TrekAssist

Overview

TrekAssist is a solar-powered e-ink guide concept for visitors exploring Yellowstone National Park. As a team UX/HFE project, it asked how a dedicated outdoor device could help people navigate unfamiliar terrain, notice weather and safety alerts, reach emergency support, and protect battery life during long trips.

This was not a standard mobile travel app. The device had an 800×600 landscape e-ink display, limited color, and a maximum refresh rate of 1Hz. Those constraints pushed the interface toward static layouts, larger controls, persistent safety information, and color reserved for moments that needed attention.

Problem Context

National park visitors often make decisions with incomplete information. Weather shifts, trail signs can be confusing, wildlife encounters introduce risk, and phone signal or battery may not be reliable.

The interface needed to help visitors understand where they are, catch important alerts, contact help quickly, browse guided tours and destinations, prepare for hikes, and conserve power without digging through settings.

Process Timeline

The process treated TrekAssist as a constrained UX/HFE problem rather than a static screen concept.

Early Exploration and Information Architecture

Our team explored safety-first and discovery-led directions before combining them into a park guide centered on safety, navigation clarity, and power-aware interaction. Flow mapping helped decide what belonged at the top level and what needed to stay visible across screens.

Safety-Critical Flow Planning

Safety functions were not buried inside separate sections. The interface kept three things globally available: a top alert ribbon for active warnings, an Emergency button, and accessible settings and battery indicators. That structure supported ordinary exploration as well as urgent safety moments.

Key Interface Decisions

Weather alerts stayed visible in a persistent top ribbon and could expand into a focused modal when the warning required attention. Emergency contact stayed globally available, with a confirmation step to reduce accidental activation without slowing down real requests for help.

The map placed wayfinding, active warnings, destination context, battery access, and emergency support in one static layout that could work on a low-refresh e-ink display.

Usability Testing

To evaluate the prototype, our team tested 9 participants on six tasks: checking weather warnings, contacting a ranger through Emergency, starting a guided tour to Mammoth Hot Springs, finding Yellowstone Lake information, locating long-hike safety tips, and activating Low Power Mode.

We recorded task completion, time on task, errors, attempts, ease ratings, and qualitative feedback. Completion alone was not enough. We wanted to see where the interface created hesitation, confusion, or extra effort.

Testing Snapshot

The test combined performance metrics with participant comments, making it clear where the interface supported safety behavior and where it asked users to work too hard.

Findings and Iteration

Emergency, weather, destination, and guided-tour tasks were generally successful, which suggested that the large-button structure and persistent safety elements helped users recognize where to go.

Low Power Mode was technically available before testing, but it depended on users finding the right settings path. After testing, the battery icon and settings relationship became a redesign priority, pointing toward contextual low-battery prompts and more visible power controls.

Testing also showed that purely grayscale screens reduced visual appeal and made some information harder to distinguish. The final direction used color selectively for safety distinction, orientation, hierarchy, and warmth.

Low Power Discoverability

Because Low Power Mode existed but was hard to find, the relationship between settings and battery state became a key iteration area. For a solar-powered outdoor device, power-saving controls should appear when users need them, not sit quietly as secondary preferences.

Final Prototype Flows

The final prototype balanced exploration and safety through scannable guided-tour cards, destination detail pages, and preventative safety content. TrekAssist supports people before, during, and after route decisions, instead of only reacting once something goes wrong.