The document summarizes the design process for a mobile app called Planet News. It would aggregate satellite imagery and social media posts to surface news and events from around the world. Prototypes were created and tested with users to refine the concept. The final prototype allows users to browse current events, view satellite images over time, and contribute social media posts and images to events. It also describes how event "pings" would work to notify users about important breaking news. The document outlines next steps like adding more customization and social integration to the app.

1. Student Work By:
Sarah Seegal
Amanda Yarmolich

2. Planet Labs is launching the
largest fleet of earth facing
satellites.

3. With frequent, high-resolution
imagery of the entire planet...

5. What’s possible?

6. ?

7. Design Research
Very Useful
Daily News
Weather
Traffic
Pollen Count
Alarm Clock
Easy
Hard
Surf Camera
Useful
Density Score

8. THE WHOLE GLOBE, THE WHOLE STORY.

10. We schedule protests on
Facebook, coordinate on
Twitter, and use YouTube
to tell the world.
Anonymous Protester during arab spring

11. 400 Million Tweets Per day on Twitter
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/6/3069424/twitter-400-million-total-daily-tweets

12. Planet News
The Whole Globe. The Whole Story.
Planet Labs provides universal access to information
about the changing planet. The company operates
the world’s largest fleet of Earth imaging satellites to
frequently image the entire planet and provide open
access to that information.
The challenge: Planet Labs engaged us to develop an iphone app that
demonstrates the unique capabilities of the Planet Labs API to
developers. The goal was to create an app that consumers would use on
a daily basis.
The solution: Planet News is a native iPhone app that aggregates
proprietary satellite imagery and social media to surface news from
anywhere on the globe.
By leveraging a mainstream daily activity-- staying up to date with the
news-- Planet News showcases what’s possible with frequent, highresolution, satellite imagery of the entire planet.

13. Key Screens & Features
Link to prototype VIP:https://www.flinto.com/p/9f25362d
Link to prototype PING: https://www.flinto.com/p/424f0469

16. PLANNING

17. Competitive Analysis
Method:
We explored competitors products to understand how
to position our product in the marketplace, while
capitalizing on our unique data.
Google Earth
Ushahidi
Findings:
MapQuest
Bing
Leveraging the worldʼs largest fleet of
Earth imaging satellites allows for
higher resolution and more frequent
imaging of the entire planet.

18. Mapquest
Driving directions, map/satellite hybrid.
Locate businesses/landmarks.
Dashboard- Research

19. Google Earth
Allow to locate, toggle through views,
go though pre-set tours. Less
resolution than PlanetLab’s imagery.
Good visualization/layering of data.
Dashboard- Research

20. Bing Maps
Allow to locate, toggle through views,
go though pre-set tours. Less
resolution than PlanetLab’s imagery.
Good visualization/layering of data.
Dashboard- Research

21. User flows
Hand drawn pop app
User Flows- Planet News

22. Prototype 1
Hand drawn pop app
Created to test concept with the client, the first
prototype served to work through the basic system and
functionalities for the Planet News concept.
From here we concluded that this was indeed a valid
idea and moved forward with design/design research
and worked to figure out features and the UI of the
application.
Next step is to create a more in depth mock up app
and figure out the entire system.
Prototype 1- Planet News

23. Prototype 2
Click through Axure prototype
Created to test concept with the client, the first
prototype served to work through the basic system and
functionalities for the Planet News concept.
From here we concluded that this was indeed a valid
idea and moved forward with design/design research
and worked to figure out features and the UI of the
application.
Through a quick sketch through exercise with the client
we created a “Timeline” option, that allowed users to
visualize the change in the data over time utilizing the
type of data planet labs possessed effectively.
Next step is to create a more in depth mock up app
and figure out the entire system.
Prototype 2- Planet News

24. Prototype 3
Printed Paper Prototype
Since the client was incredibly interested in the visual
aspect of the project we created high resolution
screens to test the general flow and UI of the
application. From there we printed off the screens and
walked through the application with numerous users.
Problems we identified was within labeling of features,
the visual representation of the timeline, and defining
what is/isn’t clickable clearly to the user. The timeline
itself presented some confusion since the visual form
wasn’t analogous to the minds of most users.
With these findings it was time to run a couple
additional tests and make refinements to the visual
design.
Prototype 3- Planet News

