BanksyArmy

An individual assignment at uni were I designed the appAn individual assignment at university were I designed the app and social filter BanksyArmy. Based on the street artist Banksy's work, the social filter allows users to become Bansky and create their own street art. The user can through the app connect to special screens out in the city and create his own art on top of what I displayed on the screen. The art is then to be displayed on the screen. I designed the app through a serie of workshops with potential users. The design process included sketching, wireframes, mockups and a prototype. The prototype was tested in user and usability test.

Approach

First, I learned and studied who Banksy is, what the purpose of the potential service is, who will use the service. I also investigated when and where the service will be used, what opportunities and resources already exist and what benefits the service will do. I also found out possible obstacles and how to overcome these.

Through the discovery phase, I could then define the end-users' goals and needs for use of the service. Based on these goals, I could define what features the service must contain and tasks that the user wants to be able to perform. With a clear picture of the service, I would begin the design phase with simple paper sketches. Based on the sketches, I created a simple prototype evaluated in a formative evaluation. The evaluation showed some points on how the service can be improved. Out of these improvements, a more detailed and interactive prototype was created. The prototype was ultimately evaluated in user and usability test.

Discovery

In order to develop the service, I first needed to create a picture of who the end users are and understand their goals and needs. The purpose of the service was to enable the user to create art inspired by Bansky and share this with others in society. The primary target group was therefore defined as persons who already have an interest in street art and/or Banksy. A secondary audience was also defined, people who view art on the public displays as they pass by. By getting to know potential users and their want to use such an application, I gained a better understanding of their needs and goals. Being able to imitate BanskyArmy's art and be able to spread art in a way that Bansky himself does in society was one of the goals. Users also want to share their art and take part of what other people have created. Users also want to enjoy Bansky's latest art. In addition, they want to be able to use the service to explore new places or cities.

I also investigated what similar services already exist in society today, where the user will use the service, benefits of such a service and disadvantages and how they can be overcome. I also investigated how art can be displayed and how viewers can interact in different ways.

Define

I defined the main use of the service and goal with the service based on the collected data. Based on users' needs and wishes, I define the main tasks that the user needs to be able to perform to achieve the need and wishes. For each task, I created different scenarios on how the user can go about performing each task. Based on the scenarios, I created a list of features that the service should have for the user to perform the different tasks.

Designing & Evaluating

Based on the scenarios and the list of service features, I first sketched on paper on how the service could work. Then I created a simple data prototype. The prototype was evaluated in user tests were a potential user carry out various user tasks by using the prototype. By testing the prototype at an early stage, I learned what was good and how the service could be improved.

Improvements were made according to the suggestions and problems encountered during the user tests. Then I created a more detailed prototype. This prototype was used for a final evaluation of the service. A potential user was assigned to attempt to perform different tasks using the prototype. A few further minor changes were made after the results of the user test before the assignment was submitted.

Result

The service is intended to make it possible for users to create and share art on public displays in their vicinity. On the public screens, various advertising campaigns roll. The idea is that the user should be able to "spray" creatively on the advertisement and share his street art with the public. The social layer is inspired by street artist Banksy and allows the user to create art using Banksys already known motives, but also allows the user to be completely free and creative. The art itself is limited to being created on the phone, yet makes it accessible to most of the public to take note of what is created on the public displays.

What I learned

Even though this was university assignment it has given me a good experience and I have learned a lot. What I have been reflecting a lot about are the positive benefits of testing a product/service at an early stage already and throughout the design process. It does not have to be a big test with pixel-prone prototypes. It's enough with simple prototypes and a few users to early discover what is working good and what needs to be improved.

