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How might we improve public awareness and education about Laguna Beach’s tidepools so that visitors can better understand marine life and help preserve the coastal ecosystem?
For this project, my team and I are working with the Laguna Ocean Foundation to create an interactive educational website that teaches people about the tidepools at Laguna Beach. Our goal is to make it easy for visitors, students, and educators to learn about the marine species that live there, understand the importance of conservation, and follow proper tidepool etiquette.We followed an agile Scrum approach throughout the project, holding weekly sprint planning sessions to set clear goals, divide tasks, and track progress. This allowed us to stay flexible and responsive to stakeholder feedback, while continuously iterating on our designs. By using this structure, we ensured steady progress and alignment with the Foundation’s mission of raising awareness and protecting the coastal ecosystem.
Throughout the project, we met weekly with the Laguna Ocean Foundation team to present our progress and gather feedback. These meetings allowed us to understand their vision for the website, including key educational goals and content priorities. They provided valuable input on what information was most important to highlight, suggested improvements to our layouts and navigation, and helped ensure that the design aligned with their mission of conservation and public education. This ongoing collaboration guided our design decisions and kept the project aligned with their expectations.
View StakeholderAfter meeting with stakeholders and understanding their goals for the website, we began developing personas and scenarios to guide our next steps in the design process. These personas helped us represent the diverse types of users who might interact with the site—from families visiting the tidepools to educators looking for teaching resources. By creating detailed user scenarios and storyboards, we were able to better anticipate user needs, define key use cases, and ensure that our design decisions were grounded in real-world contexts.
As part of our design and development process, we created a comprehensive Software Design Document that outlines both the user experience and technical architecture of the website. This document includes an introduction to the project, a detailed statement of work, and key design artifacts such as use case diagrams, user stories, and user flow diagrams. It also covers the assumptions we made during the planning phase, descriptions of primary actors like website visitors, and diagrams illustrating the main user interactions—such as exploring tidepool locations, checking an interactive tide chart, and searching for specific marine species. Additionally, we included stretch goal features, like the ability for users to upload community posts or view badges on their profiles. The document concludes with UML class diagrams and a 3-tier architecture design, ensuring a clear structure for both front-end and back-end components. This resource served as a central guide for our team throughout the project, helping us align our UX goals with technical development.
View Software Design DocumentAfter defining our personas, scenarios, and user flows, we created low-fidelity prototype sketches to quickly explore layout ideas and core functionality. These hand-drawn wireframes helped us visualize the structure of key pages, such as the homepage, species information pages, and educational resources section. By keeping the sketches simple, we were able to gather early feedback from stakeholders and iterate on design concepts before moving into higher-fidelity mockups.
My team and I have crafted an interactive prototype that showcases our application's user journey, and it's now available for you to explore. Check out the live prototype linked below and navigate through the intuitive interfaces we've designed.
PrototypeWorking on this project with the Laguna Ocean Foundation was a valuable learning experience that deepened my understanding of both UX design and real-world collaboration. One of the most rewarding aspects was designing for a meaningful cause—creating a tool that not only informs users but also encourages environmental stewardship. Throughout the project, we practiced agile development, held regular stakeholder meetings, and iterated based on feedback, which taught me the importance of adaptability and clear communication.
From building low-fidelity prototypes to creating detailed use cases and database diagrams, I gained hands-on experience in balancing user needs with technical requirements. I also learned how to translate abstract goals into tangible design elements that are both functional and engaging. If given more time, I would further explore ways to increase interactivity and accessibility across devices. Overall, this project helped me grow as a designer and team member, and reinforced the impact thoughtful design can have on education and conservation efforts.