25. Prototype 3.25
Mid Prototype Brainstorm
Realizing the entire flow of the application needed to be revisited and we needed to
figure out where everything fit into the system, we hit the white board and started to
sketch out the flows and how screens related to each other in order to identify touch
points and screens we had yet to design.
From here we decided to do some further user research to discover patterns and
actions that users found easy to figure out, which of course meant more prototypes.
Prototype 3.25 - Planet News

26. Prototype 3.5
Hand Sketched Interfaces
In order to move through to the next itteration we
decided to move forward and quickly create hand
sketched prototypes from user feedback of both
the search/browse function of the application.
Incorporating the user feedback, we then worked
on creating that flow in the click through mock up.
Prototype 3.5 - Planet News

27. DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

28. Expand
Photo
Tumbnails
App Map
Timeline:
Move
Forward
Timeline View
View satellite
images/social
media in real
time
Timeline:
Move
Backward
My Location
List of
Recent News
Satellite View
of Selected
Location
Tweet
List of
Most Visited
Satellite View
of Selected
Location
Keyword
Search
Satellite View
Closet
Keyword
Match
App Opened
App Store
Deadline
Open App
via Iphone
Home Screen
Launch
Screen
Satellite
Location
View(Default
= Current)
Search/
Browse
Settings
Logout
Invite Friends

29. Event Ping Flow
Timeline View
Create
New Event
My Location
Report
on Event
@Planet
News
Yes
Satellite View
of Event
Event Ping
Tweet
At Event
Location?
No
Legend
On-Site User
Remote User
Decision
On Device
Screen
Search
Create
New Event
Settings
Comment
on Event
#PlanetNews

30. Interaction Design
Method:
We explored competitors products to understand how
users typically interact with maps.
We also tested users with various prototypes to figure
out how they intuited interactions in our platform.
Google Earth
Ushahidi
MapQuest
Bing
Common Gestures:
Drag
Pinch Spread

31. Consumer Citizen Journalist
The cell phone users on the ground
that are informed of the event. These
are the people who can provide
information via interaction with Planet
News via Twitter. Their contributions
are placed on the map via GPS
coordinates provided via the twitter
API.
ConsumerConcerned Observer
These are the people sitting at home
who want to see more information
about events going on, and know that
the news CNN, and traditional media
giants provide is biased and often
comes at a delay.
They would also be able to point out
things visible from satellite view, or
add their own input/wellwishes to
people at the scene.
ModeratorJournalists
These are people who work for the
traditional news sources who also
tweet and update people about the
events they are covering.
This would be a PlanetNews partner
who would put the network wide
“ping” into action. Pings would be very
intentional and carefully chosen so that
people wouldn’t just begin to ignore
the system.
Ideally there would be several
“Moderators” worldwide who would
monitor their areas and make sure
people aren’t abusing the system.
One way to determine this is they have
to provide press credentials.
Users- Planet News

32. Rebecca
Consumer - Citizen Journalist
Bio:
Rebecca is a college student, studying Social Justice
at USF. She spends much of her time in the city, when
she’s not she’s out and about on one adventure or
another.
Rebecca spends a lot of time listening to music on her
phone or chatting with her friends via facebook chat.
She has a personal twitter account as well as managing
the student affairs twitter account for her work study
program.
She likes to keep up to date with news and know about
the world around her. She likes to tweet, and if she
knows something or can provide information via twitter
about an event to her friends she is more than willing to
tweet about it.
Persona 1- Citizen Journalist

33. Julia
Consumer - Concerned Observer
Bio:
Julia is a 31 year old resident of Livermore, CA. She
met her husband at UCLA where she received a degree
in Biology, she used to work fulltime for the Marine
Mammal Resource Center as a Research Biologist until
the birth of her second son. Now, asides from
occasionally volunteering time on the weekends she is
a stay at home mom.
Being a stay at home mom is rough on Julia so she
uses her smartphone to keep in touch with her friends
and the world around her.
She uses twitter as a way to communicate and keep in
touch with the news, especially more local things that
relate to her.
Persona 2- Concerned Observer

34. Charles
Moderator - Professional Journalist
Bio:
Charles is a 29 year old reporter for the San Jose
Mercury News. He covers news stories to do with the
changing environment of the bay area. Most of his time
is spent in the field, which occasionally leaves him with
big lulls in his day which he fills browsing sites like
Reddit and keeping in touch with his many twitter
followers.
He will often tweet breaking news before the stories
break because of the limitations of network news. This
lets him update people quicker than waiting for the
story, most recently this occured when he was pulled
off his usual project to cover the BART negotiations.
To Charles keeping people informed with an unbiased
source of news is incredible important and something
he is very passionate about.
Persona 3 - Professional Journalist

