FEMA Wildlife Conservation

Conceptual Redesign
We started with a story:
On the Friday of Hurricane Harvey, I woke up to a pelican with an injured wing in my backyard. There was noone to call so I took the poor thing inside and restrained it with a blanket and zip ties to let it rest.  I didn't have a way to care for it beyond that so I had to let it go the following morning.

We would see key themes in this story echo across the disaster wildlife conservation effort across dozens of interviews with both concerned citizens and rescue personnel.

View app prototypeView desktop prototype

Key Insights

Communication

Citizens don't know who to call or contact for wildlife issues in a crisis

Animal Care

People are not aware of key temporary care insights for wildlife if help cannot come immediately

Rescue Orgs

Rescue Organizations are decentralized and overwhelmed. They operate by dispatch, and work with limited information

Design Decision Highlights

Categories

Our first iteration of animal selection centered around search. This solution did not work for frazzled users who could not identify their animal. Our current interface breaks down animals by threat level and size, while informing rescuers about equipment they may need.

Animal ID

While it may seem counterintuitive, rescue professionals informed us that citizens often try to interact with dangerous animals to remove them from their property. We added a warning accordingly, as well as ID and safety tips.

Animal Location

Based off of other emergency response apps such as Geico Roadside and AAA, our Animal Location page assumes a map interface. We query for location type so that rescuers understand the context in which they will be performing the rescue.