Singapore Views

Singapore Views is proprietary geospatial visualization software developed in-house at FCL.

Because it was designed for experts by experts, the app functionality was more complex than needed for my purpose - an iPad exhibition app for laypeople.

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ArcGIS CityEngine

CityEngine is a Geographic Information Systems tool that allows researchers to rapidly generate & view urban models in a 3D environment.

The many options intimidate & overwhelm the first-time user.

One of the challenges I faced was how to present the different types of research data visualizations. There were more than 10 datasets that were visualized in a wide range of formats, from 2D (vector, raster) to 3D (point cloud, building model...) to various media (image, video, text...)

A non-exhaustive list of datasets generated by the researchers:

I classified them into 6 general categories; which greatly simplified how I would present them in the UI.

By categorizing them this way, the user simply needs to switch between 2D, 3D & AR modes rather than navigate a convoluted list of datasets.
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Exhibition visitors have the following characteristics

• Transient
  They come and go, have short attention spans,
  generally don't stay more than 5-10 minutes
• Layperson
  Other than educators & researchers,
  I assumed the user possessed zero knowledge about tools like GIS
• First Time User
  One can assume that all users are first time users given this is a one-time exhibition

The profile of an average exhibition visitor necessitates the development of an intuitive, user-friendly navigation system that users can pick up immediately.

“Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on- demand”

When I was conceptualizing the app navigation, I thought it made sense to reference Shneiderman's Visual Information-Seeking Mantra for designing visualization systems.

1. Overview First: 

2. Zoom and Filter

3. Details on Demand
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Too granular for layperson

However, I realized that this might not be the most suitable ordering principle for my use case. For an app that users will use for 5 min at most, I wanted to eliminate any semblance of a learning curve.

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Wireframing

I tried several versions of the UI, all of which centre around a few principles

• Let the map vizualization take centre stage, viz takes precedence over all else
• UI elements should not cover more than 30% of iPad
• UI elements sufficiently large enough (140px) to be easy to press
• As far as possible, let user show/hide UI but avoid complicated filter mechanisms

Given the profile of the exhibition visitor, I made sure users were handheld through every possible action

Guiding Texts & Instructions

User is treated like a complete beginner. All screens have large instructions & tutorial texts guiding the user exactly what to do.

Styling

Kept to the existing visual identity of FCL; black/white solid colors

Visuals kept clean & simple, flat textures.

UI designed to be undistracting so that the visualizations stand out.

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Icons & Glyphs Always Labelled

Nowadays, icon labels are rarely used as users are expected to learn & recognize what the icon does.

I made sure textual labels accompanied most icons or symbols

I was generally satisfied with the design of the app. Although it was meant to be 'simple', it was actually not that straightforward since I was used to complicated interfaces & had to unlearn my assumptions, think from a beginner's perspective

Unfortunately, due to the short timeline & other commitments, only a basic version with limited functionality was developed in the end.

People generally responded well. Ideally I would have liked to sit at the booth to observe and survey people.