Gao Huacong

More Work · Early digital concept

AquaScope

From Marine Observation to Further Learning

AquaScope is an early digital platform concept for marine learners. It connects species observations, environmental context and research resources to help students continue learning from a discovery.

AquaScope’s early phone, tablet and laptop platform concept on an underwater background View full image ↗
AquaScope’s early cross-device platform concept.
Project
Early digital product concept
Context
University for the Creative Arts · Individual course project
My work
User research, information architecture, interaction design and Webflow prototyping
Scope
Concept and web prototype exploration
02

Research and design opportunity

In the course interviews, inaccurate species identification and incomplete information came up as concerns. When mapping students’ research journeys, I also found that searching for data across sources, checking information and organising materials took considerable time.

The difficulty is connecting an observation, its context and credible research—not simply finding more information.

Original Emma Smith design persona with marine background, learning goals, motivations and difficulties View full image ↗
A design persona developed from course interviews to understand learners’ tasks and information needs, not one real individual.
03

User journey and problem framing

Original Emma Smith journey map from topic selection and data gathering to analysis, report writing and sharing View full image ↗
Emma Smith’s journey map · Coursework research material

This journey map follows a student from finding sources and gathering data to analysis and report writing. I noticed that scattered sources and checking the data took considerable time, which led me to consider how observations and research resources could be connected more clearly.

04

Core path and early prototype

Marine enthusiasts can contribute observation records, while students can start from existing records, view their context and continue reading related research. Observers take photographs and contribute field records. The three steps below describe a concept for students; they do not imply that all features have been developed.

  1. 01

    Browse observations

    Start with a species or an existing observation record.

  2. 02

    Check the context

    View the observation time, location and available environmental information.

  3. 03

    Continue learning

    Read related research and organise study notes.

Original Explore observation detail: underwater background, globe and a Blue whale record with time and location View full image ↗

Observation detail · Early Webflow prototype

This early Webflow prototype brings species information, observation time, location and related context together.

The values and confidence labels only illustrate the design approach; they do not come from a verified data API.

05

Looking back

This was one of my earlier digital product exercises. I tried to organise scattered marine observation records and research materials into a learning path, and built a web prototype in Webflow.

Looking back, some basic questions remain unresolved: how accurate species identification is, where environmental data comes from, and how to protect observers’ location information. If I continued the project, I would investigate these questions before adding more features.

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