Empowering users with an accessible and user-friendly water testing app to provide clarity on the safety of their water
AquaPal
Overview
Aquapal is an at-home water quality testing app. It pairs with a device, and communicates with that device to provide reliable, trustworthy at-home water testing results.
User Research Team
Jenny Kim, Andrew Nakamura
Prototype Team
Solo
Duration
3 Months
Problem Discovery
During my summer 2022 internship, I collaborated with a company dedicated to using AI for detecting unsafe lead water pipes in city infrastructures. I learned that there is difficulty in testing safe water quality on an individual level, particularly in under-resourced and rural areas. Then over the summer, I had a new house mate who only drank bottled water even though our water had no signs of unsafe quality. I wondered-- Why is she so mistrustful of the tap water? Why does she not just test the tap water so she does not have to invest in so many bottles of water?
Desk Research
14%
The CDC suggests that 14% of Americans have unsafe water
70%
The American Water Works Association suggests that 70% of Americans are concerned about the safety of their water
90%
Aquasana suggests that 90% of Americans filter their water
Timeline Overview
User Interviews
We talked to 6 users to understand their feelings and experiences with water quality and testing to get a deeper understanding of their challenges and motivations so that we could figure out who we were designing for. The users we interviewed came from a variety of socioeconomic, geographical, racial, and age backgrounds.
Lack of proactive action regarding water quality, including information and instructions on how to test water
The primary water quality concern centers on specific contaminants originating from industrial sources.
The primary water quality concern centers on specific contaminants originating from industrial sources.
HMW Statement
How might we make users more likely to test their water to encourage them to proactively tackle the lack of information and guidance on water quality testing?
Design Implications of Findings
Now that we had talked to users, it was time to apply our findings to how we could design our app to meet users' needs to create a fulfilling user experience.
Address Specific Chemicals
contaminants like Arsenic, lead, and PFAS chemicals
Low learning curve
Easy readability and communication to users on what various chemicals mean and their consequences to health
Collaborate with Trusted institutions
Align our product's message with institutions or create a product that can be integrated into trusted insitutions
Shared database
Ability communicate to those around you and see how water quality around you is
Scenario
Next, we envisioned a scenario in which a user would be motivated to think about testing their water. We wanted to know what they might be feeling when looking for a solution.
Barbara is a working single mother who recently moved from NYC to give her child a quieter lifestyle in upstate New York. Recently, her good friend from her old job in NYC, called her up during her lunch break and told her about how he has been experiencing water quality issues in his home. Concerned that she should check her own water quality, the thought of her new home actually being dangerous for her young child floods her mind for the rest of the day until she finally gets home around 7:00pm, where her child is waiting for her. After wrapping up her household duties around 10:00pm and exhausted from her long day, she decides to see what options were available for her to test her water by herself.
User Personas
Based on the insight from our interviews, we created two personas to represent our typical user. In our interviews, we found that although participants felt actively concerned about their water, they did not actions to address their concerns, like testing their water. Visualizing our users as actualized, distinct personalities was helpful for us to understand the complex relationships people have to water quality issues in regard to their everyday lives.
Storyboarding
Now that we had our personas and were mindful of common needs of our users, we proceeded to create storyboards to see in what context our solution would be the most helpful to users.
Brainstorming!
Now that we had a good idea of what users we had in mind to design for, and felt passionate about helping Edna, Barbara, and Annie, it was time to start thinking of solutions. We each brainstormed 24 different solutions, mine are pictured above. We decided that we could help our users the best with an app.
User Flow
Next, we envisioned how the user would interact with our app.
Planning Phrase
Next, we envisioned how the user would interact with our app.
Lofi Prototype
Medium Fidelity Prototype
Onboarding
New test
History
Settings
Map
Final Design Prototype
Onboarding
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Personalized experience by allowing users to pin certain chemicals to their dashboard, aligning with their concerns about specific chemicals
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Search bar function that offers suggestions as users type
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Feedback to show that user has successfully pinned a chemical
"I need a convenient water test"
Conduct Water Test
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Flexibility to customize their view of chemical results, aligning with their concerns about specific chemicals
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Ability to monitor chemical levels over time and access trusted resources such as academic papers and government sources for further information, aligning with their preference for official institutions in water quality testing.
"Something seems off with the color of my water... I want to test it."
Pin Specific Chemicals to Dashboard
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Personalized experience by allowing users to pin certain chemicals to their dashboard, aligning with their concerns about specific chemicals
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Search bar function that offers suggestions as users type
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Feedback to show that user has successfully pinned a chemical
"I am especially concerned about Nitrate.. I just read an article discussing how it can cause cancer and skin lesions!"
View More Information on a Certain Chemical
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Personalized experience by allowing users to pin certain chemicals to their dashboard, aligning with their concerns about specific chemicals
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Search bar function that offers suggestions as users type
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Feedback to show that user has successfully pinned a chemical
"I want more information on a specific chemical..."
Future Steps & Reflection
Our next steps are to continue testing our prototype by conducting more usability testing. Specifically the tasks I am interested in seeing users interact with is conducting the test from the homescreen, as I am not sure how obvious and convenient it will be to users that they need to conduct the test from the home screen.
Another thing that would be helpful to see is how users interact with AquaPal on a long term timeline. For example, are there any functions that are unecessary, or that should have more indepth detail. For example, maybe users will not look at their recent scores more often.
For data colleciton & presentation, next steps would include refining the scoring system to accurately represent what each number means for a water score. In addition, certain chemicals having higher or lower levels than average may be more concerning than others.
Another step would include refining the UI. My interface is alright, but it could be improved.
