Build Natural

Building sustainability App for iOS and Android

Background

The concept came from my own experience and the lack of available suitable resources to learn how to build and construct a natural building; made from sustainable materials, constructed with ancestral techniques. The research for the project involves first hand interviews with people that work in this field and their explained trajectory to get there.

How might we eliminate the gap for learning natural building?

Problem.

There is a lack of available in-person learning centers and schools that focus on the principles of natural building education.

Solution.

Explore the idea of creating a one stop site for educational resources and an open communication platform for students, teachers and enthusiasts alike

Discover. Design. Validate

Step 1. Research

Secondary research based on competitive analysis and primary research interviews to develop personas, affinity and empathy mapping, while considering how we might solve questions.

Personas, How were they created?

Screener surveys
User interviews
Affinity mapping
Empathy mapping
How might we questions

Persona 1_Lucas_The environmentalist.jpg

User interviews were obtained.

Some of the following questions answered for developing Build Natural:

What challenges did you face when wanting to make natural building your career?

How long did it take you to learn how to build an entire household with your own skills?

Did you learn from a natural building school that covers the principles of construction from beginning to end?

Other demographic results:

• Age of users 25-65

• Experienced and working in the field of natural building

• Very active members of this community with interest in sharing knowledge

Objective

The purpose of this project is to encompass all of the necessary information offered world wide and locally, to serve as a single resource site for everything natural building related.

User Stories, Flows and MVP

Were also part of the research methods and provide a more in detail view of prospective users.

User stories helped develop red route flows. The most transited routes of a site or application.
A minimum viable product would end up becoming a result of the most areas traveled and the best way to test the crucial aspects of a roughly developed idea. Thus, allowing the client to trial their concept for efficiency before investing all of their capital.

From discovery came design. Empathy maps are a resonance of personas.

Userflows

Allowed to have a better view of the potential and variable red routes a user can take.

Sitemap

was created to envision the information arquitecture for the paper testing.

Sketches.

Some of these were used for guerrilla testing and to obtain initial usability results

Guerrilla Testing.

The route chosen for testing was done in paper form with the guerilla usability method. The location was in Pacifica, Ca. and performed at home during COVID-19 times.

Findings.

During discovery, the primary areas of confusion were in the mentorship filtering screen.

An unexpected discovery was the suggestion of including a search bar.

Wireframes

Are a direct development of the results obtained from the guerrilla paper testing.

Steps taken after to obtain design direction.

Guerrilla testing
Mood Board
Style guide
Usability Testing
Wireframes

Moodboard

Visual Inspiration

I wanted for the images to represent a feeling more so that to convey a message. The purpose was to create an emotion, a sense of wanting of this environment. Admiration and awe. The reason behind is to bring back people to the beginnings of how we built homes before, in a sustainable manner.

Brand Personality

The personality of the concept is rustic. Real love in terms of helping each other worldwide to live differently. To leave a lesser footprint in this world and to rely less on the system. The tone is to build with our hands and with what earth provides.

Brand Attributes

Ingenious, Resourceful, Dynamic, Loving, Caring

Styleguide: Influenced the high fidelity design.

High Fidelity.

The 3 main questions asked for iteration

1. Find a school Scenario: This is your first time on this site and you want to locate a school that will teach you how to build with cob or superadobe material.

2. Get details about cob material. Scenario: The school is found but once on the page you decide you want to get more details about building with cob. You don’t know exactly what it is or what it consists of.

3. Find a mentor. Scenario:You have a notion of what natural building is but you cannot find the right school or you don’t have the finances, so it is decided to see if you can find someone to teach you. Someone specifically that would show you the ropes. How would you find out about options?

Findings

Make sure all pages have a functional sidesheet (critical)
Workshop subpage to be moved to correct parent page (critical)
Drop down from the side sheet should be functional (major)