UX/UI Design 2023 | The crowdsourced astronomy app, The Cosmic Blueprint, is a redesign of the popular website Galaxy Zoo. The Cosmic Blueprint has greater consideration for clarity, accessibility, and human motivation. It is important to design the app in such a way that the user is incentivized and motivated to identify as many photos as possible, as having the scientist do this process would take significantly more time.
The primary function of the app allows the user to contribute to scientific research by helping astronomers classify galaxies. The user can select a photo from a large grid of photos. The app takes them through the step-by-step process of identifying shapes, colors, light patterns, or different types of astronomical anomalies. Additionally, the app has patches you can collect for identifying a certain amount or certain types of images. This is an important feature that allows the developer to create incentive and motivation for the project.
ACCESSIBILITY IN DESIGN | There was special consideration put into designing around accessibility, as many volunteers of citizen science projects have some kind of disability or impairment. Black and white was chosen to increase the contrast of the elements of the app and to fit within the theme of space.
HUMAN MOTIVATION | Although people do have intrinsic motivation to perform tasks, citizen science projects benefit from having other motivational element incorporated into it in order to further invest people into the project. The Cosmic Blueprint has collectable patches that act as achievements. You earn them from completing a certain type or certain number of tasks.
WIREFRAMES | The initial wireframes were designed for a tablet in horizontal use, but was later changed for ease of use.
USER FLOW | Planning before the wireframe and design phase of app development which mainly focuses on functionality.
