Access Your Life.
Do you or someone in your life currently utilize handicapped accessible parking? Whether that be permanently, interim of an injury, or even something not used at all times? I do. In travel I find myself often looking for parking that is accessible and many times, in downtown areas or smaller buildings it is difficult to find this type of parking. When in travel I have thought about how nice it would be to be able to know the accessibility available to the full extent, as many sites only will show that they have handicapped accessible qualities in their business not specific factors of such. When tasked with creating a citizen science project for my design course for my bachelor's degree I felt like this topic could not have fit better.
The Concept
Access Tracker is an application that will track the accessible parking, buildings, and spaces available to handicapped, disabled, and/or anyone else utilizing spaces such as these. This data is collected via user submissions and will continuously create a map based on verified submissions to aid in this. The data will aid many users in finding accessible parking and areas in order to find the proper accessibility with much less of the hassle. This data will also help show which areas are lacking, there for needing more spots such as these added.
The Process
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A great way to be able to understand the flow of an application while in progress is designing a wire frame. This is important because it can show you pathways that the user will potentially use and how many steps are needed to get there. For this app, it was important for the parking spot details, submissions and profile features to be prominent and this is reflected in the wireframe.
In the process of creating Access Tracker, I also made a design system to correlate with the application and to create a conglomeration of what makes this app its own.
Taking this application and breaking it down into processes such as the design system helped me be able to see what made sense in my ideas, what was missing or was needing more, and what things that make this idea stand out. Originally, I had a more organic and green toned color scheme for the app and after some feedback and overall preference I finalized on this blue and yellow color scheme. The feedback received was quite useful and helped me end with this as a final product. You are able to see the main functions of the app here and the completed aesthetic too Access Tracker.
Conclusion
Being able to access your life is arguably one of the most important things someone will deal with, whether it is now, later, or with someone in their life. Access Tracker is an application designed around the accessibility of oneself and the others around them. The assignment tasked to me in my advanced design course allowed me to explore this topic further while strengthening my application design and functionality skills.
