Cheshire Compass is a fully functional application based off of the town of Cheshire, CT’s website. The purpose of the Cheshire Compass application is to provide a quick, efficient resource linking important pages for those of Cheshire to reference on the go. It will not contain the vast extent of pages and information of the Cheshire website, but rather a quick, involved summary with prompts for resident and visitor alike.

The app will contain various pages including town activities, events, residential resources, government pages and links, property services and schedules, and more...

Functions:

• Stay informed on key town happenings

• Pay bills

• Access key resources and departments such as transportation, fire, animal control, etc.

• Property service schedules and information

• Town activities - information, schedules and contact

• Government resources and ways to take action

This process was comprehensive and extensive, with the goal of creating an effective and thorough high-fidelity prototype for the app.

At the beginning of this journey, I familiarized myself with the town of Cheshire, Connecticut’s current website. Town municipal websites are known for having a rough structure, so I went in with lower expectations. The structure of this website was truthfully not bad whatsoever, but like any project, there are always edits that can be made. I created site maps depicting the current and revised structure for the website.

The next step was to create a site map for my proposed app, Cheshire Compass. My goal for this app was to have a simple and useful resource for long-term residents and town visitors alike. This means that residential links, government links, and town activity links would be highlighted alongside essentials like emergency notifications and town news.

From here, I relied on the classic pen and paper to create low-fidelity paper prototype screens. I chose to build out three functions, transportation for the elderly and disabled, searching through town departments and calling them, and engaging with the emergency notification system. I scanned each screen into my computer, and then digitally added different colors to highlight different functions and features. Once this was complete, I could begin preparing for user testing.

On Marvel’s POP, or prototyping on paper resource, I digitally turned my low-fidelity prototype into a working model. Using two participants, I led them through my prototype with the three tasks in mind to observe their behavior and thought processes as they saw each screen. I was able to get quality feedback from these interviews and apply the edits in my high-fidelity prototype.

Using Figma, I created 25 high-fidelity prototype screens, including the three functions and tasks I explored in my user testing.