Cornell Lab App Ecosystem
Cornell Lab is a world leader in advancing bird conservation through technology. During the pandemic, more people than ever flocked to nature as a way to safely escape lock-down. Birdwatching soared in popularity. The Lab's mobile apps rose to the top of the charts. This sudden increase in engagement highlighted problems restricting their ability to scale and meet the demands of a larger, more mainstream audience.
As a lifelong birder, I was thrilled when the Lab asked me to spearhead an effort to envision their next-generation mobile strategy. We spent the summer researching ideas and designing concepts for an app experience where millions of people could connect with nature and each other through their shared interest in birds.
This transformation is critical to the Lab's mission to reverse the decline of billions of birds by unifying millions of people who are passionate about nature and the outdoors.
During the pandemic, more people than ever flocked to nature as a way to safely escape lock-down. Birdwatching soared in popularity. Suddenly, the Lab had millions of users downloading their apps.
Growth
I agreed to lead an effort to envision a next-generation birding app that could harness this movement and grow their audience through stronger engagement and retention—reducing churn and allowing the Lab to activate a much larger user base. Scaling their audience is a critical step toward reversing the decline of billions of disappearing bird species in the world.
Bring birds to the mainstream
The Lab had already transformed thousands of hard-core birders into a global cohort of citizen scientists. But, their new mobile audience was mainly casual nature buffs. They loved the “Shazam for birds” app, Merlin ID. But, users needed more reasons to stick around long-term and use the app regularly. How could the Merlin app become the new face of the Lab to a larger, younger, more diverse audience?
Content, community, and activities
The core of the vision is to internally unify the teams at the Lab, so they can work together to engage and activate their expanding audience through social connections and participation in fun engaging activities that drive curiosity and build equity in the Lab over time. The new Merlin will be the nexus of all the these things things—between the Lab and their customers, between customers and each other, and between customers and the birds.
What's the biggest obstacle?
When we spoke to birders and bird-lovers, we often heard the same thing—I don't know what to do. With further questioning, we uncovered this was mostly a problem of "where to go". Birders wanted to get outside and enjoy birdwatching, but deciding on a destination was a major obstacle. If we could give people clear focus, we could suggest activities and places to go.
Quests, a concept from games
From my experience designing games, I knew we could drive specific user behaviors by giving users objectives, or quests. We could challenge our audience with activities that incorporate game mechanics like collection, streaks, medals, leveling, competition, and collaboration. With a quests platform, we could publish personalized quests based on people's interests, skill level, and social connections. And we could activate them to engage with their environment, with their community, and even increase their impact on data science for conservation.
Where do we go from here?
We continue to encourage capable birders to contribute data, and are able to deploy their skills in areas that represent gaps in the data. We make it easy for customers who love birds and the Lab to become donating members. And we find new ways to activate users who have a growing interest in conservation.
What's the biggest obstacle?
When we spoke to birders and bird-lovers, we often heard the same thing—I don't know what to do. With further questioning, we uncovered this was mostly a problem of "where to go". Birders wanted to get outside and enjoy birdwatching, but deciding on a destination was a major obstacle. If we could give people clear focus, we could suggest activities and places to go.
Quests, a concept from games
From my experience designing games, I knew we could drive specific user behaviors by giving users objectives, or quests. We could challenge our audience with activities that incorporate game mechanics like collection, streaks, medals, leveling, competition, and collaboration. With a quests platform, we could publish personalized quests based on people's interests, skill level, and social connections. And we could activate them to engage with their environment, with their community, and increase their impact on data science for conservation.