SmartArt

I worked in a group with four other collogues from university designing the fictive service and product SmartArt. The task was to create a service and a physical product that uses information technology to make a visit to something in our vicinity more meaningful. SmartArt is a service designed to make a visit in Old Town in Stockholm, a bit meaningful and eventful. The app SmartArt allows the user to converse and interact with public art in the Old Town, using speech or writing, and thus find out information about the artwork. Each artwork that is connected to the service, have a receiver to whom the user can connect to via the app SmartArt when being nearby. We designed the receiver and made a prototype of the application. With a Universal design perspective, we also design the service to be accessible for people with some form of disability. The process included user research, design and evaluation.

My role

I had the responsibility as project leader keeping the project on track and making sure that we worked together towards the goal. I was involved in all stages of the project but more on user research and analysis

Discovery

The focus of the project have been to explore how to make a visit of the Old Town in Stockholm more meaningful and more fun for visiting tourists. We wanted to explore how looking at old monuments and statues could be more exciting and interactive. We involve stakeholder from two groups. First of all visitors, tourist or potential visitors of the Old Town that have an interest in art and statues. The second stakeholder group we have chosen to involve in the design process is visitors with some form of disability. The Old Town today is difficult to get around in and not particularly adapted for people with mobility restrictions. We wanted to explore how we can design the service so that their visit to the Old Town becomes both possible and more meaningful. We also talked to experts within accessibility to get more insight on how we can work with accessibility.

We conducted a workshop with a few potential future users of service. The purpose of the workshop was to investigate what they do to find out information about a new place they visit and to find out how we can make the visit to the Old Town more experientful through the use of information technology in some way. During the workshop, we let the participants brainstorm around three scenarios that we had prepared. Afterwards we let participants brainstorm around a new concept how they would like to experience the Old Town and how the experience could be made more enjoyable and exciting. All ideas and information was collected on post-it notes. At the end of the workshop we sorted all ideas and discussed them together. By the time we had three strong concepts which looked promising to continue to work with.

We conducted an interview with a person in a wheelchair to get insight in how it is to get around and visit different environments when you are moving around in a wheelchair. This gave us a lot understanding of the difficulties that arises for a person bounded to a wheelchair when exploring new places. Our participants had already been in Stockholm a few times and experienced the accessibility of the city good, but the Old Town of Stockholm itself is not adopted for accessibility. To make our service accessible a lot of work with the actual environment also needs to be done. But we got a lot of tips on how we could help. By providing easy accessible information about nearest toilet or café for example. Due to time limit with did not have time to meet any more stakeholders with persons with some form disability. To be able to tackle accessibility more we would have to meet and talk to other persons with all kinds disabilities.Interview with expert in accessibility

By meeting an expert within accessibility we learned about important factors when working with accessibility and accessibility requirements. Considering all different form disabilities existing today it is hard to target and adapt services and environments for everyone. We learned how the expert is working with accessibility and we got tips on how we can work with accessibility in our project.

Define

To make sense of all data we gather from interviews, workshops and brainstorming we collected everything together and analyzed together in the design group. We discussed different ideas that had emerged and their pros and cons. At this stage, we also involved user again to brainstorm and sketch out ideas out how interact with art and statues. The idea of be able to interact with a statue by voice came up during the sketching session. We continued with exploring and analyzing with different methods the concept, allowing us to see how the interaction could work and what obstacles we might had to over win. Afterwards we created a few scenarios for how the service could be used. The scenarios gave a good overview over the workflow and what we had to reconsider. After we have processed the scenarios again we moved on to the design phase.

Design

With help from the scenarios we now started to sketch on the app and on how the receiver would look like. We listed all the functions the app needed to have and sorted the functions into different categories. These categories responded each one to one page in the app. When we knew what information, each page needed to contain we defined the structure and the work flow of the app. The interface was first designed on paper and then more detailed mockups were created. Everything was put together in a hi-fi prototype. The receiver allows the user to connect and interact with the statue via the app, was first sketched out paper. A mockup and 3D model was designed. We also created a paper prototype of the receiver.

