Bryant Park Info Board

Prize Winner - 2016 UX Empathy Jam

Team: Nina Dabravolskaya, Nate Kushner, Jazz Ng-Quann, Caroline McNeill

CHALLENGE PROMPT: "New York City’s public spaces are for commuting, relaxing, recreation, nature, learning, selling, and more. They also serve diverse groups of people in very different ways. What can we do with technology in public spaces to connect, inspire, and fill the needs of the people in these different spaces?"

ROLE: In a one-day research and design sprint, I created team interview guides and affinity diagrams that shed light on informational needs currently underserved by Bryant Park's signage. With the needs identified, I created two hand-drawn iterations of concepts for outward-facing, dynamically updated e-ink infoboards to greet visitors at park entrances, followed by a digital wireframe informed by test results.

Research Phase

User Interviews

With a mere 6 hours to identify a problem, ideate solutions, create artifacts and iterate refinements through testing, we set out on a rapid research sprint, based on pure guerilla interviewing. Before separating to conduct interviews independently, I created 4 open-ended questions. They were given to the team, and were intended to elicit stories and lead naturally into followups, and hoepfully identify commonalities, a problem statement, and some special insights about the specific qualities of Bryant Park, where the interviews were conducted.

For a period of an hour, the team gave these prompts to a series of strangers in New York's Bryant Park.

Synthesis

Reconverging at home base, as the team compared notes, I began the process of creating affinity diagrams to identify commonalities of experience, along with pain points and opportunities.

The commonalities we identified had to do with seemingly conflicting needs of several kinds of park users:

Tourists and regulars who came to engage with the park's amenities and events, but often arrived disappointed when faced with frequent unforeseen closures of spaces like the carousel and Great Lawn. In some cases, users ran up against this problem despite following the park's social media presence where such information should be located.
Organizers of park events (in one example, the leader of a dance class) desiring greater attendance, and easier ways for parkgoers to find the location of events.
A significant plurality who come to engage with the park as a relatively tech-free place to relax and pass time.

Solution

The experiences and stories of our interviewees presented us with a series of needs that we believed could be addressed with dynamically-updated wayfinding displays strategically located at park entrances. With consideration for the park users looking to get away from distracting technology, we chose the medium of e-ink as a low-energy, non-backlit display surface, outward-facing to greet people entering the space, but difficult to see once firmly inside the park.

Design Guidelines:

To honor the needs of our interviewees, I created preliminary sketches of a design that would:

Clearly communicate closures of park features.
Show a dynamically-updated schedule of today's events, operable by staff in the park's office.
Create a visual relationship between events on the schedule and park geography.
Use special highlighting on events happening now.

Test Prototype

Suggestions and insights from the teammates were incorporated into the next iteration, a large-scale, nearly actual-size, MVP paper prototype, incorporating a simplified map of the park, spot color and dummy data of a day's events at the park. We took this prototype out into the park again to test comprehension of iconography, layout, and microcopy.

These tests were conducted via guerilla testing of strangers. Calculating viewing distance as a function of screen size, as prescribed by wisdom I researched from HDTV manufacturers and sellers, we held our 32-inch "screen" at a 4-6' viewing distance and asked questions related to map comprehension, and scenario-based questions around event wayfinding.

Test Results

Testing revealed generally good comprehension of the color-coded schedule snippets, and their relation to analagous spot color on the map, and revealed an opportunity to assist engagement with scheduled events even more by including a simple clock in the display.

Testing of comprehension of closure notices showed room for improvement, leading us to create real estate in the display for a dedicated list of closures, now with estimates for reopening of those features.

A tourist who tested with us gave us additional insight about his additional informational needs as an out-of-towner, leading to ideate a new feature regarding park rules.

Nina and Jazz facilitating the testing phase.

(Not pictured: me off to the side, taking notes)

Final Deliverable

With the deadline approaching, I incorporated the team's new insights, test results, and aspects of Bryant Park branding into a digital wireframe.

Features:

Color-coded event listings. The current event on the schedule receives increased height and contrast, as well as a star indicator of the same blue color telling the user where in the park to find, in this case, the dance class. As 2:15 approaches, the contrast will move to the next item on the schedule, and the location will move.
The Great Lawn, a frequently-closed feature of the park, is currently greyed out in contrast to other areas of greenery. When reopened, the lawn will regain its color and its status will be updated on the list. Likewise, the carousel will darken to indicate its reopening when appropriate.
Non-backlit display medium to be unobtrusive for park visitors who expressed a desire to disengage with technology

Next Steps

Validate more iconography concepts for more of the park's amenities and nearby transportation options.
Increase fidelity and detail of map.
Test infoboard placement options at park entrances for best visibility.
Test concepts for map orientations and alternate rotations (ie, a visitor entering from the north side may want to see a view of the map with south at the top)
Develop a CMS platform for easy and dynamic updating by park staff in response to changing conditions.