at the top.
Tank setup guides were not intuitive enough in that users would benefit from videos being included. Therefore at the top, each guide would provide a video summarizing the information. Also, each step could be expanded upon by clicking the “?” if the user needed more detailed information.
A “discover” page was suggested to find new content and to expand the user’s reach to other users and professionals.
Many pages lacked refined UI, so I generally improved aesthetics where I felt they could be more appealing.
[Refinements Summary]
UPON refinement users expressed that the app had a -high-quality appearance- and due to the refined hierarchy was -easier to read and navigate.
[04] ui GUIDE
[05] Final pROTOTYPE
What makes FISHCIOUS unique?
Fischious is a one-of-a-kind platform that encompasses all the features aquarium hobbyists need to turn a complex hobby into a simpler one. Users of all levels can find features that will benefit them and lead to happier and healthier aquariums. Some of the unique features Fishcious provides are:
1] Interactive and verified informational guides that benefit all levels of users - especially beginners.
2] Innovative aquarium logging and maintenance tools
3] Professional and business outreach/guidance
[01] interactive guides
Fishcious provides an interactive step-by-step guide for users to learn how to properly set up any type of aquatic tank- especially beginners. Each guide provides videos summarizing the process, and extra information for each step through the “?” button for users that prefer more details. This setup tool is built-in to the app and is accessible for all levels of users.
[Aquarium Setup Guides]
Users can access professional profiles and send messages to get the help they need. Professionals can create guide posts and also send these posts to users if needed. Afterward, users can rate these professionals which helps users establish reliability and trust.
[Professional Help + Rating]
[02] maintenance tools
Aquarium logs provide users with a way to track their tank information all in one place and track the health over time. Each log includes guides for what the parameters mean + how to properly measure them - benefitting beginner and intermediate users who do not know all of the complexities of water chemistry. These logs are viewable by all users - if made public - meaning that users can send these logs to professionals much like a medical record so that professionals can better determine what the issues with the tank may be.
[Custom Aquarium Logs]
In the Fishcious toolbox all users can access dosage calculators which calculate the specific amount of additives that users will need for their size of tank. Many chemical bottles list a general dosage, but for more complex aquariums the measurements need to be extremely accurate due to the delicate chemistry. This tool benefits all levels of users, and dosages can be saved directly to aquarium logs.
[Dosage Calculators]
[03] professional outreach
All professional/business accounts are verified through proper application process ahead of time, therefore, the status is limited. Professional accounts are identifiable by the green circle around their profile image, and business accounts have a blue circle.
These accounts have access to all the same features as other users, but the additional features include:
Ability to create educational guide posts/videos - no personal advertising allowed in these posts.
Receive ratings from users.
For business pages only: the creation of an online store- sales posts for aquatic breeders/suppliers.
[Professional & Business Accounts]
[06] reflection
What i learned
As this was my first UIUX Design project, figuring out how to connect an extensive amount of features/wants/needs into a single entity that is a mobile app (all while learning a new program) was definitely challenging. However, I discovered through this project that UIUX design is much like piecing together a puzzle; having the most clarity of the big picture means the individual pieces start to fall into place much easier.
What i would do different
I would have focused further on the aquarium logs/guides to create a more detailed and beneficial UI. These features are the most important on the platform, and garnering more feedback on them through more testing is something I should have pursued. The business accounts were another portion of the app I felt was lacking. I did not spend much time to flesh out if these accounts would be desired by the general users, as online stores could distract from the main goal of the platform. Putting more time into developing the professional/business account dynamic and their integration with the general user’s goals would have elevated the app.