Evaluation

We evaluated the prototype with usability test. The participants had to perform different task with help of the prototype. For example, one task was to navigate and learn more about a specific monument. The test was done on a computer where the user had the prototype to interact with. No bigger issues were discovered during the evaluation. This was the end of the project. Even though we got good result in the evaluation further evaluations should be made to ensure the service works good in different scenarios. For example, the prototype was never tested with of a person with some form disability and not tested in Old Town where the it’s supposed to be used.

Result

The purpose of the project was to develop a service and a physical product using information technology to make a visit to Gamla Stan, Stockholm, more meaningful involving stakeholders. During the course of the project, we have delimited the project to public art in the Old Town. We created the service and product SmartArt that will make public art more interesting, fun and exciting to experience for visitors. The service consists of transmitters attached to the public works and a mobile application. The main purpose is to locate art and learn more about the work and its history through an interactive chat and chat function, a call interface. The visitor can talk to the artwork or chat. The artwork corresponds to the I-shape, which creates a more personal and exciting experience.

What I learned

During this project, we worked with a fictive service that should make it possible for visitors in the Old Town of Stockholm to learn about art and statutes by conversing or chatting with the monument itself. Since we aimed also to make this service adaptive and accessible to people with different forms of disabilities, it has been a challenge. But it also gave me more empathy and comprehension for the a responsible you have as a designer. It’s almost impossible to design for everyone in society, but by designing for more target groups you shut out less people and include more instead.

Mighty

At a group assignment at university we designed a mobile based webapp for Mighty Event. Mighty Event is a Swedish company based in Kalmar which are organizing smaller local events and festivals. The task was to design an interactive product or service for a usage situation with a specific focus on user experiences as well as the selection of methods and techniques in user-centered design. We also helped Mighty to identify how the user experience could improve in conjunction with one of their events. Through workshops with both previous and potential visitors of the events we identified a need of gather information about Mighty and upcoming events in one place. Since Mighty until now only used social media to communicate information about events we made a design proposal for a mobile based website/app with information about the events

My role

I had shared responsibility as project manager with another group member. The task was to ensure that the group worked towards the goal and stay focused. Even if everyone had shared responsibility, we were as project managers responsible for planning and organizing the project. I participated in all parts of the project and led both user tests and workshops.

Discovering

First of all, we got to know the company and their business. For us it was important to get a picture of their goals, needs and vision as well as their customers' goals, needs and visions. It was also important for us to find out what potential requirements and expectations the company had. Therefore, we first conducted an interview with the company. They are an event company that arranges everything around both party events and smaller festivals. They mainly use social media as communication and advertising tools. At present, they also have no own web page. Their goal is to create the ultimate experience for the event visitor before, during and after the event. Their main target group was young adults 20-25 years old living in Kalmar, Sweden.

We first conducted a preliminary study by sending out a survey to Mighty's current customers with questions about how they would like to experience a event and about how they experienced previous events similar to what Mighty arranged and events by Mighty. We got mainly positive answers but also leads on what the customers wanted to be different.

A Customer Journey Workshop was conducted together with clients to analyze the entire customer journey before, during and after an event. A customer trip consists of touchpoints between customer and service. First, the key phases were identified. Thereafter, each phase was analyzed from five areas: Tasks: What is the customer trying to achieve here? Questions: What does the customer want to know in this phase? Points of Interest: How does the customer interact with the organization here? Feelings: What does the customer feel at this stage of the process? Weaknesses: How does the organization disappoint the customer in this step? Opportunities: What are opportunities for improvement? The customer journey gave us a clear overview and understanding of where and when the customer is in contact with service, problem areas and opportunities.

In order to truly get to know Mighty's customers and understand how their experience could be even better, we arrange three workshops in which both new and old event visitors participated. During each workshop, participants brainstormed, based on different scenarios, how the event experience could be improved and how they wanted the experience to be. The scenarios were based on the problem and opportunity areas identified in the customer journey. The workshops resulted in a lot of ideas and suggestions on how to make events better.

