In this project I worked together with the customer AHAII, the customer addresses central urban planning challenges and is collaborative project between Halmstad University, Volvo Cars, Västtrafik and Skånetrafiken.
Our task was to design a booking system for future autonomous "pods" intended to be shared by 2-3 families or neighbors in a residential area. The system allows users to reserve the vehicle for specific time slots, ensuring efficient and convenient access.
CLIENT/
AHAII
ROLE/
UX/UI Designer
DURATION/
5 week
DELIVER/
High-fi prototype
Guidelines
BRIEF
TEAM/
4
DESIGN PROCESS
The design process followed the double-diamond method, used to explore, define, develop, and evaluating concepts to choose a solution. An agile approach with twice-daily scrums ensured regular updates and progress tracking.
DISCOVER
Research
The first step was to explore existing studies from AHAII and review current sharing services and booking systems to better understand the problem area.
Interviews
Semi-structured interviews offered flexible follow-ups and in-depth insights into users' views on mobility, car sharing, and sharing habits.
Surveys
The surveys identified young, urban residents who don't need a vehicle daily as the target group due to their openness to technology and sharing services.
1. Users prioritize convenience and accessibility when choosing mobility options.
2. When sharing a vehicle, they want to know who they are sharing with.
3. Social motivations, such as similar interests and goals, also make carpooling more appealing and add value to the shared experience.
Research key findings
DEFINE
Narrow down
Research questions:
When is it okey to share a carpool with others who live in the same building?
How should the bookingsystem be designed to have enough transparency?
Insights
Persona
To summarize and define the users based on the collected data, a detailed persona was developed to capture the essential characteristics, needs, and preferences of the target audience. This persona offers valuable insights into user behaviors and motivations, guiding the alignment of design solutions with their expectations.
Conceptual model
A conceptual model of the booking system was developed to provide a clear overview of its structure and the interaction between components. This approach aimed to establish a shared understanding of the system and what users would experience. The team identified five main categories for the navigation menu: "Calendar", "My Bookings", "Booking", "Chat", and "Profile".
User test
Early Prototype Evaluation: Focused on assessing users' attitudes toward the system and how well the functions met their needs
Second Evaluation: Aimed to identify potential misunderstandings of functions and test the booking features and scenarios.
Final Evaluation: Assessed finalized functions.
Feedback key insights
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Zone colors were confusing, labels were changed to area names.
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Users wanted control over booking request response times, leading to a custom deadline feature.
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Calendar interaction was unclear, promting updates on text and visuals.
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Added chat shortcut for easier communication.
DEVELOP
Prototyping
Based on sketches, wireframes were created to outline how the functions would work and interact. This step streamlined the process by allowing evaluations before developing the final prototype. Once the wireframes were evaluated and iterated upon, the next phase involved creating a high-fidelity prototype using Figma.
A simplified graphic manual was created. The font used is Work Sans Medium for buttons and Work Sans Light for other text. A limited color palette ensured a clean, professional design to build trust. Blue was used as an accent color to enhance messaging, and icons were added alongside text to improve clarity and understanding.
Visuals
Work Sans
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#599BEE
#FAF9F9
#EAF0F
Final prototype
Design
My Bookings lets users view and manage their bookings separately from the calendar, including upcoming trips and carpool requests.
The main function of the calendar is to display the pod's schedule, serving as one of the primary features users interact with.
Calender
My booking
Car-pool
Carpooling uses zones for location selection, reducing shared personal info and enhancing safety.
DELIVER
Conclusion
Final outcome
The final outcome was a high-fidelity prototype of a booking system application that lets users reserve the pod. Our research revealed that users value feeling in control.
From this, we developed guidelines that address the project's research questions.
When is it ok to share a carpool with others who live in the same building?
Common goal
The user should receive information about other users goals and interests, to identify common destinations and goals. ..........................................................................................................................................
Choices
Users should not feel forced to share personal information and should have control over their trip.
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Equal terms
Users want to know as much information about other travelers as one is willing to share.
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Motivations
Users should receive relevant information to customize their booking without unnecessary details or complex decisions.
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Freedom
The user should be able to have personal space and not feel limited by other users.
How should the bookingsystem be designed to have enough transparency?
Privacy
Users should not be required to share sensitive information, such as their exact destination. ............................................................................................................................................
Clear overview
The system should provide the user with a clear overview of bookings and other users.
............................................................................................................................................Equal terms
The same booking conditions should apply to all members.
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Trust
Users should feel safe sharing personal information through secure identification methods and be able to access personal details about other users.
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Communications
The user should be able to communicate easily with other users of the same pod.
What I learned
— Gained valuable experience working with a real client.
— Before sketching, wireframing, and prototyping, conceptual models can be an effective way to plan all the functions. However, creating a model that is too detailed can stifle creativity during the sketching phase. Next time, I will aim to combine sketching and conceptual modeling in parallel.
— Throughout this project, I gained valuable insights into the importance of involving users in testing the concept and prototype at various stages of the design process.
— Discovered the value of research questions in a project.