Data gathering - Joakim Lilja

Naturalistic observation

• Time: Around two o'clock
• Day: Friday
• Weather: Sunny, windy

The mood on the ferry is calm. Altough the weather is quite windy the majority is outside gazing at the surroundings during the trip. The benches inside are positioned such that the travellers can't easily look out the windows. Most people inside focus on chatting with their companions, toying with their phones or reading newspaper.

Images taken during the trip. Most people are outside looking at the surrounding. When inside you have to sit in an awkward position in order to see through the windows.

Semi-structured interview

Man from London, age 26, accompanying a friend living in Stockholm.

Pre-trip

Interview conducted at the terminal in Slussen before the ferry arrives.

Are you familiar with Stockholm? Have you been here before?

I've been in here for 24 hours so I know like Östermalm, Södermalm, what's that place? Hornstull?

What's the reason you're taking the ferry?

Just to explore.

Do you have any knowledge about the area surrounding the ferry or at the destination?

I think there's a zoo... Perhaps...Or I don't know actually. I recognize that word on the boat - Djurgården.

Do you feel like you're lacking any information regarding where you are going?

I feel like I don't have a bearing. It's a small city so I feel like I should know how to walk places, but I don't.

Is that something that you would like to get during the trip, more information that is?

Yeah, yes. But you got the internet, so you could always google it.

Post-trip

Interview conducted at the terminal in Allmänna gränd just after exiting the ferry.

Did you like the trip?

Yes, very relaxing.

Anything that could've made the trip better?

Yes, maybe some commentary saying kind of "This is this". A bit more information.

Did you do anything special during the trip?

I threw my coffee in the bin, that was interesting.

Were you inside or outside?

Inside, I felt I had to sit down.

Do you feel you could have needed a bit more information regarding the places of interest on Djurgården?

Yes, maybe some sign posts or similar. You don't have to tailor it for everyone though, some enjoy doing some research.

State-of-the-art analysis of Departures App

Departures App

State-of-the-art analysis

The Swiss company Taktil Software have developed an augmented reality app named Departures that visualizes public transportation in an innovative and attractive 3D view. This is the same technology that would be applicable in our project idea and a state-of-the-art analysis of this app is therefore well motivated. The app is currently available in Switzerland, New York City and San Fransisco Bay.

Functionality

The app augments nearest public transportation information onto the camera view of the device. The user can also plot best route to nearest stations using the built-in map.

User interface

The app is composed of two views. The camera view of the surroundings, along with eventual augmented information, and a map view showing nearby stations and best route to chosen destination.

Screenshots of the app

My first impression of the design is that it's simple and easy to understand the presented information. Overall it feels that the app is contained in the sense that it only has a small set of features that does exactly what you'd expect it to do; showing departures. Breaking it down the app shows the following information:

• All public stops/stations
• Departure times for all means of transportation
• Real-time status information, e.g. delays, platform changes etc.
• Built-in map with all above including an arrow and route to a chosen stop/station

The public reception of the app is almost unambiguously positive with multiple design awards and top reviews on apple store.

I find, however, that the view is rather cluttered, since as much information as possible is presented to the user immediately. An alternative that immediately comes to mind is to present the lists as drop down lists that expand when pressed.

The app seems to focus a lot on simplicity and does not offer any settings for customizing the interface (as far as I can tell from the documentation, the app isn't available in Sweden at the moment). Some users might only be interested in a subgroup of the public transportation options, such as only buses for example.

Other suggestions include picking a final destination and instead of showing departures presenting the predicted travel time for the different transportation options, if there are multiple choices that is.

Here is a youtube video with a presentation of the features: video

Summary

All in all the app presents a neat and clean interface to real time departure information of public transportation in an innovative and appealing way. However, there are improvements that can be made with respect to user customizability and design changes that makes the views less cluttered.

