Smithsonian National Zoo
UX/UI Design · General Assembly Project
The Client:
A two-week General Assembly team project exploring how a mobile experience could improve the in-person visitor experience at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
Challenge:
Design a mobile application that could address common visitor pain points while complementing—not distracting from—the physical zoo experience.
Duration: 2 weeks
Tools: Google Forms · Sketch · InVision
The Team: Sheldon Mojica · Mary Sargent · Rahnuma Ahmad
My Role:
UX/UI Designer focused on usability, interface design, and translating research findings into product decisions.
Understanding the Experience
We began by visiting the Smithsonian National Zoo to experience the visitor journey firsthand. Walking the grounds allowed us to observe navigation challenges, evaluate signage and visitor resources, and identify friction points that could inform the direction of the mobile experience.
Zoo Visit Take Aways:
Unclear Signage:
Color-coded sections appeared throughout the zoo’s maps and signage, but the meaning of the color system was unclear, making it harder to orient ourselves within the park.
Poor Communication of Visitor Resources:
Printed maps were sold for $5 near the entrance, but their additional value—including coupons and a gift-shop discount—was not clearly communicated to visitors.
Difficulty Navigating:
Throughout the visit, we encountered moments where it was difficult to determine our current location or quickly find nearby amenities such as restrooms, food, and specific exhibits.
Understanding the User
After documenting pain points during our zoo visit, we shifted our focus to understanding the needs and expectations of potential visitors. We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to identify recurring problems and determine where a mobile experience could provide meaningful value.
Our Survey:
We surveyed 61 potential users to better understand their expectations for a digital zoo experience. 85% of respondents said an interactive navigation app would positively enhance their visit, reinforcing navigation as a key opportunity for the product.
Interviews:
We conducted 7 user interviews to explore visitor needs in greater depth. Participants identified navigation, accessibility, and aspects of the overall zoo atmosphere as recurring concerns, giving us additional context for determining which problems the app should address.
Creating Personas
We synthesized our research into personas representing the needs, behaviors, and priorities we observed across prospective zoo visitors. These personas helped keep the team focused on real user needs as we moved from research into product ideation and design.
Research Conclusions
Our research pointed to navigation as the primary opportunity for the mobile experience. We also identified value in helping visitors quickly discover exhibits and save them to a personalized trip plan.
These findings led us toward an experience centered on wayfinding, exhibit discovery, and trip planning—using the app to support the physical zoo visit rather than compete with it.
Design Ideation
With the research findings established, we began exploring ways the mobile experience could address navigation and trip-planning needs.
One early concept introduced a more game-like experience inspired by Pokémon Go. We ultimately moved away from that direction because we did not want the application to compete with the physical zoo experience or pull visitors’ attention away from the exhibits.
Instead, we focused the concept on supporting the visit itself—helping users navigate the zoo, discover exhibits, and plan where they wanted to go.
Design Studio
To explore potential solutions collaboratively, our team conducted a timed design studio in which each member independently sketched their interpretation of the experience.
We reviewed the concepts together, identified the strongest ideas and recurring patterns, and combined them into a shared design direction. This gave us a foundation for moving into higher-fidelity interface design.
High-Fidelity Mockups
Using the direction established during the design studio, we translated the core experience into high-fidelity mobile screens focused on the needs identified during research.
The interface centered on three primary functions: navigating the zoo, discovering exhibits, and planning a personalized visit. The goal was to make important information accessible quickly while keeping the application visually secondary to the physical zoo experience.
We developed the visual system and interaction patterns into a cohesive set of screens that could then be connected and evaluated as an interactive prototype.
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Interactive Prototype
We connected the high-fidelity screens into an interactive prototype in InVision, bringing the core experience together into a navigable mobile concept.
The prototype demonstrated how visitors could use the app to navigate the zoo, discover exhibits, and build a personalized trip plan, giving the team a more complete representation of how the experience could function during an actual zoo visit.
Project Takeaways
This project reinforced the importance of designing digital experiences around the context in which they will actually be used. Rather than creating an app that competed for visitors’ attention, we focused on using technology to reduce friction and support the physical zoo experience.
Working collaboratively through research, synthesis, ideation, and interface design also demonstrated how early user insights can shape product direction before moving into higher-fidelity execution.