It all began with a deteriorated day camp. A suburban Philadelphia community had a vision to transform a 20 acre landscape into an exciting new public park with a companion mobile app.
Technology Plus Green Space Equals Lions Pride
Lions Pride Park in Warrington, Pennsylvania wants to be a shining example of sustainability and technology. Among the Lions Club’s numerous goals is to improve the quality of life for people who are blind and visually impaired. The new park aims to provide excellent accessibility.
With funding from the Warrington Lions Club, local businesses, grants, and donations, every dollar needed to be allocated effectively. Before diving into a tech project, the client wanted to quickly determine if and how an app would provide value to visitors.
A Design Driven Development Plan
Lions Pride approached Chariot Solutions to create the park’s mobile app. The Chariot team recommended prototyping prior to writing the first line of code. A design-driven methodology is the most cost effective path. The team can test all options and eliminate less favorable attributes before the product is finished.
To understand the software design challenge, Chariot walked the land, and conducted interviews with park leaders and the community, making sure to include those who have accessibility issues. Insights about park features and pathways shaped the priorities of the app.
Chariot’s design team refined ideas to include those with the greatest impact, and then created wireframes and user flows to illustrate the vision. This design prototype greatly streamlines the development process. The interactive “blueprint” conveyed visuals, interactions, and app structure to the entire development team.
Sophisticated Solution; Down to Earth Result
Chariot’s design experts were able to rapidly transform insights into a comprehensive clickable prototype that could be field tested with potential park visitors. By building the prototype and testing it at the park with real users, Chariot showed the stakeholders how to improve the experience of the park visitors. Prototyping meant that work could be accomplished in a short time frame, without expensive app development.
Lions Pride Park is on its way to becoming an accessible, environmentally sensitive park with a sophisticated technology component.
Before writing a single line of code, Chariot’s design-based methodology validated that the mobile app would enhance the park and be intuitive for all of its visitors, regardless of ability. Prototyping validates user needs before expenditures on development.