35. User Journey
Julia, The Firefighter’s Wife
Julia is sitting at home watching tv with her two sons when she
recieves a ping from the Planet News app she downloaded after she
learned about it in an email sent to her by a fellow alumni and friend
from UCLA.
The app brings to her attention a fire that has broken out close to
Julia’s home in Livermore, CA. Alarmed she checks the location in
comparison to her location to see if she needs to get read to
evacuate. Luckily it’s on the other side of 580, but she decides to
gather her stuff just in case.
She also closes the windows since one of her son’s is asthmatic and
she doesn’t want the smoke to irritate his lungs and cause an
asthma attack.
Using the Timeline function, Julia can see the history of both the
area effected by the fire along with the social media activity
associated with it.
Julia then receives a text from her husband along with a picture of
the fire since he is a fire fighter with Livermore PD and they have
helped respond to the call.
She uses the Planet News app to submit the picture so other people
can also see what it looks like from the ground. Using the GPS meta
data embedded in the photo Planet News accurately places the
image on the map and Julia’s interaction is added to the event.

36. Flow A1
Sign Up Via Twitter
Launch Screen
Sign Up Screen
Twitter API Sign In Dialogue
* Uses Twitter data to populate user location
via embedded API GPS information, as well
as interests for pings the user will receive
Satellite View of User’s Current Location

37. Flow A2
Passive Login
Launch Screen
Login Screen
Satellite View of Current Location

38. Flow A 1&2
Search/Browse from Non-Event
Satellite View of Current Location
Search Entry
Search Entry & Suggestions
* Suggestions based on user inputed data,
possible leverage of google search function?
Search Result

39. Flow A
Browse/Create Event
Search Result Page
Zoomed In View
Create Tweet View
Crop/Create Image
* Also sets location
Add Tweet w/ Photo

40. Flow A
Comment On Event
Search Result Page
Add Comment via Tweet
Posted Event

41. Flow A
Ping - How are Pings Determined?
Social media has a very distinct rhythm it follows on a regular day. Disruption in this
a possible indicator as an event.
The Planet News algorithm is tuned into finding disruptions in these frequencies
and bringing them to attention. Users can also tweet within the application to create
momentum for events and initiate “pings”.
Pings are carefully currated and deployed so that people are sure to pay attention
to them. They’re broken down into three levels:
1. Worldwide Pings: These include catastrophic geological events (volcanos,
tsunamis, earthquakes above 5 on richter scale), government upheavals, acts of
terrorism, and other events that effect just not the people who are at the scene but
everyone world wide.
2. National Pings: These are things that happen on a national level that may have
some worldwide impact, but mainly effect the people who are in a particular nation.
These include elections, certain user sets with more global interests will also receive
pings for other nations.
3. Local Pings: These are things that effect only a small local population. These
include minimal earthquakes, mudslides, and other events happening around the
user’s local area.
At anytime a situation escalates, or recieves more interest it’s level of ping can be
raised and the number of people pinged can increase.

42. Flow B
Ping Launch
Ping Screen
Launch Page
Satellite View of Event

43. Flow B
Timeline from Ping
Timeline Activation, Timeline plays coverage of event from beginning to end. After it has gone through the
entire flow, user can read tweets by either clicking on icons on the map, or scrolling through them.

46. Flow B
Tweet from Remote Location (observer role)
Satellite View of Current Location
Add Tweet, location determined via GPS
embedded in Twitter API

47. Flow B
Tweet from Location (reporter role)
Satellite View of Current Location
Add Tweet, determined via Twitter
API GPS information
Add Image Via Gallery
Default IOS7 add photo flow
Submit Tweet
Tweet Displayed on Event
Photos/Pins added by user show
up on map as being blue

48. Next Steps:
Allow more customization in settings (user added
interests ie: animal migration, deforestation)
Content Options:
- Add in option for user to “draw” on screens (ie: Steven
Madden explaining football plays)
- Video integration (allow users to add videos to events)
More social media integrations (Youtube, Facebook, etc)
International deployment, other operating systems, etc
Refined algorithm for what tweets show up when
Additional categories to monitor, ie: deforestation,
tracking crops, etc

49. THANK YOU
Sarah Seegal & Amanda Yarmolich
sarahseegal@gmail.com & ayarmolich@gmail.com