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Merlin Bird ID: adding a map view for viewing recorded sightings.

Year

2026

Project

Adding a feature to an existing app

Role

Indiviual contributor

Client

Phase 2: Capstone 1 of Designlab UX Bootcamp

The idea

Add a map view to Merlin Bird ID that lets users see where they've recorded bird

sightings over time. Currently, sightings live in a flat list with no spatial context, even

though location is core to how birders think about their observations.

Add a map view to Merlin Bird ID that lets users see where they've recorded bird

sightings over time. Currently, sightings live in a flat list with no spatial context, even

though location is core to how birders think about their observations.

Problem

Merlin already captures location data for every identification, but users have no way to

visualize their sightings geographically. Birders naturally think in terms of "where have I

seen this species" and "what have I seen in this park/region" the app doesn't currently

support that.

When moving to a new place no single task too difficult on it’s own. It was the doing all of them simultaneously that made peoples experience genuinely overwhelming.

Goal

Let users see their sightings plotted on a map. Help users understand their personal birding activity by location. Increase engagement with Merlin's existing sightings history (Life List). Lay groundwork for future location based features

Let users see their sightings plotted on a map. Help users understand their personal birding activity by location. Increase engagement with Merlin's existing sightings history (Life List). Lay groundwork for future location based features

Result

Testing across four participants validated both tasks. 1. Locating a past sighting by date and 2. searching the map by location were fully usable. 4/4 success rate on Task 1 and 4/4 on Task 2. Unprompted positive reactions to added details like last seen location on bird detail page and a quick preview toggle further confirmed the feature was solving a real need for users.

Testing across four participants validated both tasks. 1. Locating a past sighting by date and 2. searching the map by location were fully usable. 4/4 success rate on Task 1 and 4/4 on Task 2. Unprompted positive reactions to added details like last seen location on bird detail page and a quick preview toggle further confirmed the feature was solving a real need for users.

Take a look at the final prototypes

The final prototypes

Started by researching and using some competitor apps

Looking at the competition yeilded some good insights

Key Learnings - "Bird sighting map" isn't a novel feature. All three competitors have some version of it, so differentiation has to come from how it's built, not whether it exists.

Opportunities - Free personal map, no paywall risk. Birda's recent paywalling of a previously free feature damaged trust. Merlin is already free/ad-free leaning into "this stays free" as a stated value is a real differentiator, not just a feature.

Location is central to how people relate to their sighting history

What did I want to find out?

Understand current behavior - Learn how birdwatchers currently go back and look at

birds they've previously recorded.

Understand motivations - Learn what draws birders to revisit past sightings, and what

they're hoping to get out of it.

Understand context of use - Learn where, when, and how (spatially, chronologically,

or otherwise) birders think about their past sightings.

Uncover pain points - Learn what's frustrating, missing, or hard about reviewing

sightings with their current tools or methods.

Understand current behavior - Learn how birdwatchers currently go back and look at

birds they've previously recorded.

Understand motivations - Learn what draws birders to revisit past sightings, and what

they're hoping to get out of it.

Understand context of use - Learn where, when, and how (spatially, chronologically,

or otherwise) birders think about their past sightings.

Uncover pain points - Learn what's frustrating, missing, or hard about reviewing

sightings with their current tools or methods.

Speaking to people, finding some problems.

I spoke to a variety of users, from birders who use the life list as a way to see their travel history to a user who doesnt record their sightings but wants to know what's around.

I spoke to a variety of users, from birders who use the life list as a way to see their travel history to a user who doesnt record their sightings but wants to know what's around.

Insights

Location is central to how people relate to their history, even when they don't say so directly.

The map concept was independently proposed by 2 of 3 participants, unprompted.

Current review method is universal and consistent: scroll the Life List by date, rely on memory

Cross trip/cross season comparison is not currently possible, and users notice.

The sighting history carries emotional and identity value beyond pure data

Not all users think of Merlin as a personal record a real time only segment exists

A second, distinct map need emerged: nearby/community sightings, not just personal history.

Affinity map takeaway: the two heaviest, most cross participant clusters, spatial memory and the trip/season comparison gap are the strongest evidence for building a sightings map.

The remaining groups shaped how to build it: personal and photo forward rather than social, with map/nearby framed as two distinct needs rather than one feature.

