CASE STUDY | केस स्टडी
2026 | 10 WEEKS
Bringing the magic of National Parks to urban populations
The National Park Service (NPS) manages over 85 million acres of protected land across the United States. However, due to rising travel costs, communities find it difficult to visit National Parks. We created an extension in the NPS ecosystem called Canopy, which provides immersive audio visual experiences in Urban Spaces, bringing the National Parks closer to home.
45%
Increase in interest towards the National Park Service
<2 min
Core task completion times
86.5
Base average system usability score
CONTEXT | संधर्ब
People love the National Parks, but haven't visited in 2+ years
From our initial sentiment analysis, we found that people associated positive memories with National Park visits. But their last visit was never recent, and didn't keep up with the developments at the National Parks they visited.
There's inertia to plan and execute a trip to a National Park
Survey and interview results also showed us that a major inhibitor for visiting a National Park is the amount of effort taken to visit one - it's not something you can decide on a whim.
A trip to a National Park is a big commitment
Travel came out to be the biggest inhibitor for a trip, alongside the time commitment and seasonal changes.
There are many moving parts to get right
Essential activities such as finding the right gear, the best places to stay, and finding the best activities to do are not streamlined.
Popular Parks have more income, allocated budgets and resources
A National Park is heavily dependent on visitors to earn its revenue, as well as get higher funding from National Park Service (NPS). We also observed that popular parks have better integration on digital platforms, such as the NPS app.
CONCEPT | संकल्पना
We visited a Park to understand what experiences people remember
In our field trip, we wanted to understand what sensory inputs did people take away the most with them, as well as what experiences can be recreated in an urban setting.
There were existing digital resources from NPS we could build on
We also found that there's an NPS app, which shows information about various National Parks. After a brief evaluation of the app, we found that there were some underlying issues in the app that we needed to fix before we could go ahead and integrate new features.
We developed 6 concepts to recreate the National Park experience
These concepts were created from a series of brainwriting and brainstorming events internally after collecting all the primary and secondary research data.
DESIGN PROCESS | डिझाइनची प्रक्रिया
I began with getting some quick wins on the existing app
As a design system lead, I evaluated the existing system components and improved them to be future-proof as well as compliant with the new features we were adding in the app.
We created Canopy, bringing the magic of National Parks to you
Canopy is a brand extension of the National Park Service, specifically focusing on urban experiences with the help of technology.
USER TESTING | यूज़र टेस्टिंग
I created user testing scripts that recreated the Canopy experience
As a primary research lead, I structured the test into three phases: booking the experience via the NPS app, visiting the Canopy, and reviewing your experience on the app.
Booking a Canopy
Experiencing Canopy
After Visit
The test results came out promising, but there was still work to be done
With a strong System Usability Score and a quick completion time, we had achieved a good baseline. However, upon closer inspection, we found that there were inconsistencies in our designed experience.
FINAL DESIGNS | अंतिम डिज़ाइन
We went back to the drawing board (literally), reimagining the experience
We brainstormed ways in which the experience can be made even more seamless and produce more consistent results across all the tests. From this exercise, we found that there needed to be fundamental structuring changes.
I updated the entire design system to eliminate friction in usage
Since the design needed a complete overhaul, I remade the design system to showcase transparency and predictability by providing additional context in areas where it lacked the most.
Easily book a session in the updated NPS app
Easily book a session from the NPS app - select a mode and the exact activities inside, alongside accessibility settings.
Be immersed inside the Canopy pods
Displays inside the Canopy are interactive, and subtly prompt to engaging experiences as well as educate users about National Parks.
Relive your memories with Canopy's recap
The next time you open the NPS app, you will be greeted with memories that you made inside the Canopy.
REFLECTION | चिंतन
Test quick, fail quicker, iterate the quickest
Having access to individuals who had direct experience in this space helped us a lot throughout the process, right from validating our concepts to testing our designs. This allowed us to be more confident in our design decisions and create a product grounded in reality.
Teamwork really does make the dreamwork
This project really wouldn't have been possible without the help of my team's diverse skillsets, right from graphic design and branding to industrial design.
