01.
PERCEIVE

Initial Question

How does music impact the productivity at a shared workspace?

Field Observations

Conducted field observations attempting to be a “fly on the wall” so as to mitigate the observer effect; none of the locations were alerted to the observation sessions.

Interviews

Each researcher also conducted two interviews. The subjects of these interviews were recruited out of convenience.

Findings

We found that people were almost never bothered by music when working in shared spaces. However, we discovered a major pain point was locating a suitable workspace.

Refined Question

How can we help people locate suitable workspace?

02.
ANALYZE

Problem Synthesis

What are people's expectations?

Affinity Diagramming

We performed Affinity Diagramming to organize data collected by each researcher and identify user expectations.

Key Requirements

As a <student> I want <to know where my peers are studying> so that <I can be social and make friends>

As a <student> I want <to work in a non-intrusive space> so that <I can be productive>

As a <young professional> I want< to know where there is sufficient space available> so that <I can meet with friends and clients without wasting time finding a new location>

As a <student> I want <a space that meets my needs> so that <I can complete my work efficiently>

Who are the users?

Empathy Mapping

We used Empathy Mapping to generate two fictional characters representing different user types.

Personas

03.
IDEATE

Brainstorming

How can we address the pain points?

Based on the user requirements identified, we conducted three brainstorming sessions, generating over 70+ ideas.

Storyboards

Exploring Ideas

We selected three ideas from the brainstorming ideas for further exploration.

01. Project Tinder

A digital interface that connected people with projects and skills together. These people would be able to see each other based on proximity and meetup at a local, public area to collaborate.

02. Smart Tables

An IoT device that would have multiple capabilities such as being modular, displaying a light depending on the users openness to noise and meeting other people, noting when people were being too loud, and having the ability to project onto other tables.

03. Project AirBnB

A digital platform that allows users to reserve space at various cafes/places. Additionally, they can find out about spaces in which to work. In this regard, it satisfies all four requirements.

Design Solution Choice

04.
DESIGN

Features

Based of on our findings from research, we decided following features suitable for our personas.

Discover shared workspace's around you

Filter spaces suitable to your neds

Reserve space for individual or groups

User Flow & Wireframe

We created a low fidelity interactive prototype implementing the features identified.

04.
EVALUATE

What are some problems in the design?

The design team performed four evaluative studies, two think alouds, a heuristic evaluation and a cognitive walkthrough.

Think Aloud

Users found the home page “overwhelming”
Users found the hamburger menu and checkout screen “confusing”
Expected some form of directions to pop up after checkout

Heuristic Evaluation

Visibility: need to show if filters are applied
Real world match: filter icon versus a funnel icon
Minimalist design: toggle needed for map

Cognitive Walkthrough

Sliders need labels
Filter versus search confusion
Filters need to be present via UI elements/icons

05.
MATERIALIZE

Hi-Fi Interactive Prototype

The project officially ended with evaluations. I tried addressing the issues identified and created a high-fidelity interactive prototype using AdobeXD and Illustrator. Click here to interact with the prototype.

Area Selection

Missing from the initial design, I added this screen that will enable the users to discover all available coworking spaces within a distance radius.

Home Screen

The minimalistic design of home screen addresses multiple problems identified in the evaluation phase. A toggle button to switch between list and map view. Icons adhering to heuristic of real word representations.

Filters

Filters that will allow the users to find a suitable workspace, for instance, places that are more social in nature. Conversely, it would allow users to find space that is generally less social and more traditionally a workspace.

Transaction

Once the user has selected a workspace, the transaction process allows user to make customized reservations for individual or group meetings.

Ankaii

PROBLEM

SOLUTION

DESIGN PROCESS