I created personas that transformed the research into a practical reference tool that kept me focused on the right users throughout the entire design process

I created personas that transformed the research into a practical reference tool that kept me focused on the right users throughout the entire design process

Kat, Teacher - 28

Started birding at the same time she started using Merlin

Birds opportunistically on local walks, not dedicated outings
Proud to begin recognizing local birds by sight/sound
Identifies birds visually, rarely uses search

Motivations

Connection, birding is something she shares and talks about with friends
Personal growth, proud of a hobby she has visibly gotten better at over time
Nostalgia, the list doubles as a diary of places she has been

Goals

Show friends what she has seen, and where
Relive trips and travel through her sighting history
See her collection grow as a source of pride

Frustrations

Sightings feel plonked together with no useful grouping
Prefers looking at photos of birds rather than other information
Category headings are unclear, reads as one long undivided list

Needs and Expectations

A visual, low effort way to browse, tapping photos rather than reading names
Sightings grouped in a way that mirrors how she already thinks, by place and trip
Something easy to show a friend in the moment, with minimal setup
No pressure to be precise or complete, this is a hobby, not a checklist

Sean, Engineer - 38

Travels specifically to find new species

Logs all sightings, not just rare birds
Prioritizes date, name and photo over location on the list
Can recall roughly where he saw 70 to 80 birds from memory alone

Motivations

Completeness, building toward one of every species rather than repeat sightings
The thrill of the search, treating trips like a hunt for something specific, like ‘Pokemon Go’
Efficiency, wants his own sharp memory backed up by the app, not replaced by scrolling

Goals

Compare sightings across trips and seasons
See sightings clustered by day or trip on a map
Filter nearby sightings by rarity when exploring new places

Frustrations

No structured way to compare seasons, made worse by travel across hemispheres
Cannot search by color due to colorblindness
Sound ID rarely works, suspects weak regional data

Needs and Expectations

A map that clusters by outing, not just raw pins, so a day trip reads as one unit
Fast filtering by rarity and by date range without deep menus
Accuracy he can trust, since he already double checks the app against memory

I created a Product Requirements Document to help me define whats needed for this project and importantly whats not.

I created the feature set to narrow down the key features needed to add the map feature to the current app. Included some must have, nice to haves, some suprising features and some thingds that can be added later using the map view.

I created the feature set to narrow down the key features needed to add the map feature to the current app. Included some must have, nice to haves, some suprising features and some thingds that can be added later using the map view.

Flow 1

Locating the map view within the Life List and searching for specific sighting in Corfe Castle, UK.

Locating the map view within the Life List and searching for specific sighting in Corfe Castle, UK.

Mocking up some ideas and testing them with users

I used a combination of figjam to sketch elements, screen shots from the app and Figma Design to combine all the elements.

I used a combination of figjam to sketch elements, screen shots from the app and Figma Design to combine all the elements.

From the lo-fi designs I created a prototype and tested it with 3 people to get some early feedback on the flow.

From the lo-fi designs I created a prototype and tested it with 3 people to get some early feedback on the flow.

See the prototype here

Ai design here

Strong first pass: All three participants completed the full task, locate map, search Corfe Castle, open sighting detail, without guidance, and all independently described the experience as "easy." No blocking usability issues surfaced across any session. This is a strong early signal that the core flow logic and navigation structure work.

Toggle discoverability: good, but not bulletproof: Two of three participants (Laura, Kat) found the map toggle immediately with no hesitation. Rachael nearly typed into the wrong search bar first, before noticing the map toggle positioned just above it. She recovered unaided and still completed the task successfully, but this is a near miss worth addressing.

Photo forward pins: Participant spontaneously said seeing a bird photo represented on the map pin "would be cool" directly reinforces the visual/photo-first pattern already seen in earlier interviews with Jared and Kat.

List to map deep linking: Proposed that tapping a sighting directly from the list view could jump straight to its location on the map, rather than only entering the map via the separate toggle. Not in current PRD scope, but a low effort, high resonance addition worth logging for a future iteration.

The feedback received during design crit sessions included;

Sizing and spacing of each item should be increased and they are currently too close together and could be harder to press.
Including more icons to better represent box contents, as room based icons look repetitive.
The rounded boxes on the dashboard don’t look right with the title so close to the corner.

Iterations were made in a higher fidelity wireframe prototypes.

Making some hi-fi prototypes

The prototypes feature a full flow from the home page, to toggling the map view and searching for a location and then viewing a bird that was sighted there. The prototype has a 4 way scrollable map with other sightings included.

I added an extra flow for testing, and created map linking from the original life list. This was suggested in the initial user test sessions and I wanted to validate the idea.

I made interactive prototypes and put them through four user testing sessions to gather user feedback on the current design, helping to identify any usability issues and validate design decisions before finalizing the product.

