Journey Through Nature
Connecting urban families with the outdoors
Children growing up in cities are increasingly disconnected from nature - a trend researchers link to rising anxiety, lower well-being, and what's called biophobia: the progression from unfamiliarity with nature into active avoidance of it. For my solo capstone project at Pratt Institute, I designed a two-part product system to address this: a physical activity book for kids and a companion mobile app for parents. The goal was to make outdoor exploration in urban parks feel accessible, safe, and genuinely fun for both.
LEARNING & REFLECTION
Hard to reach users require early planning - Testing with children is logistically difficult. I got real parent data, but direct child testing was limited. In a real product context, I'd build user access pipelines before the design phase starts, not during.
My own assumptions about behaviour were wrong - I assumed parents would prioritize information density. They actually wanted control and simplicity. The homepage redesign came directly from dropping that assumption and watching how people actually navigated.
Empathy doesnt substitute for lived experience - I thought I understood accessibility needs going in. Itai's feedback proved I didn't — not because I lacked empathy, but because I hadn't spent time with someone navigating a product under those actual conditions. That gap is only closed through direct exposure, not research alone.