UX

Triton Wayfinders

Community-Driven Navigation

Role

Project Manager UX Designer

Team

Steven Won Carlos Martinez Yvonne Liu Wilson Chen Anahi Segoviano-Silva

Design Problem

How can we recontextualize readily available navigational resources to improve the wayfinding of classes and buildings among university students?

Interviewing

Initial iterations, many of which were digital, of this project were proven fruitless, whether the results were too generic or the idea itself felt stale among team members. Considering all of the data and interviews we’ve gathered so far, we’ve concluded the following key points:

The digital experience is overemphasized

The community of students knows best

The post-pandemic effected a yearning for socialization

So, rather than designing or redesigning a digital app or physical navigational tool, we sought for an enhanced experience in interactions among the students to help each other find classes.

“asking for help when a readily available resource [navigational tools] was there felt embarrassing...”

“UCSD campus maps in general are just unhelpful and outdated.”

“I referred to Reddit to find where it [a class] was.”

“decided to follow where most students were heading...”

“I was taking those classes with someone that was already familiar with the area.”

Brainstorming

Through brainstorming, we constructed diagrams consisting of problems, demographics, facts, and ideas gathered through our interviews. Here’s a collection of the diagrams!

Affinity Diagram

Identity Model

Sensation Model

Storyboards

Personas

Surveying

Now, to the fun part of this project: testing for the most effective artifact! We considered every potential artifact, then eliminated those with obvious constraints. This included sketches the various artifacts and forming a table to discuss their various pros and cons to their features.

Artifact Chart

Artifact Sketches

Artifact Prototypes

Once our studio section arrived, we gathered presented physical examples of the remaining artifacts to about 50 peers. It was an overwhelming majority for two candidates: the strap sleeve and the pin. Both backpack accessories, the sleeve would wrap around the strap, towards the shoulder, and the pin would attach to the back.

Experience Prototype

While I rummaged through my pin collection for the most appealing ones, another teammate constructed a sleeve of fabric to wrap around a backpack strap. This is to prepare for a guerilla testing of an experience prototype.

Testing in Price Center Level 1 East, a busy food court of students, our team split into two groups: Waldo’s and interviewers. Waldo’s consisted of two members who wear either the pin or the sleeve on their backpack walking around the food court. While they walk, the interviewers asked 2 different groups of 10 students to find the pin Waldo or sleeve Waldo.

Overall, the students spotted the sleeve faster than the pin. We inferred this was not just because of the large size of the sleeve, but also the positioning of the sleeve. While both the sleeve and pin were visible from the front and back of the guide, the sleeve was also visible from the side. Since spotting the sleeve took an average of 40 seconds, wayfinders should manage to find guide for help within the 10 minute passing period.

Reflection

More Straps, Please

One notable issue with the strap sleeve is obstruction when the wearer had it opposite to the person trying to find them. To improve its features, a sleeve on both straps would prove much more effective than one, essentially making the sleeves visible from both sides of the guide rather than just one.

Testing the strap sleeve further with plenty more user tests would also be helpful since we only tested on 20 people total.

Beyond the Technical

This particular project taught me the possibilities of UX outside of digital iterations that I commonly resort to in other projects. As we explored and iterated, concepts beside digital ones captured our attentions, and to then reframe our minds to avoid the typical route led to interesting and effective prototypes.