Skiosk is an information center found on the ski slopes, featuring a large interactive screen for users to interact with.
It is connected to a digital ski-pass worn around the arm which tracks GPS features.
Join me as I guide you through this 4-week design sprint, a group project that brought Skiosk to life.
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Let me walk you through the 4-week design sprint. Here's what to expect.
Discovery | Inspiration | Design and Prototype | Reflection
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- Understanding the users and their needs
- Understanding the sport
- Discovering the current scenarios and user breakdowns
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I interviewed 5 skiing enthusiasts of various skill levels to document their detailed skiing experiences and interactions, with the aim of gathering insights and identifying user breakdowns.
Duration of each interview: Around 10-15 minutes
Resources: Recording, Hand-written notes
My team and I expanded our research by creating a Google Forms questionnaire, enabling us to engage with a wider range of skiing enthusiasts alongside in-depth story interviews.
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I visualized user interactions from interviews by reviewing my notes, observations, and recordings, and sketched key moments to understand the AS IS scenario and guide the design process.
- Representation of the users (from interviews and questionnaire)
- Thinking beyond regular users (extreme users), to test the limits of the design
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As a team, we grouped and organized user breakdowns and pain points identified in interviews and questionnaires using a 'card sorting' method, color-coding related issues into themes.
- Identifying the problem to solve.
- Generating a variety of ideas that offer potential solutions.
- Creating a design space to embody the set of alternatives.
- Choosing a concept to explore, considering not just functionality but also the interaction with functionality.
We identified four key user problems/needs that we attempt to address through our solution:
1. Signal issues on slopes due to inadequate network connectivity.
2. Collaboration challenges arise on slopes as users struggle to communicate with friends and family.
3. Users rely on multiple navigation tools, including Google Maps and physical signs, but face reliability issues due to poor network coverage and inclement weather.
4. Users require a simple way to plan their entire day of skiing.
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In brainstorming, our aim was to generate a large quantity of ideas rather than focusing on quality. We encouraged suggesting alternatives without discussing or debating the ideas.
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Understanding the user’s perspective was hard especially because we were not the regular skiers.
Our instincts may have been wrong. Hence, we felt just asking questions was not enough.
Our motive behind the workshop:
- prevent major errors
- contributes new insights
- generate inexpensive user innovations
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- Creating a design space and reiterating on the design concept
- Transforming ideas into a storyboard: Converting conceptual notions and future scenarios into a compelling narrative.
- Paper prototyping to aid the final video prototype
Our base design concept included a wearable ski pass, functioning like a watch, and strategically placed kiosks. The pass + kiosks offers convenience and provide real-time gps tracking, enhancing the collaboration aspects of skiing. Together, they tried to solve the user needs.
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Ski Pass Enhancements:
SOS Emergency Alerts for user and staff | Pending Friend Messages Notification | Speed and Location Tracking | Lift Access Pass Functionality
Kiosk Enhancements:
Leaderboards and Mini Games | Personal Skiing Stats Viewing | Friends' Location on Ski Routes | Sending Message Notifications for Friends | Timetable, Route, and Restaurant Information Access
In this storyboard, we observe four personas navigating a ski resort in challenging weather conditions. Katie and Alex use innovative ski passes and kiosks to coordinate and ensure their safety. Jane and her daughters find shelter and engage with skiing statistics in a kiosk. Meanwhile, experienced skier Erik encounters an accident, triggering an SOS response from the resort staff.
Our Goal:
- Identify key interaction snippets in the scenario
- Examine the key ideas from the design space(brainstormed ideas)
- Illustrate the interactions between user and our novel system
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We employed a 'Wizard of Oz' approach, crafting paper prototypes and acting out the storyboard scenarios to create a video prototype of the ski kiosk concept, allowing us to test user interactions and visualize the user experience effectively.
- We reflect on the methods: why we chose them, potential drawbacks, other reflections
- we also propose future steps
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In the next phases of this project, our objectives include revamping the current design concept and exploring additional design alternatives, such as the integration of drone technology on the ski slopes. Furthermore, we plan to conduct a formal experiment to compare these different design approaches.
