Beach Water App

A public-facing interactive app for the City of Cape Town — helping communities understand beach water quality data in a clear, engaging, and accessible way.

My RoleUX/UI Designer and Front End Developer

Duration2 Months

What's the challenge

Scientific data that nobody could understand.

The City of Cape Town had no central place to communicate beach water quality research and findings to the public. Data existed — but it was locked in complicated tables that the average beachgoer couldn't interpret.

UX Research UI Design Design System Front End Dev QA Testing

Overcomplicated Data

Raw scientific tables were inaccessible to the public — no visual context, no plain language explanations.

No Central Platform

The city had no single place where communities could go to find up-to-date beach water quality information.

No Location Context

People couldn't easily find or navigate to specific beaches or understand which areas were affected.

From problem to solution

How I approached the work.

Discover

Stakeholder workshops with the city team, user research with beachgoers, analysis of existing data systems and public communication gaps.

Standups Research

Define

Information architecture, user flows, map interaction patterns, and a content framework for translating scientific data into plain language.

Feature Mapping Iterating

Design

Wireframes through to high-fidelity UI — interactive map, beach profiles, video hub, onboarding tutorial, and map key variations.

Design System Component Based Design Claude Design

Develop

Front end development on select user stories — pull requests via GitHub, Azure DevOps for sprint management, and testing sessions where the team tested each other's designs to ensure a perfect outcome.

GitHub Visual Studio Pull Requests Azure DevOps Testing

The Solution

Screen Catalogue

Five core features, each designed to make beach water quality data feel approachable, useful, and trustworthy for the public. The team needed an interactive, public-facing app that made complex scientific results accessible, engaging, and genuinely useful — for families planning beach visits, environmental advocates, and everyone in between.