Test

100%

of users accomplished the task without intervention

3 issues

minor issues raised by users include, search bar labelling, weight of clickable links and identifying thumbnail pictures of birds

The user test did accomplish the success metrics, all users were confident in using the app and perceived it to be easy. No interventions were required but there were some issues raised which need addressing in the next iteration.

Recurring theme: bird photo alone isn't enough for visual identification

Both Rachael and Sean independently struggled to confirm they were looking at the correct bird using the photo alone.

Rachael briefly confused the House Finch with a similar-looking bird on the map screen; Sean wasn't confident it was a House Finch until he clicked in and saw the name confirmed.

Strong positive validation: bird detail page additions

Sean and Kat both responded positively, unprompted, to the added "last seen" date and location pin on range map details on the bird info page, features Sean noted weren't in the original app ("did you add that? I like that too"). This is a clear signal these additions land well and are worth keeping in scope.

Clickable area clarity needs tightening

Two separate but related issues surfaced:

Sara wasn't sure if the whole list row was clickable or just the text, she clicked the "white part" successfully but expected the photo to be clickable too, especially for visual users who might not read the text first.

Kat separately flagged that the list item didn't look clickable to her in its normal (non-highlighted) state. The visual indicator like an underline or color to signal it's a link.

These point to the same underlying gap: clarity for tappable elements, both on list rows and on photo/text split-targets.

Search scope ambiguity (bird name vs. location) recurs across participants

Rachael asked directly whether the search bar works for both bird names and locations, and speculated that map search should be location based while list search should be bird based, matching Sara's independent comment that she'd have searched by location ("Corfe") rather than species name if she hadn't been told which bird to find.

This is a consistent, unprompted signal that users don't have a fixed mental model of what the search field expects, and the interface should make that scope clear.

New idea, well received: quick preview toggle

Sara gave detailed, positive feedback on a toggle/preview feature that shows bird details without a full screen navigation, she liked being able to see information without committing to leaving the current screen, and noted this reduced her hesitation about tapping (fear of being taken somewhere unexpected on first use). Worth treating as a validated pattern, not just a nice to have.

Taking on the feedback and making it better

Added bird names to small thumbnails. (Why? This app isnt only for experienced birders, it will help beginners view their sightings on a map with more ease)
Updated working on search bar to remove ambiguity, now says Search Location vs the old ‘Search Map’The list view now says
Search Bird Name instead of ‘Search List’.

Reducing click area of link on bird list.
Making the font Bold for clearer distinction
Added clear ‘pressed’ state for photo.

Explore the final prototypes

Explore the prototypes

Examples of the 2 flows built to test the prototypes are presented as videos below. Each follows the updated designs.

Locating Sighting from Life List on Map

Locating Sighting from Life List on Map

Using map view to find a sighting at a specific location

Using map view to find a sighting at a specific location

What next?

As with any project there has to be an end point. If I had more time here's what I would do.

As with any project there has to be an end point. If I had more time here's what I would do.

Next Steps?

With more time, I'd add some more differentiation between the search results and search suggestions.

I would relocate the print button to be stuck to the base of the screen, so that a user does not have to scroll through all the labels to find the button.

I would add a print preview step, so the user can check what the label will look like prior to confirming the print.

I would look at increasing the visibility of priority boxes in the list view as well as having an expandable summary at the top of the page.

I would auto drop down new box to add items so it’s more clear initially after adding a new box.

I would add a shortcut for adding items straight from the 'box confirmation' modal, because this is the logical next step when a user is adding a new box.

All of these items were either brought up as feedback during user test sessions and crits with my mentor.

Lessons learned

As this was my first end to end UX project there have been a few lessons;

Working independently can sometimes be tricky so it's important to gain feedback where possible, for me it was joining group crits with other students and regular catch ups with my mentor.

Testing early and getting feedback can help surface bigger problems before the concepts have been too refined.

Users don't always articulate there is a project so watching closely during the testing sessions is important to be able to pick up on what their behavior is saying.

It takes time and consideration to design something that is simple for users.

What happens when the user doesn't follow the happy path is just as important as the happy path.

View more of my work

Adding a feature: View life list on a map in Merlin Bird ID

Adding a feature: View life list on a map in Merlin Bird ID

Adding a feature: View life list on a map in Merlin Bird ID

End to end application: This is some temporary text

End to end application: This is some temporary text

End to end application: This is some temporary text

Client project: This is some temporary text

Client project: This is some temporary text

Client project: This is some temporary text

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