The future of play.
Research – Concept – Prototype
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Sponsored by Mattel, the studio delved deep into the consumer mindset to explore new possibilities and also new challenges brought by a digitally-saturated world.
Linh Ho
Interaction Design
Yosef Lee
Product Design
Jane Kem
Graphic Design
My Role
20%
User Research20%
User Experience Design60%
Prototype
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Crude and humble as it was, our first prototype served beautifully as the first foray into the heart and mind of our users.
User Interviews
What parents say?
More than 10,000 species are at risk of extinction every year, among them a swelling number of marine animals.
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
More than 10,000 species are at risk of extinction every year, among them a swelling number of marine animals.
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
More than 10,000 species are at risk of extinction every year, among them a swelling number of marine animals.
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
More than 10,000 species are at risk of extinction every year, among them a swelling number of marine animals.
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large.
Humans have profoundly
The Reality
More than 10,000 species are at risk of extinction every year, among them a swelling number of marine animals.
Humans have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large (e.g., whales) and small (e.g., anchovies) marine fauna. Such declines can generate waves of ecological change that travel both up and down marine food webs and can alter ocean ecosystem functioning. Climate change threatens to accelerate marine defaunation over the next century.
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Douglas McCauley
Marine Biologist | UCSB
#1
Wildlife populations in the oceans have been badly damaged by human activities.
#2
We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event.
#3
We should act quickly to slow the advance of marine defaunation.
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Crude and humble as it was, our first prototype served beautifully as the first foray into the heart and mind of our users.
Play Session
The ArtCenter Loop
The What?
With the help of my best friend, I set up automobile-themed elements throughout the ArtCenter Hillside campus, creating what essentially became an indoor highway.
Hallways and thoroughfares become superhighways with distance markers while destinations such as the model shop, library and cafe became pit stops.
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We had so much fun racing each other down the long corridors of the College. Other people also enjoyed the signs so much they started taking pictures of them.
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2-up design was a big hit!
Controls were easy to grasp
Need more data points!
More storytelling
Design Criteria
Within the fast-paced and iterative creative process, we established a clear goal and set design criteria for the project for the weeks to come. These guides, though simple, often came in handy for re-evaluating our concepts.
Examples:
- This idea is cool but does it successfully communicate the reality in a clear and engaging manner?
- That being asked, what do we use to differentiate levels of engagement?
- How memorable is the interaction? Can we measure it?
- What are the potential call-to-actions?
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Communicate the story of vanishing marine animals
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via an engaging and memorable interaction.
Humpback Odyssey
A story of great recovery.
On Content
Instead of capitalizing on the tragedies, we chose to tell the humpback whales’ great comeback story, notably during the last 40 years.
Their resilience and a strong recovery in population is proof that a coalition of international policy-making efforts and collective human activism can make a big difference.
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On Form
After a few iterations, we found out that the optimal form factor consisted of two planes conjoined at an angle equal or greater than 90 degrees.
To accomodate both adults and children of small sizes, the angle of the joint would become more dramatic as the bottom plane moved closer to ground. Hollowing out the supporting structure for the bottom plane was also considered for better wheelchair support.
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User Insight
The setup is perfect for a shared experience in which the parent assumes the co-pilot position while the child is the main driver of the narrative.
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Crude and humble as it was, our first prototype served beautifully as the first foray into the heart and mind of our users.
Insight
Upon seeing users interact with the mockup, we believed we had found an intuitive way to communicate our story.
Tasks
Tom
Jerry
Susan
Starting the session
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Navigating the timeline
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Ending the session
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clear
clear
Readability
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Comprehension
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2-up design was a big hit!
Controls were easy to grasp
Need more data points!
More storytelling
IA
We quickly assembled another prototype consisted simply of color-coded post-its so our users can begin sorting data into various ‘tiers.’
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