1. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu
Project co-funded by the European
Commission within the 7th Framework
Program (Grant Agreement No. 619660)
SERVING DIVERGE USER NEEDS UNDER
A SINGLE WATER INFORMATION
PLATFORM

2. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu2
THE PROBLEM
• WATERNOMICS aims to raise awareness about water
management using ICT to provide user with insightful
and actionable data.
• WATERNOMICS will be tested in 3 pilots
• Domestic environment (Thermi)
• Large enterprise environment (Linate airport)
• Public space environment (NUIG)
• This means even more types of users
• Domestic (tech friendly, budget oriented, etc)
• Enterprise (managers, operational, communication
etc.)
• Public space (students, managers, technicians etc.)
• So… How can we provide each one with the
information they need?

3. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu3
METHODOLOGY
• To understand better user needs we employed a scenario
development methodology
• User Experience and UI tests followed based on scenario
development
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4. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu4
MORE ON UX TESTING
• Paper prototypes were the main tool
• Interviews were conducted based on them
–3 versions of home page
–3 versions of a monitoring page
–2 versions of news reading pages
• Diverge set of users
–7 users from Linate
–8 users from Thermi
–8 user from NUIG
–11 hours of discussions
–3 languages
• Covering all user types
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5. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu5
THE DESIGNS TESTED (HOME PAGE) 5
Version 1
Version 2
Version 3

6. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu6
THE DESIGNS TESTED (MONITORING PAGE) 6
Version 1
Version 2
Version 3

7. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu7
AND THE WINNER IS…

8. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu8
THE COMMON NEEDS
• Meaningful information
– Information should be presented in different ways to make sense to
different users
• Fear of missing out
– People want to be informed of what happens at the time it happens (or
closely enough)
• Decision support
– Decisions where multiple factors play a role are difficult for people and
benchmarking their impact them is even more difficult
• A good social status
– Everyone want to be socially accepted
• Education
– From children to managers… all need to constantly educate themselves
• Fun
– Makes the process more enjoyable!

9. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu9
MAIN CONCLUSIONS
• A “One size fits all” solution cannot help
• But there are many common features among
user types and pilots
• So, how can we serve them all?
–Provide an apps marketplace to select apps you need
–Suggest apps based on user’s profile
–Categorize apps based on needs and a business
value chain (Monitor -> Learn -> Explore ->
Benchmark)
–Primary app (everyone has a different main need)

10. @WATERNOMICS_ www.waternomics.eu
THANK YOU
Any questions?