Naturely

Our app is designed to help people with accessibility issues navigate national parks using various features from a starter pack for national parks to trail information.

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Inspiration

When thinking of adventure, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the great outdoors. We believe that being able to freely enjoy some of nature's most beautiful landmarks is a human right. When looking into the market for outdoor apps catered towards people with disabilities and health conditions, we were unsuccessful. In order to solve this problem we decided to create Naturely, an inclusive app that helps people with disabilities navigate through National Parks so that they can enjoy nature's beauty worry-free.

What it does

Naturely has many features which are catered to people with disabilities. One of our main features is an updated hazard map which people with the app are able to view which trails are safer than others. Users are able to put pins on the map to let others in the area know about wildlife sightings, obstructions on trails, crowds, and dangerous terrain. We also have tags on cards about national parks so that people with disabilities can see in advance what a national park might have for them or things to avoid while there. The ratings are also accessibility focused, rated by people with disabilities so that they are authentic ratings of an overall experience towards a focus group. Lastly, we also have a user profile that contains all typical information, but there is also a section to add conditions or disabilities that may impact users’ specific decisions when it comes to going to national parks.

How we built it

We prototyped the application using Figma. Before the prototyping stage, we spent some time doing research on current apps which are catered to people with disabilities. We combined that research with user-friendly designs to create a cohesive app.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges we faced was that not many people have access to wifi while hiking. In order to bypass this, users are able to download park passes, trail maps, and safety tips to their phones.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Some of the accomplishments that we are proud of our creating professional UI and developing an app that is very detailed in terms of accessibility. We were able to create a pretty interface with cool animations that make out app more interactive and professional.

What we learned

As we worked on Naturely, we learned some new design tricks in Figma, but we also had the first-time experience of building an app for a user base that we ourselves were not a part of. We had to focus on people with disabilities or mobility issues, and we did plenty of research to understand what this community might need us to focus on as developers. Overall, I think our app was full of detail, and our team was very adaptable as we learned new information for the community we designed for.

What's next for Naturely

Some of the features that we can include in the future is a donation tracker. The more parks an individual explores, the more points he generates and each point has a certain amount of money accumulated. All of that money will go to national parks in order to help preserve them for a long period of time. Another feature is notifications. Before the user leaves for the park, he starts getting notifications about what to pack, what maps and resources to down; load beforehand, what kind of clothes to wear, and what items of food to pack too.

Built With

  • figma
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