Case study
Island Watch
A map-based status dashboard for Vancouver Island conditions.
Instead of checking multiple government and agency sites, users get one map-centric view of what may affect island travel or safety right now.
At a glance
- Map-first dashboard for Vancouver Island travel and safety conditions
- Unified view across fragmented public sources and alert systems
- Built for fast “do I need to change plans?” decisions
Problem
Vancouver Island travel and safety information is fragmented across separate sources such as DriveBC, BC Ferries, BC Wildfire, Emergency Info BC, and weather alerts. People often have to check several sites to answer one simple question: “What on the island needs attention right now?”
Product concept
Island Watch aggregates road incidents, ferry disruptions, wildfire alerts, weather signals, and emergency notices into one map-centric interface so users can quickly understand what may affect movement or safety.
Design decisions
The interface is intentionally map-first because geographic context changes urgency. Category filters reduce scan time, and an attention panel surfaces higher-impact active events before users need to explore the full map.
Why this project
Living on Vancouver Island means travel plans can change quickly due to weather, ferries, roads, or emergency events. Island Watch is a civic-utility product experiment to make those shifts easier to understand at a glance.
Key features
- Map-first interface showing active incidents across Vancouver Island
- Unified feed spanning roads, ferries, weather, wildfires, and emergencies
- Category filtering for travel conditions and environmental hazards
- Context panel highlighting high-impact active events
- Official source links for detailed follow-up information
Data sources
- DriveBC traffic events
- BC Wildfire Service alerts
- Emergency Info BC notices
- Weather alerts
- Marine and ferry condition integrations (planned)
Technical focus
- Next.js + TypeScript foundation with a map-rendering layer and OpenStreetMap context
- Normalization pipeline for uneven public data formats into one event schema
- Location mapping strategy for alerts that are published as text regions
- Signal triage to keep the main view focused on meaningful travel and safety impacts
Planned improvements
- Complete ferry disruption ingestion for stronger island movement coverage
- Add utility-impact feeds such as power outage notices
- Improve the mobile map and attention panel ergonomics
- Explore historical timeline and notification options