sprint 8

Research goals from sprint 6

This research was conducted with a mix of participants living in rural and urban areas of Northern Ireland.

We focussed on testing our changes to the forecast, including:

  • how the Northern Ireland participants managed the search function
  • Today, Tomorrow and Outlook tabs
  • only displaying the health advice for the highest reading
  • Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI) without numbers
  • the changed position of the pollutant summaries and click-through links

We also tested how the tabulated monitoring stations were viewed and understood.

Research findings

What worked well

In this round of research, we found:

  • all the participants managed to find the location they wanted to search for in Northern Ireland
  • the new style DAQI scale was understood well
  • participants all understood the dual forecast
  • the messaging in the prototype is understood
  • participants are making the connection between poor air quality and at risk individuals

What needs work

This prototype tested very well and there weren’t any major failings. However, we need to do some more ideation around:

  • how to engage participants around the localised measurements
  • how we can use historical data to help engage and improve the air quality messaging
  • can we introduce other features, such as seasonal air quality information

What we focused on in sprint seven

As a team we agreed the main points to focus on were:

  • displaying charts with the past 24 hours of pollutant data from the nearest automatic urban and rural network (AURN) station
  • only showing the nearest monitoring area with links to others nearby

Displaying a chart with the past 24 hours of pollutant data

We wanted to start displaying the data from the nearest AURN station over a 24 hour period. This could help give context to the pollutants and potentially help participants think about what may be causing them to rise or fall and therefore engage more with the concept of air quality. The design was adapted from the charts that are used to illustrate river levels in the Check for flooding service on gov.uk.

Underneath each chart is a link to ‘View levels over a longer period’. Whilst the link was dormant, the intention is to allow users to explore pollutant data over longer periods and within this round of research to explore user needs around this.

Chart illustrating pollutant levels over a 24 hour period

Only showing the nearest monitoring area

As the charts for each station could potentially increase the bandwidth of each page and effect mobile optimisation, we decided only to display charts for the nearest station. Underneath the nearest station is a panel allowing users to explore other nearby stations.

Chart illustrating pollutant levels over a 24 hour period