Turning Live Streaming into the New Zoo Experience — a UX Case Study
Emily Malcom, UX Design Student
My Problem
The term ‘Animal Rights’ refers to an umbrella of issues, a larger one being the mistreatment of Wildlife. Diving into this, I found many issues falling under this category have a similar foundation — they stem from the fact people want to be close to animals. Places like Zoos and other entertainment-focused facilities that encourage people to view wildlife up close, come at the cost of the animals’ livelihood.
How do users experience viewing wildlife in a way that doesn’t harm animals, while also being more inclined to donate to organizations that actually care about wildlife?
My plan was to create a rapid prototype for a solution to this problem within a 7 day period.
My Goals
- Discourage users from visiting Zoos and entertainment-focused facilities by designing a live-stream and digital adoption platform so users can view wildlife in non-harmful ways.
- Create a personalized experience where users are incentivized to donate to Animal Rights organizations and support charities that help preserve wildlife.
My Role
I was the sole UX Designer on this project. I conducted research, created initial designs, and built the the first clickable wireframe.
My Process
My process was condensed into four main stages. I conducted Research through user interviews, both in person and over Zoom video call. Then, I synthesized my findings into defining patterns. After, I started to sketch my initial designs and conduct small usability tests. And lastly, I created a clickable prototype.
My Research
I started off with conducting user interviews to get a better understanding of general opinions of Animal Rights organizations and wildlife, what could better incentivize people to donate to helpful organizations, and what they enjoy most about viewing animals.
Because of the 7day timeline I was given, I sought out family and friends for interviews and testing. I wanted to include a variety of ages and a mix of male/female users, since I was unsure in the beginning who my target audience would be.
I conducted 5 in person interviews with my immediate family members and 5 Zoom video interviews. Below are a few of the interview questions that provided the most information-rich answers:
- What is your understanding of Animal Rights?
- How did you learn about Animal Rights?
- Do you enjoy wildlife? Why?
- Do you enjoy seeing wild animals in person or on TV? Why?
- What is your opinion on Zoos or entertainment-focused animal facilities?
- What do you know about animal captivity?
- What are some Animals’ Rights charities or organizations that you know of? What is your opinion on them?
- Have you donated to them in the past? Why?
- Tell me about a time you had a positive experience at a Zoo or entertainment-focused animal facility.
- Tell me about a time you had a negative experience at a Zoo or entertainment-focused animal facility.
- What could get you more interested in Animals’ Rights more than you are currently?
Some quotes from the interviews included:
“It’s innate to find animals fascinating”
“Last time I went I left early because all the animals looked sick”
“I think Zoos like to act like what they do is for research, but that’s clearly not the case”
“I mostly learn about them from all the Planet Earth documentaries… those are sick”
“I don’t know anything…. I don’t donate and I don’t spread awareness”
“I would donate if I understood more about what some of the organizations actually do”
So, what does this mean? People generally respect animals and understand the value of them remaining in their natural habitat, but also love observing and learning about them by being close to them. Nine out of the ten participants noted an Animal Rights issue they are aware of is the advocacy for the non-mistreatment of all animals, and those same participants agreed with that view.
I also found that a majority of the participants believed that Zoos and entertainment-focused facilities were “unnatural” and might create hostile environments for animals, yet had been to one within the last decade (many within the past three years). The reason for this being that “it’s not everyday you can get close to a pack of lions!”
A National Geographic article from 2019 states that that an Animal Rights organization
“flagged hundreds of zoos affiliated with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) for mistreating animals, including making big cats perform in gladiator-style shows, elephants play basketball, and diapered chimpanzees ride scooters” (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/08/waza-zoos-accused-of-mistreating-animals-wap-report/#close).
Another organization states
“Animals in zoos are forced to live in artificial, stressful, and downright boring conditions. Removed from their natural habitats and social structures, they are confined to small, restrictive environments… While zoos claim to provide conservation, education, and entertainment, their primary goal is to sustain public support in order to increase profits” (https://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/animals-inentertainment/zoos#:~:text=Animals%20in%20zoos%20are%20forced,of%20mental%20and%20physical%20stimulation).
Something shocking that I found in my user interviews was that while all participants have visited a Zoo within the last decade, many of them thought viewing wild animals was more entertaining on TV or Social Media. The most common reason why? The viewer can see animals in their habitat behaving in a more natural way and can usually get a closer perspective on the animals, along with more fascinating information.
In addition to my user interviews and secondary research, I went through some competitive analysis of different Animal Rights organizations and their current mobile presence. I found that many of these prominent orgs did not have a modern mobile application with additional features, other than PETA. I also didn’t come across any other live-streaming or video applications that are focused on viewing animals and wildlife. Ultimately, I concluded that the biggest potential competitor would be social media. Many of my interview participants stated their main form of Animal Rights information is from sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit (this includes animal-related video content and news).
My Designs
After analyzing my user interviews and completing secondary research, I began drafting some early user flows and sketches of what the application could potentially look like.
After drafting some design ideas, I moved into the paper prototype.
After user testing the paper prototype, I made some changes in the design and elements I wanted to include within the application.
After going back and forth on the menu bar, I found that users thought the expandable, hamburger style option was a bit confusing and were waiting to inspect the features as a result. In my original sketches, I included a “video” feature that would allow users to see previous content posted by organizations, but many found it clashed with the purpose of the “live streaming” feature. Additionally, the guest login proved to be counter-productive. My goal with only providing “sign up” and “returning user” options is that more users will join and potentially revisit the app in the future.
Balsamiq Prototype
After user testing my paper prototype, I moved to Balsamiq to create the first clickable wireframe for NooZoo.
https://balsamiq.cloud/snnjhu/pngkr9i
Here is a breakdown of some of the reasons I landed on the 5 main features listed in the menu from my research —
So… Now What?
After everything I learned through my research, designs, and user testing, I came up with other directions I could potentially take NooZoo.
I could home in on the social media aspect and build out options to follow Animal Rights orgs/charities, allow users to follow friends, share news updates personalized to their interests, and create more shareable features around the video content.
Another direction would be to target NooZoo to children. I found that many people visit Zoos as a family-bonding activity; they’re entertaining their kids or baby cousins for the weekend. This might speak more to what I can do with the visual design, but I could also add features like online games or real-time interactions with the animals.
While this project focused on rapid prototyping within a 7 day period, there’s a lot of room to repeat design and user testing for building a stronger prototype and specify my goal in terms of the final product.
Oh, the places NooZoo can go!
