Green Mountain Digital: Getting Out Into The Field
The ChallengeGMD wanted to know how active birders were using their Audubon Birds application out in the field - literally. Specific information we wanted to research and observe was how individuals and groups captured data about birds during "bird counts" for the Audubon Society and if and how the Audubon Birds application could support that process. We also wanted to gather insights about how users interacted with the application while they were actively in "birding" mode and uncover any differences between uses of the application in a "group" mode as opposed to individual.
Currently Audubon Guides for Birds had a few components - Life Lists, My Sightings and Albums already in the application. We wanted to see if these particular components could be used for the bird count activities. |
The Process & ResultWe contacted a local birding group that met monthly to do bird "counts" - identification walks in a specific wildlife viewing area in order to submit their tally to the local Audubon society chapter. Accompanying the group on their walk, we observed how they recorded their findings, asked questions about their process, and saw how they interacted with the Audubon Bird application. Further investigation revealed insights to their impressions of the Audubon Bird application compared to other applicatons in the market.
Observation and analysis of the walk along with consultation with a birding expert revealed specific needs bird counting volunteers needed in order to be able to quickly gather and compare information for count submission. We determined these needs to be a discrete set that differed widely from the current base functionality of the Audubon Birds application. As a result of our study, we investigated the possibility of creating a separate application for bird count instead of trying to incorporate one directly into the current application |