Get Together
Get Together, my final project at CIID, is now online. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way, whether it was acting in my videos, participating in my research experiments or putting up with a bombardment of text messages. And thanks to everyone that visited our end of year exhibition!
I’ve been working hard on Get Together, a service I am designing for my final project at CIID. Here is a short video I produced as a prototype exploring the whole service from start to finish. Since creating this video I have begun refining the service and designing high res interfaces for all the touchpoints which will be used in a video scenario. I have also been working on setting up a basic group SMS system as a way to prototype the user experience.
More to come very soon…
Following up on the previous post about CIID at the Reboot Festival in Copenhagen, this video is an example of the kind of prototyping we were doing for Reboot participants.
Nina, Ashwin and I helped Tor Nørrentranders, one of the festival’s keynote speakers, prototype a way for children to ask him science questions over the web. Tor is well known in Denmark for his children’s books which illustrate some of life’s bigger questions (why is the sky blue?) in a child friendly way. Now Tor is interested in using video and the web so that children can send him questions directly.
Eilidh plays the Hotel Fox receptionist
Attention aspiring interaction designers: I hope you like making videos. Complex systems, like those involving technology or services that take place over time, are often easiest prototyped with video. And they are often best communicated through scenarios. So video is a tool we are gaining lots of experience with here at CIID.
Adam in hotel room
Not only was Hotel Fox willing to let us test our service with their customers, but they allowed us to film our video in one of their hotel rooms. It’s amazing what can happen if you just ask. Thank you Hotel Fox!
Martin reporting from Copenhagen Airport
We also rang up our friend Martin who is a reporter on Danish TV. Thanks, Martin!
Airport staff helping us with a brief scene
And thanks to this woman who helped us eventhough she was working! I will be posting the video later in the week…
UPDATE - Here’s the video…
WK Interact room at Hotel Fox
During the past week we have been running an experience prototype at Hotel Fox in Copenhagen. That’s that “lifestyle” hotel where each room was designed by a different international artist. Many thanks to the staff there for helping us with our project because Hotel Fox is a perfect place to test our service.
Some of the props we brought to the hotel
We prepared brochures, order forms and mini catalogs for the receptionist to distribute to guests when they check in to the hotel. We also brought 20 of our own books that the guests could borrow. The books were a mix of novels, guide books and design related photo books. Almost all of them had something to do with Denmark. We also included DVDs and a few other items in the catalog even though we did not bring them to the hotel.
Hotel Fox lobby
If a guest would like to borrow a book, they just need to fill out a small order form and give it to the receptionist. We also included questionnaires so that the guests could give us feedback about the service. Inside each book is a bookmark with recommendations based on that particular book. These include sights, other library materials and places to visit (i.e. The Danish Design Museum). For the sake of this prototype, the role of the library is not important. However we still included the library’s branding on all books and print material.
Welcome packets and loaner books at the Hotel Fox desk
We spend a few hours each day hanging out in the lobby and observing guests as they receive the brochure when they check in. The idea is to see if hotel guests, who generally only stay 2-3 nights, are interested in looking at new books and bringing them back to their rooms. We would also like to know what types of books are most popular and how the receptionists are able to manager the service. Last time we checked in, the hotel had lent out one book and received one feedback form.
Props from our video prototype
After presenting three concepts to the class, we decided to move forward with one that involved incorporating library and hotel services. In a matter of days we were able to make a short video that communicated the idea.
We are in the process of building on this concept so let me know your thoughts! (By the way, Radisson SAS is no way involved with this and judging by the receptionist on duty when we were taking photos, they don’t want to be involved with this… guerrilla prototyping!)
Exhibition flier
Friday night was our first major exhibition and I would say it was quite a success. We opened our studio to the public and exhibited all 9 projects from our month long TUI course.
Keep reading to see photos of a few of the project…