Timeframe

Oct 2018 - Feb 2019

My Role

Student Design Researcher

Intro

The UCSD Design Lab in collaboration with Hyundai conducted research on in transit amenities for automated vehicles and analyzed micro mobility patterns. My research and contributions focused on in-transit amenities and services. I conducted user research and helped prototype solutions.

Research

Field Observations

We observed areas around campus with high traffic in the forms of vehicles and micromobility. We took pictures, recorded videos and took note of anything interesting during our observation sessions.

Findings:

• In vehicles, people don’t just drive or listen to music, they also brush their teeth, put on makeup, etc

• People store other bikes, scooters in their cars and transition between them once parked.

Interviews

We interviewed people guerrilla style as we took various forms of transportation such as public buses and trains, airplanes, and rideshare vehicles.

Findings:

• People do different things in a public shared space than in private spaces

• In cars, seat configuration depends on a person’s status to the driver

  • ex: Significant others most often sat shotgun
    

Journey Mapping

We created journey maps for trips that we took, long (> 30 min) and short. These journey maps marked destinations, thoughts, and mood changes throughout each trip.

Found Data Curation

In order to substantiate primary research that we conducted, we looked into video data online. We found videos of people vlogging as they traveled, cameras in subway stations, and more.

Data Analysis

Affinity Diagrams

We created many, many, many affinity diagrams to collect our thoughts and organize our research. (There was a lot of data!)

Storyboards & Scenarios

We created storyboards for various scenarios such as, a tourist visiting a city for the first time or a women encountering a dangerous situation. A core issue for us to address was building trust. Some of the methods we explored were having a panic button and making the vehicles actions as transparent as possible.

Prototpying

Sketch Ideation

We ideated on pain points to address and solutions by sketching various ideas for seat configurations and use cases for different amenities. We categorized trips into short, medium or long; and with strangers, with friends, or alone.

Collaborative Solutions Theater

We rapidly prototyped our ideas with items already in our space such as chairs, tables, and cardboard, and acted out scenarios in order to test our ideas.

Vehicle Configuration Concepts

We sketched versions of a higher fidelity prototype that would be used in testing our concepts and speculations about the interior of self driving cars and the different use cases they were predicted to have.

Vehicle Dashboard Prototyping

We brainstormed various use cases for automated vehicles, including different modes the cars could be in. These were based on common activities we had seen people doing throughout our primary research and substantiated with data found online.

Wizard-Of-Oz Experimental Sessions

We built a wood frame and placed various amenities inside, such as a large TV screen, snacks, charging ports, an aromatherapy diffuser and more. We tested voice controls and switching between activities by having people play responses and manually turn accessories on and off.

We also prototyped a simple dashboard for users to control various elements and interact with the car’s amenities.

Reflection

Delving headfirst into this project taught me a lot about UX research techniques, project timelines, and working in a large team. I was lucky enough to have amazing mentors from the Design Lab and inspiring peers who guided me through the project, taught me insightful techniques and made the entire experience fun. 

Working with such a large team of other students brought to light the value of taking initiative. I had to make an effort to speak up during meetings and to ask to be more involved. I’m really glad that I made that effort because it allowed me to push my boundaries.. In the future, I hope to be a part of more projects where I am not only surrounded by inspiring designers but also encouraged to do my best work on cutting edge topics.

The Team