beacon

2016
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UX/UI design
Duration: 5 weeks
Project completed in the course “screen in" 2016 spring
Collaborated with OPERA.

BRIEF:
The task requires to explore potential applications of the new technology named Beacon.
The context of my project is set in the future scenario which is about improving the visiting experience in a furniture fair for design students.
For this project I mainly used design and research methods include the benchmarking , user interview, user journey, persona, storyboard and usability testing. This project ended up with a conceptional solution which gives users new experiences during visiting and after visiting.

BACKGROUND

It was the task given by the software company OPERA, they realised the fact that people are tired of downloading apps in every single service. So they wanted to explore the value of the alternative method which was the beacon technology.
The task is quiet board:
What is beacon's potential use in the future?
How to use Beacon's advantage to offer a better user experience?

INITIAL RESEARCH

1.DETECT
With wifi and Bluetooth opening, Chrome or Opera browser in mobile phone can detect beacon's signal within five meters.

2. SIMULTANEOUSLY
Via Beacons, the processed and simplified web page can be delivered to many mobile phones simultaneously.

3. POSITIONING
Over three pieces of beacons can track the user's position..

RELEVANT CASES ANALYSIS
I collected around twelve cases about Beacon's existing applications and conceptional ideas. I listed the pros and cons of each case and made an usage map to compare different use scenarios and different uses.
Finally, I found out the advantage of the beacon's use situation was in the comparatively large and enclosure space, in such area people could benefit from beacon's multiple functions.

scope

User group and senarios.

USER PROFILES AND TARGET GROUP CHOSEN:
Furniture fair is a kind of large scale exhibition with complicated structures and a large number of visitors and activities.

USER PROFILES AND TARGET GROUP CHOSEN:
Then I needed to find my target user group for this project.
In order to make the decision of the final target user group, I started from recognising different types of visitor.
The main five type of user groups were: trade operator, journalist, senior designer ,general public and students.
And finally I chose design students as my focus group due to the fact reason that I could easily get touch with this type of uses, so I was able to have a better empathy for the future design process.

USER INTERVIEWS:
I had 6 deep-depth user interviews, each one lasted around half hours.
The interviews which were semi-structure qualitative so it helped me realise users' overview experience in the furniture fair, the troubles they met, their needs, behaviours and feelings.

USER JOURNEY MAP:
From user interviews, I recorded the whole process of users' journeys. Actually the user journey was not a linear process so I divided the whole process into three phases: before visiting, during visiting and after visiting. Then I sorted users' actions in to the corresponding phase.

PROBLEM DEFINE

DATA SORTING, CLUSTER AND PERSONAS

AFFINITY DIAGRAM:
The contents of stickers in different phases recorded users' behaviours , troubles, and feelings.

Then I found some of the behaviors in different phases were not separate to each other, they actually had tight relations.
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DATA RANKING AND KEY FINDINGS:
1. Users wanted to know interesting things happened nearby, so they could use the time at the moment to have a better participation .
2. Users wanted to find a better way to collect booklets, name cards of the designers they like and user tried to avoid messing them up later.
3.Users wanted to share their own experience of the exhibition to friends. E.g., post the picture to show where they have been, the product they appreciate.

Kathy
20 years old
Design student

NEEDS:
She wants to seeks for lectures or seminars in the furniture fair to expand her knowledge.

“It's a pity, last time I missed a very interesting activity, which was actually just near my position at the time. "

Ming
27 years old
Graduated student, Junior designer

NEEDS:
He's interested in knowing
new brands and
keeping touch with designers
he appreciates.

“I collect the booklets or the name cards. But it's easy to mix and forget the content of the name cards especially if there is only the name and contact of the brand or designers."

Laogen
23 years old
Design student, photo lover

NEEDS:
He appreciates the aesthetics
and usually likes to post
some selected photos
on the networks.

“I'd like to upload the nicest pictures to my friend or post them on the social networks to show my taste. Besides, these photos help me to recall my memory about the most interesting things I met."

PERSONAS:
I had these three types of personas which helped me to reflect key findings I defined.

IDEATION

CONCEPT:
1. All services base on the position
The beacon would be implemented in the different area of the venue, so users can detect beacon's signals and receive different information based on their positions.
2. Priority information
The nearest information will be priority to show to users. So uses can easily get the information around them.
3.Recall
Help users to record their footprint so they can easily recall memories bout the experience in the furniture fair.

SKETCH:
I sketched a lot to develop my concepts and explore the solutions base on the three contents of my concept.
Finally, after discussing with the programmer from OPERA, I chose the final solution and moved to prototype phase.

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