A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
There is an on-going multi-disciplinary student-led project at the University of Reading to create an app for recording biodiversity data on the Whiteknights campus. This project is engaging students staff external natural history groups alongside design and technology experts to create and customise an app for data collection on smartphones and other mobile devices in the field. The biodiversity data records will be stored in a central database which students and staff can analyse to e.g. monitor long-term changes in the local environment. It is anticipated that this dataset will develop over time and that the app will be used to support curriculum teaching and other research projects at the University including those that are coordinated through the Whiteknights Biodiversity blog.
This presentation will describe the research and design process we have undertaken so far including: scoping of other external projects to provide a basis for our design; interviews with academics in relevant Schools about how they could use the app in their teaching; Hack Days that bring together students from many disciplines to build the user-centred app design of a brand and logo for the project; and the testing trialling & refinement phases we have undergone to produce a robust workable end product.
