Including children in ticket purchasing
For an interaction evaluation course my team and I formulated a brief based on our observations on ticket machine users. We noticed that children were curious about what adults were doing with the screen and wanted to participate. Also, repetitive purchasing process for several family members seemed confusing and time consuming. We traced the user path by breaking down every action
during a purchasing event and used that as a base for further inspection.
during a purchasing event and used that as a base for further inspection.
Sprinting but not rushing
We ran a 5 day long design sprint to come up with, prototype, and evaluate our solution. It was a productive week of fast brainstorming, sketching ideas without overthinking and making those
tough decisions in order to keep up with schedule. There were no soloists in our group - we saw the value in each other’s work and merged the best bits that resulted in a better solution.
tough decisions in order to keep up with schedule. There were no soloists in our group - we saw the value in each other’s work and merged the best bits that resulted in a better solution.
Halfway through the project we had to adapt to the remote working conditions. Fortunately, we were able to evaluate our digital interface remotely by requesting our participants to think-a-loud their actions. This resulted in much more detailed data. In the following weeks we further refined our prototype based on insights we got from evaluation. A lot of practical and graphical clarifications were done to improve usability and learnability.
Graphical style was based on current visual identity of Helsinki public transportation (HSL) UI.
Our solution was to split the screen in half, so that the adult would control the top part, and the child the lower half. They could navigate the system independently, but only the adult could authorize any payments to avoid mishaps. By following the example of an adult, children could experience the feeling of achievement and independence.
The main takeaways I got from this project was to be able to run a successful design sprint, work with international group, and learn many online collaboration tools such as Teams, Miro and Figma.