Define

To make sense of all the data we compiled and we sorted all collected data into an affinity diagram. With a good overview, we began to sketch the different ideas that arose during the workshops. We chose to develop a web-based application because there was no webpage with overall event information and during the workshops a need of access information of different event gathered in one place was discovered. A page with easily accessible information about different events was something that visitors were missing. We also saw future opportunities to use the app for several of the different ideas that had emerged during the workshops.

Design & Evaluation

Four scenarios with situations linked to a new web-based app for Mighty were described alongside storyboards to clearly show the course of events and how the application will be used. Different methods were used to define feelings and infrastructure. Among other things, we created a word cloud as in words that we want the visitor to experience in connection with event visitors and the use of the web app. Function requirements were developed and a moodboard was created. The group sketched together and discussed how the application would look and work.

Low-fidelity Prototype & Testing

A simple paper prototype of the website made from carton and paper was created. We used the lo-fi prototype in usability test to see if the structure, information and the design made sense to the user, and how it could improve. The tests took place a natural environment for the participants. Participants were invited to describe their first impressions and describe the various components they saw on the interface. Then the participants were given a few tasks to perform with the help of the interface. After the test, the designer and the participant discussed what had emerged during the test. By making and lo-fi prototype and testing the website with users before making a more detailed design we could discover eventual problems early and do changes if necessary. The result of the usability testing showed us the that we were on track with a few minor improvements.

High-fidelity Prototype & Evaluation

The prototype lo-fi prototype was improved in accordance with the suggestions from the usability tests. Then we created more detailed mockups over the website and a final interactive computer prototype of the website. The prototype was again tested by users and evaluated with SUS (System Usability Scale), which is a test in usability. The app got a mean value 93,75 from maximum 100 which gave us good indication of good usability of the app. The result of user tests indicated that the webb app was easy to use, had great features and easy accessible information.

Result

The result of this projects is a hi-fi prototype over how a website for Mighty Events could be designed and what information that needs to be presented. We’ve only designed for mobile interfaces due to time limit. On the start page you will meet a flow mixed with upcoming events where you have the chance to share the events to friends and acquaintances. Here also news for upcoming events are presented as well as advertised competitions. Below the event page are all future events listed. On actual the event page for each event we have essential information including location with associated map, type of theme, dress code and ticket information with a link to the Ticket Sales Page. Under the entertainment ta you can learn more about the lineup for the event. Here you can aslo find out more about the artist who are playing and their most popular songs. . During an event you have the chance to discover and participate in various competitions both on the website itself and on other social media. Being able to wish a song is a very sought after feature that the visitors have. Ability to participate and determine the music being played. There is also an emergency service where visitors can quickly alert you about any accidents and critical situations to present event staff.

What I learned

This project has given me very good understanding of how important it is to have empathy for both the client and the user's goals, needs and vision when designing a digital product or service. By understanding both customer, client and anyone else who may come into contact with the product or service, it is easier to design and find suitable solutions that suit the goals and needs and visions of all involved.

Turtle

This animation was created in Blender as a part of the final assignment in the course 3D-modelling and animation in an open source environment. The assignment was to model and rig a scene for a shorter animation. I modelled the turtle, colored it, rigged and animated it swimming. I created an ocean environment in which I had different cameras following the turtle through out the scene.

Kronan

As a part of the course Graphical Design at university, I designed a folder, poster and advertisement for a fictive exhibition at the Kalmar läns Museum about the ship Kronan. Kronan was built 1668-72 but sank in a battle outside Sweden second biggest islands Ölands first of June 1676. The ship was found in1980 by a diving team and today, over 30 000 objects have been raised and preserved. Many of them also have been exhibited at Kalmar County Museum.

Kitesurfing Kos

I created posters and a folder for Kitesurfing Kos. Kitesurfing Kos offers lessons and rental equipment for kitesurfing and windsurfing. The also do boat tours, catamaran tours and offer SUP and kayak hire. My task was to create posters with information about the activities they are offering to visitors.