Revised project structure

Revised Project Description

After our first project meeting we formulated a more precise project description. We decided to focus on the user experience during the boat trip and leave user tasks such as planning the trip or getting information prior to the trip outside the scope of the project. We would like to investigate the need for traveling information based on user position, in this case the ferry between slussen and allmänna gränd, and technologies that comes to mind is: Google Maps(or equivalent) with relevant landmarks Augmented reality 3D map similiar to Pokemon GO.

Revised interview structure

Pre-trip interview

Warm-up phase:

• Where are you from?
• What is your age?
• Is this your first time traveling with the Stockholm ferries?

Main phase:

• How familiar are you with Stockholm? (Indeed perhaps a bit vague , but it is of interest to see if the traveler knows of the surroundings that will be seen during the trip)
  • Follow up on the region surrounding the ferry route(Djurgården, Skeppsholmen, Stadskajen etc..)
• Why are you travelling with the ferry?
• What do you expect to see/experience on your trip with the ferry?
  • Follow up on information regarding places of interests around Djurgården and Skeppsholmen.
• What are you interested in seeing/doing in Stockholm?

Cooldown phase:

• Do you mind if we ask you a few questions after your trip as well?
• Thank you for your time - enjoy your trip!

Post-trip interview

• Do you feel like the trip lived up to your expectations?
• What did you do during the trip?
• What do you think could have made the trip even better?
• Do you own a smartphone?
• Did you use your phone during the trip? (If so, for what purpose?)
  • Follow up on places of interest topic in pre-trip interview: Would you appreciate more information regarding the destination(s) during the trip?

Cooldown phase #2:

• Do you think you would be interested in traveling with the ferry again?

Seminar 1

This is how we imagine the theory relates to our project.

1. Data gathering

• Semi-structured interviews to establish needs
• Naturalistic observation (but takes a lot of time... might be infeasible)
• Contextual inquiry(hang around the users)
• Sample demographically different travellers(age, etnicity etc within the subgroup tourists)
• Focus Groups letting a smaller group of people discuss the topic under the leadership of an experienced moderator

2. Data analysis

• Qualitative analysis
• Not enough resources at the moment to do quantitative analysis

3. Establishing needs and requirements

• Unclear if subgroup(tourists) have needs, need investigation (first step is semi-structured interviews). Contextual inquiry will hopefully help

Iterative process

• Redo step 1-3! Triangulate data to get better requirements

After first iteration

• Identify personas
• Construct a scenario
• Define a use-case

Exercise 1

For this exercise the group got together and discussed ideas for the project. The ferry location was unanimously chosen as the place we wanted to examine. The reasons behind our choice of location were the following:

• The ferry travels between three set locations, therefore the ferry travellers interests are assumed to be very similar as compared to the subway travellers were everyone have different destinations and reasons for travelling.
• In a big city such as Stockholm, where the means of transportation are very modern, there is something special about traveling with the ferry. Compared to the other options this felt a bit more intriguing, and unpredictable in regards to the results from the interviews.

Contextual Interviews

The interview targets will be found on these locations:

the ferry terminals("allmänna grand" and "skeppsbron") and on the ferry(inside and outside).

The first thing we decided on was the target group for the contextual interviews. The main criteria for our target group is that it must consist of tourists, as we want to know how available information is, regarding the ferry, its' destinations, and landmarks reachable by it. Are the tourists satisfied with the information they are given, and is the information given in the language they speak?

We will begin with introducing ourselves to the interview subjects. The introduction will be something in the lines of:

• Hi we are (our names), and we are students at KTH doing a course in interaction design.
• We were wondering if you have time to answer a few of our questions regarding the ferry.
• Before we start, do you have any questions?

The main interview questions are as follows:

• Where are you from?
• What is your age?
• Do you own a smartphone?
• Why are you travelling with the ferry?
• What is your destination?
• How did you get information regarding the ferry?
• Was the information easy to get a hold of?
• Was the information easy to understand?
• What do you expect (to see/experience) on your trip with the ferry?

The interviews will be followed by "Thank you for your participation. Do you have any questions? if you have any questions feel free to contact us at (email address)".