BoatingVic
Boaters gather their information they need to plan an outing on the water through a combination of online and offline sources that may be lacking in accuracy. Maritime Safety Victoria’s (MSV) required a mobile first, responsive solution to help boaters make safer decisions around the water to reduce the casualties.
How might we help boaters make safer decisions around the water?
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User Research Approach
Taking a lean, design thinking approach to user research, RXP conducted 6 rounds of design sprints to align to the agile cadence. The sessions consisted of qualitative, one-on-one sessions with a total of 34 participants who had recently been out boating (or paddling). With each round, the insights gathered along with of the following sprint’s prioritised stories informed a new iteration of the prototype to be tested.
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Synthesis: Mapping insights and opportunities
Applying Design Thinking we rapidly assess the business needs, tech constraints and insights from user research to determine what to create/iterate and how. Examples of activities include: documentation review, persona creation, story mapping, journey mapping, (co)synthesis and analysis from testing to inform the next iteration.
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Key insights presenting the biggest opportunities include:
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Participants currently tend to collate weather data from several sources and many did not consider those sources user friendly. Many of the boaters check the weather frequently, this presents an ongoing point of frustration for them.
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Ramp cameras to assess conditions and congestion was considered very desirable to help with decision making on the day.
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Most participants asked for a “one stop shop” to simplify their trip prep activities.
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Most participants typically launch from the same few ramps.
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Occasionally they explore unfamiliar ramps and struggle to find up to date facility/ramp information to help assess and plan trips.
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Informational needs differ when planning a trip to an unfamiliar ramp versus a familiar ramp.
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Most participants asked for a check-in check-out functionality in the app to increase their sense of safety when out on the water alone. This speaks to an awareness of risk and an openness to new safety habits.
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Most “Erics" don’t actively seek out educational content as they are confident around the water because of their years of experience.​
Ideate and Create
Carrying forward the key insights from the research and picking up the following sprints prioritised stories we then rapidly ideate as many ideas and iterations as possible before we prototype a few of the best options. Consider usability, inclusivity and accessibility of proposed designs. Examples of activities include: co-design, screen flow mapping & interview guide creation.
Exploring different states and scenarios
Test
Using clickable prototypes we evaluate its effectiveness by testing key assumptions early. Conducting research with a small number of people helps us learn quickly and cycle through this loop multiple times before creating final designs. Examples of activities include: user interviews, (A/B) concept testing, usability testing & surveys.
User Testing Rounds
Round 1 - Conducted six user interviews with predominantly boaters to gain an understanding of their context, thoughts, attitudes and current behaviours before, during and after their outings on the water to generate a draft journey map. The interview was followed by a usability test of the navigation of the proof of concept.
Round 2 - Conducted seven usability tests focussing on search functionality, search results pages (map/list), navigation and information hierarchy of the weather component, along with iterations of ramp congestion, waterway status and facility page.
Round 3 - Conducted five usability tests focussing on the weather component including; navigation, wind over-time graph, weather warnings, and inland/district weather. Iterations of search functionality, search results page (incl. toggle), facility page, ramp camera copy/timestamp and map on facility page were also tested.
Round 4 - Conducted six usability tests focussing on the survey/quick poll, navigation of the weather component (including local and district), weather warnings and iterations of search results (list), waterway status, ramp congestion, ramp camera copy/timestamp, and facility page.
Round 5 - Conducted six usability tests focussing on overall user impressions, A/B versions of registered flow, favouriting and unfavouriting a ramp flow, and iterations of weather (temp/wind graphs), education page (Tools and Guides) and quick poll.
Round 6 - Conducted four usability tests focussing on overall user impressions, favouriting and unfavouriting a ramp flow, sign up flow (pop-up), email notifications (pop-up) and iterations of quick poll, A/B versions of registered flow, favourite ramps list page, education page (Knowledge Hub).
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Usability testing at the Angler’s club
Overall Feedback
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The facility-related information exceeded participants’ expectations of a trip prep website.
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The navigation of the site was intuitive and the page layout simple.
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Key weather data (i.e. wind overtime, tidal data, weather forecast) for the ramp and its surroundings was considered the biggest selling point for boaters.
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Most participants liked the idea of registration because they want the experience to be efficient and tailored to their needs.
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The non-boating participants found the facility page content too detailed and the ability to explore launch points not tailored to their needs.
User Testing Notes
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UX Strategy
Given that the purpose of the site & app is to reduce casualties on the water, a focus has been placed on assessing what high value, critical content boaters need and want to support saver decision making. The ‘hook’ for our primary persona is to optimise their planning activities to familiar ramps (namely weather checking) to be more user friendly, accurate and detailed than their current solution. If this site and app can effectively support them during their routine preparatory activities then this presents an opportunity to capture their attention for otherwise rarely sought out educational content.
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Solution
Through the Blended Design Thinking, Lean Sartup and Agile methodologies, the outcome was a refined mobile first, responsive solution that simplifies all informational needs into a one-stop-shop to help boaters make safer decisions and support them during their routine preparatory activities to reduce the casualties on the water. The web site and mobile apps include, ramp and carpark vision, largest list of ramps and launching locations in Victoria, a new way to view comprehensive localised weather information (powered by the Bureau of Meteorology), facility and waterway information and especially safety advice, warnings and alerts to assist waterway users get home safely.
For the first time members of the public can see safety, weather data and information on over 550 ramps in the one spot. The information displayed includes images updated every 5 minutes (for some locations) , ramp congestion (the cameras can count boat launches) static images stored in an AWS repository, Bureau of Meteorology Weather data including forecasts for within 3 km of the ramp as well as ramp facility information stored in Salesforce and updated by local councils, Parks Victoria and other boat ramp managers.
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web site - www.boating.vic.gov.au
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Next Steps: Enhancement Considerations
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Facility email notifications with customisable preferences
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Push notifications
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Display Ocean Bar Cam visuals
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Colour coded sticky weather warning
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Forecasted waves and rainfall visually represented overtime on graph
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Knots to km/h toggle - some not familiar with knots and prefer kms
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Forecasted wind gust - visually represent gusts (i.e. +40%) overtime
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Advise user on boat sizes that are able to launch at ramp level
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Display interactive safety checklists for safety equipment and procedures