MIT Design Lab X iSoftStone
OVERVIEW
In this collaboration between MIT Design Lab and iSoftStone my team of three looked at how we can improve tourists’ user experiences by designing new tools that they can access, while using the technology they already have.
Chose to focus on mobile, large touchable screen installment and big data. Big data allow to analyze user-generated content to create a unique personal experience and to use algorithms for real-time and historical crowd data to predict and disperse crowds before they occur.
Considered culturally relevant cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou as tier one cities. Wuxi, Wuhan and Zhengzhou as tier two cities.
GOAL
Crafting the new interface for tourism in China
Users Goal: Enhance touristic moments to personalize the users’ experience through contextualized rich touristic media.
Business Goal: Expand spaces available for tourism for a better use of spaces according to popularity of attractions and point of interest visibility.
PROBLEM
Travelers posted thousands of messages to the Chinese travel sites Mafengwo and Ctrip, as well as to English language travel review sites like TripAdvisor. This leave the users distracted and overwhelmed with the large amount of reviews and information about different point of interest. and the effort needed to organize their day to day travel plan in one place. as well as the lack of personalization in the results to match their preferences.
How can we mine these data for clues and needs to make the users planning experience more efficient?
OUTCOME
I led and designed the digital experience Looks Like/Works Like prototype that will improve tourists’ user experiences in Chinese cities in collaboration with the visual design intern and the project manager. Our team’s approach to smart tourism solution is technology-aware, culturally relevant and user-centered.
ROLE
- Defined the user journey and use case scenarios for different users.
- Created High-Fid interface screens for different modes (Plan, Explore, Admin) and different devices (Large-Scale touch screen, Smart Phone) using Sketch.
- Developed the clickable interactive prototype using Principle.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
- Conducted secondary research on present tourism trends and existing platforms.
- Envisioned the context of what factors influence the tourism in China and what will change in 5 years from now.
- Defined the user target which is categorized by role (End-User and Admin) and tried to understand their behaviors, expectations, influences, concerns and preconceptions.
- Listed the different user interaction methods (Large Monitor and Mobile Phone)
DESIGN PROCESS
I led the creation of the screen mockups with the visual designer, by conducting weekly design reviews. As the sole owner of the UX I generated the user flow and developed Looks Like/Works Like prototype to present it to the client.
USE CASES AND FEATURES
I built two different use cases to cover multi users;
End-User Mode with features for the user to customize a full day plan or a single spot according to their preference for time frame and interest. In addition, explore\filter nearby points of interest with the ability to send all the information to their mobile phone.
Admin Mode with features to view real-time analysis to check on the health of different neighborhoods with the ability to compare different hypothesis of adding/taking out different point of interest in a specific neighborhood and visualize its range of influence over the year\month\week.