SealSpotter
Role: Product Designer and Project Manager
SealSpotter is a mobile application developed for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) in Laguna Beach, CA. When the PMMC releases a rehabilitated, tagged seal back into the wild, researchers often lose the ability to monitor the animal’s progress over its lifetime. SealSpotter addresses this challenge by enabling users to crowdsource images of pinnipeds and submit short survey forms about the animals’ condition. User-submitted images and reports are sent to an AWS database, where PMMC researchers can efficiently manage and track pinniped sightings in the region.
Design Process
Our initial steps in designing SealSpotter involved holding weekly meetings with our sponsor to develop a comprehensive requirements document. We also collaborated with the PMMC's veterinarian and researchers during these meetings to better understand their needs for the application. Once the requirements were finalized, we created detailed storyboards, scenarios, and personas to represent all potential user groups. Following this, we designed transition networks and developed mockups using Figma.
Researcher Persona
Storyboards
Generalized transition networks
mockups
Given that our platform involves users crowd-sourcing pinniped images for researchers and provides a separate interface for researchers and administrators, our team decided to design a streamlined and intuitive UI for researchers to manage (add, delete, and edit) pinniped records in the database. Simultaneously, we developed a more engaging and visually appealing interface tailored to the users contributing to the crowd-sourcing efforts.
Front End
Our mobile app consists of five main pages, with the camera serving as the central feature. This page allows users to photograph seals spotted in the wild and submit detailed reports directly to our database. Additionally, users can access valuable information about pinniped species, including species-specific details, and find resources about local wildlife care facilities for use in emergencies.
Back End
We created a dashboard for the PMMC team to manage and keep track of all pinniped patients.
Once the app was complete, our app underwent testing by a team at the PMMC. The app is compatible with both Apple and Android mobile devices.
