info
/
The NextNote Active Scientific Notebook:
secure scientific note taking
As a designer, my primary interest lies in improving people’s lives through the practice of design. As the head of the in-house design group at Berkeley Lab, I have the opportunity to see the working lives of scientists, and some of the challenges that they face on a daily basis.
It is in this context, of improving the practice of science, that I chose to do my thesis work.
The NextNote Active Scientific Notebook is a tool meant to facilitate data collection in a scientific fieldwork setting. It addresses current problems with the collection of field data, specifically those of transcription, archiving, and protection of collected data. There is no product currently on the market that effectively addresses these issues, and so there is a concrete opportunity for tools of this type.
Hypothesis
Current methods of taking scientific notes in the field are inefficient, subject to error or loss, and difficult to add to a data set. Some types of data are not easily recorded digitally.
Problem Statement
To create a tool and experience that facilitates note taking in the context of scientific fieldwork, and that allows association of various data types while still being intuitive, simple to use, and employs kinetic learning.
Selected sketches
Sketch models
User flow
Final models and renders
