Phone Booth + Touch Screen
An Innovative Design Solution | Design Thinking
Under the big topic of this project
increasing students' empathy, compassion or altruism in the study space, we conducted research and brainstormed, came up the final design concept which was able to create empathy, compassion and altruism with targeting to the new international students.
My Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer, Prototyping
Timeframe
August - October 2018
Background
A big number of international student coming to study in the University of Sydney every year. And these international students face many problems while adapting to the new environments on arrival in Australia.
Research Methods
Literature Review
Conducted the research on empathy, compassion, altruism, and the connections between each other
Observation
Conducted both online and offline observation in terms of student activities on social media platforms and in campus area
Test Interview
Asked questions within the group and the class to get the initial idea of how students think about the study place and their social activities
Online Survey
Based on the previous research, conducted the online survey to gain a clear picture regarding students' facing problems and needs
In-depth Interview
Conducted interviews with local and international students from different countries to get deep understanding regarding students' activities and attitudes toward the study place
Research Results
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Psychological Fact
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Empathy and compassion can be increased via frequent interactions via others
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Friendship can trigger altruism as friendship can induce strong empathy
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User Group
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Students from Peach Cultures who are open to new people, interact easily
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Students from Coconut Cultures who are generally more reluctant to connect. Their interactions are deep and personal, they seem reserved to strangers
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Most of international students are from Asian countries with more conservative cultural background, which is close to Coconut Cultures, interactions to strangers are relatively low
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The Problem
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Lack of information of local knowledge, study and job related
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Language barriers
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Lack of confidence
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User Needs
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Study and job support
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Friendship development
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Mental help
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Goals
This target group seeks for help on study and employment, and is eager to make new friends on campus. They aim to develop close friendship with people but feel shy and alien to the new environment.
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Interesting Findings Lead to the Final Design
A question was asked in the survey to find out students' desired magic power:
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A magic ball giving answers, which shows the underlying need for information source
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Mind reading, which shows ability to understand others and getting feedbacks
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Invisibility, time stopper, access to secret garden, which all show students care about escapism and safe places
Design
Persona
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The lonely who is our main target
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The curious who is a local and
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The supporter who is a senior international student
Design Concept Development
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Brainstorming and Storyboarding
Buddy Seeking App
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Compare and Contrast
Compare and contrast all the ideas based on:
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3 user needs
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User coverage
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Innovative
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User friendly
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Design Precedence
Conducted the existing similar ideas research based on:
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Online/ offline social support platforms
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Job and networks growing platforms
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Iterations and User Tests
The initial concept is further refined using a variety of design thinking methods such as paper sketching, experience prototyping, body-storming, persona-based walkthrough and scenario storyboards.
Five iterations were completed. The final concept gradually transformed from the phone booth and app based design concept to a phone booth and community screen concept in the end.
Result
Final Concept
The positive points of the final concept are:
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Novelty of the big easily visible objects
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Effectively addressing the 3 user needs
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Manage to use the university's abandoned legacy
The potential problems of the final concept are:
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Public screen privacy issues
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Substantial backlog for further development of the product
Self-Reflection
The entire design thinking process has been a great learning experience for the team. Techniques such as scenario storyboarding, persona-based walkthrough, experience prototyping, Wizard of Oz, paper-based prototype proved to be effective design thinking tools during the iterations. User testing techniques such as think aloud, heuristic evaluations and post-experience interviews also provided valuable user insights in the designing process. The only technique whose application can be criticised in the SUS questionnaire as the product was in a very early stage to evaluate the usability metrics. The final concept was presented by a video demo.
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Given the current status of the design concept, the next iterations would be to build more realistic physical mockups and employ more users for further evaluation and refining of the concept. A more Hi-Fi version of the prototype with an actual phone booth, real screens and the Wizard of Oz technique for voice interface can be implemented to imitate the real-time scenarios to test the users.