Design and Research report

Making Connections

Kah Kih Yau 1222341

Design and research report I have had quite a broad and specific exploration time. This is probably because Im on one side curious to catch everything that I encounter but on the other side I should stick to my goals and scope and not wonder too much away from it because there is only a limited amount of time that I can spend on this course. But I have to say that I do like the things that I find and there are so many possibilities.

Design goal I started off with a design goal: I want commuters to interact without directly interacting with each other This was soon after visiting the context and initial question clear that it would not work like that and people have no motivation at all to interact with each other, especially strangers at the bus stop. Then I asked how users felt about the context and situation waiting at the bus stop is experienced. One participant described it as being sent to your room as a kid to do nothing. This was what this situation is like. The commuter is going to the bus station to do nothing. In most extremity the commuter should actually be rewarded to wait there patiently for the bus to arrive. Thus the design goal turned to. I want commuters to experience the waiting time at the bus stop as rewarding

Research With this second design goal I did the research part and there I had the following research goal: To discover the emotions and expectations of commuters and see what moves them to take action I worked together with my buddy on this and we set up the following sub questions: 1. What kind of emotions/experiences plays a role at the bus stop? 2. Which environmental factors influence the experience of the commuters? a. What environmental factors are present at the bus stop? b. Which environmental factors have an intensifying effect on emotions? c. Which environmental factors have a weakening effect on emotions? d. What are useful environmental factors from similar situations (train station, tram, metro, general waiting area)? 3. What interactions are relevant at the bus stop? a. How do people act at the bus stop? b. Why do they act like this? For question number one we eventually brainstormed about the emotions and based on that people could choose from these experiences and emotions to put in their collage. We also made a short questions list and I also made a little different set of questions to get more in-depth interviews. (appendix 1) After that we would do a little more theoretical research but there has been little time to do more research and find the right literature on the emotions aspect. 1. The emotions that play a role and were mentioned by participants: Uncertainty/unclear Boredom Peaceful Actually to answer the first question we also had to answer the questions 2, 3 as well. 2. The environmental factors at the bus stop: Rain is a big factor on how negative it will be experienced Light. 2 participants mentioned that they would like a well lid bus stop Clean; 2 of the participants did not like either the smell, or look that it looked dirty. The enclosed space of the bus stop, closes people off, shuts people out, it somehow seems too small especially when there are a lot of people

3. The following interactions were observed: Checking for the bus Looking around Avoiding one another Respecting each others space People look much focused to the ground. People stand next to the person they know and talk/do something on their phone while standing next to each other. People try to sit as far away as possible from the other person. People try to stand a little a little closer and not sit as far away and they even, evenly distribute themselves. It looks strange if you stand really far away, more than 2-3 meters. It is almost as if you do not want to contact. This is also offensive. Unless you're doing something different/there is something different to get at that place, like sunlight, or you are making a phone call. (Mass Politeness and mass avoidance) Making a cue, you indicate that you will be second in line. This is cooperating in a natural order and avoiding contact as much as possible. It's the chance to be able to sit in the bus that will be increased. Self preservation, all surrounding the theme of avoidance.

Other researches I did some extra exploring that can be seen on my shareworks where I posted a lot of things. From different design ideas to a bus chick who is a commuter fanatic. And I tried to look for something genuine like bus chick too. It is a story about a person who has really left the world of personal cars and traded it for the public transport.

Interaction vision I tried to juggle with both design goals too and got a little lost with that trying to do research in both fields. The first interaction vision I made for the interacting without directly interacting design goal. Which was: Personal, joy In a metaphor it would be something like: Receiving a note on the counter from your mom Based on this interaction vision and design goal of I want commuters to interact without directly interacting with each other I designed the first intervention. This intervention was quite fun and nice to test and I got quite a lot of insights from it: Everyone was relieved when the test finished even though it was just 5 minutes "A game like situation where people could join with each other or compete might be better, where you could see your score" "It is nice to hear typing and see it appear on the screen, this is a good direct interaction" "It all ended in chaos and I want to know who sends a reply to my message at the end that was not even clear" "Just random sentences were not useful in this situation, it would only be nice if someone could reply to my question, then I felt a connection"

But this metaphor did not really fit with my rewarding design goal and I changed this interaction vision to: Relaxing predictability This is mainly because of the current situation and the analysis combined with initial interviews and context mapping.

Design ideas Most of the design ideas that I came up with drew out in my workbook. I have not had the time to scan them and make them digital. But you can follow those sketches quite chronologically and how I tried to incorporate findings with those ideas. Those design ideas can be categorized into a few different parts: Entire bus stop Detailed part of the bus stop (adding a feature) Things only on the mobile phone

Notice that there is only communication from the bus to the commuter via a sheet of paper that indicates the departure time. Only trams have shown that they communicate they are on a different stop at a tram stop. In addition there is not communication available from the commuter to the bus. Potential design fields in terms of communication: Bus->commuter and even commuter->bus communication are opportunities. Perhaps it can also be entirely improved on bus<->commuter communication.

Appendix 1 Context mapping interview questions Waar neem je meestal de lift/bus? Wanneer maak je daar gebruik van op een dag? Welke alternatieve methoden zijn er voor jou? Wanneer gebruik je deze alternatieve methoden? Kan je de bushalte omschrijven? Wat vind je belangrijk binnen een bushalte? Wat heb je bij je? Wat doe je tijdens het wachten? Hoe ervaar je de bushalte? Wat zou je willen verbeteren aan de bushalte? Wat is je vervelendste ervaring voor de bus reis? Wat vind je belangrijk in de volgende categorin? Wachttijd beter besteden- Beter voorspellen van de aankomst van de bus- Personal space-Comfort