Creating a Goblin Valley App Concept
In the following document, I establish a proposal for a Goblin Valley National Park app. Originally I set out to create an app that highlighted the wonders of Bears Ears National Monument. However, because there is no set recreational area for Bears Ears and because the land has become a political football, I decided that it would be better to focus on Goblin Valley.
For those not familiar with the area, Goblin Valley is like a scene from an alien landscape. The formations are other worldly and bring to mind all sorts of creatures of wonder and intrigue.
To start with, I decided to focus on four major areas of exploration: hiking, biking, rappelling, and camping. I chose these categories, because there was a wealth of information regarding these focal points available on the internet.
Once I had chosen my focus areas, I began by creating a rough sketch of what I wanted the app to look like:
As can be seen in the sketches, I wanted to provide a basic wire frame that highlighted the topics utilizing lots of images, maps, and interactive information. After the preliminary design, I decided to dive deeper into research regarding Goblin Valley. I found a brochure of the area, which gave me a basis for research:
The brochure not only provided a rich background on the history and experiences available at Goblin Valley but it also helped provide additional research regarding color palette and font choice. With this in mind, I found an image of a rock formation that looked like a Goblin’s head:
I then utilized Adobe Illustrator to create a logo using various tones:
These tones along with the Utah Life Elevated logo provided me with a strong color palette. Additionally, I fell in love with Futura. Although the font is somewhat large, I wanted to the app to be usable by those with poor vision.
Hiking:
After deciding on a basic font and color palette, I dived deeper into research regarding the various hikes at Goblin Valley. Although the whole area of Goblin Valley is hikeable, I chose to focus on five official trails:
• Carmel Canyon Trail
• Curtis Bench Trail
• Entrada Canyon Trail
• Goblin’s Lair Trail
• Three Sisters Trails
I utilized the Utah State Park website to come up with descriptions of the hikes including how long, accessibility, and areas it covers:
Looking back at the project, I now realize that I should have used a serif-font for the body text making it more legible.
Biking:
Back in 2015, Goblin Valley established the Wild Horse Mountain Biking Trail System composed of five loops consisting of over seven miles. For the biking portion, I included a map of the trails along with a video made by the National Parks Service highlighting the trail:
Rappeling:
The rappelling section was short, since there is only one area in Goblin Valley where caving is possible; The Goblin’s Layer. The cave consists of a 70-foot drop and costs $2 per person. If I was to redesign the app, I would have included some form of a payment page allowing users to pay ahead of time while also answering questions regarding the park.
Camping:
The camping section was the longest in information, consisting of cost per vehicle or per person. The campground also featured yurts that could be rented overnight.
Overall Takeaways:
Upon completion of the app, I came away with some major takeaways:
First, start the drawing process early. I spent a large amount of time worrying about the project and how it was going to work instead of time creating and laying out what I wanted to accomplish. If I would have spent half the time working on the app as I spent worrying about it, I would have been finished a month in advanced.
Second, establish clear objectives from the start. By having clear objectives of what I wanted to accomplish, I would have been able to possibly expand the project to be more interactive.
Third, establish a weekly schedule to plan and work on the project. Because of the open nature of the class, I allowed myself to wait until the last minute to get things done. If I would have made time, I would have realized earlier on that Bears Ears was not going to work.
Fourth, things I feel I did well in was combining colors to make a delightful experience for users as well as utilizing high-quality images that highlighted the wonders of Goblin Valley.
In conclusion, the creation of the Goblin Valley App provided me an excellent opportunity to look at building out a workable prototype from the ground up.
Alex Strasburg is a student in the Digital Media program at Utah Valley University, Orem Utah, studying Interaction & Design. The following article relates to (Digital Publishing) in the (DGM 2270 Course) and are representative of the skills learned.