Nature’s Healing Prescription:

Designing the PaRx App to Empower Users to Connect with Nature

Please note, this case study is a student project and is not associated with PaRx.

Project Overview

The Big Picture

The Context

“PaRx” is a nature prescription program that encourages healthcare professionals to prescribe nature time to patients as an evidence-based tool to improve their health. My interest in designing a PaRx app stemmed from my belief that this grassroots-driven initiative has the potential to positively influence many people’s health and wellbeing.

UX design | mobile app design | student project
Solo project – I completed all the work shown
12 weeks

PaRx Current Website Home Page — Sccreenshot of PaRx Website

The Problem

Although the PaRx website provides helpful resources, the program could potentially achieve greater impact and success if it offered more easily accessible and in-the-moment resources and support for individuals looking to achieve their nature goals.

How might we provide a practical, accessible solution to empower and support people with achieving their goal of connecting to better health through nature?

The Solution

The PaRx app is designed to equip users with the tools and support they need to achieve their nature connection goals. With a personalized, direct-to-consumer approach, the app facilitates improved access to both nature and the PaRx program, and empowers users to take control of their health and wellbeing by creating their own nature prescriptions.

Design Process

The Story Behind the Solution

I followed a double diamond process to provide a framework and structure for the development of the app design.

Image Adapted from Joás Azevedo

I. Discover

Empathizing and Understanding

I took a qualitative approach to my research because I wanted to look for patterns in the data that would guide my design. Considering my methods, I wanted to understand the perspectives of the stakeholder, potential app users, and current PaRx users, and compare to other nature prescription programs. I therefore completed the following:

Stakeholder Interview with the PaRx Program Coordinator via email.
User Interviews with five potential users of the app, ranging in age from 30-65, conducted online and in person.
Secondary Research including other national park prescription programs and news articles featuring interviews with people who have received a PaRx prescription.

Looking for Patterns

Applying affinity mapping and dot prioritization (as shown for my user interviews), I evaluated the data to start identifying patterns and common themes that connected ideas.

II. Define

Getting to the Root of the Problem: Key Insights

From my affinity maps, I determined three key insights that guided a holistic design:

Direct to Consumer Model is Called For

Most people I interviewed had never talked to their healthcare providers about time in nature but were interested in nature for their health, therefore I determined that a self-prescribed prescription option would allow immediate access.
This is similar to Park Rx America’s approach and has the added benefit of growing awareness of the nature-health movement.

Time and Life Commitments are the Biggest Barrier

According to all interviewees, the primary obstacle preventing them from spending more time with nature was the challenge of finding time in their schedules.
I decided that to help users stick to their goal, the app should include a calendar page for planning purposes and tips for easy-to-implement lifestyle changes.

Increased Access to Nature is Needed in Different Forms

There was a general theme of needing improved accessibility to overcome various barriers such as mobility and location.
I decided to include an “inspiration” page with a personalized quiz to offer customized suggestions, and concluded that tips/suggestions throughout the app needed to be diverse and inclusive.

Mapping Out a Solution

Applying my key insights from my research, I created a site map of the app, which I iterated on throughout the design process to finalize the overall content and structure of the app.

Creating a Prescription from Start to Finish

I chose creating a prescription as the primary task to focus on, as this would be a core feature of the app and a unique change to the existing PaRx program. For this task, I made an accompanying user flow to determine the steps involved and needed screens.

III. Develop

Wireframing the User Flow

With my user flow mapped out, I started creating initial wireframes, focusing on the process, flow, and overall experience of a user creating a prescription on the app.

Usability Testing & Revamping the Lo-Fi Design

After building a lo-fi prototype, I conducted usability testing with five potential app users to evaluate the app and gather feedback. I then iterated on the lo-fi design to improve the user experience by focusing on the following learnings from testing: “show, don’t tell”, clearly differentiate prescription types, and offer suggestions to users.

Bringing the Design to Life

To build on my vision for the app, I developed a hi-fi prototype to communicate the overall aesthetic and user experience while integrating a PaRx brand redesign into the app.

IV. DELIVER

Moving Forward with Next Steps

This was my first solo project and I didn’t develop as much of the app as I was expecting to in the 12 weeks, but I did prioritize a thorough process with an iterative approach.

Therefore, my next steps for this project would focus on the “Deliver” phase, including:

Usability testing the Hi-Fi prototype to continue to iterate on the design.
Building additional user flows, and the corresponding lo-fi wireframes and prototypes.

In Conclusion

Reflecting on Lessons Learned

Reflecting on this project, I gained valuable insights that I intend to apply to my future work.

Working alone necessitates reaching out for feedback more regularly.
When you’re stuck, return to the problem, the research, and the outcome you want to achieve.
It’s challenging to balance competing priorities – engaging users while also helping them to “unplug”.