A student at Aarhus University
Denmark
Digital Design – IT, Aesthetics and Interaction
Johannes Wigh-Poulsen
I have an interest in subjects as; Smart Cities, Interaction design, the psychology of creativity and design processes. All of these subjects have a focus on a, critical and creative interplay between Information Technologies and humans.
These interests is engrained in my way of handling design process. This can be seen in the portfolio
Portfolio
Alm Brand Marts – May 2019
Design Brief
Alm Brand is a Danish insurance firm, whom issued a design brief at Aarhus University. They wanted to create the future of insurance, through IOT and creating a new view on insurance companies, from the customers perspective.
We used this case to test our use of methods and applying gained knowledge to a final artifact.
Process
The process has been a longer journey through different knowledge creating methods and workshop. We entered three larger phases; Knowledge creation, Knowledge analyzing and prototyping. All of these methods were applied and configured to the context. Overall the process was very iterative and we shifted from phase to phase.
Roles: In this project, my group and I, were participating in all the roles. Both creation of knowledge, the analysis and formgiving through prototyping.
Two Significant Steps for the final outcome
1. Contextual Inquiry
Before this method we have been gathering data through questionnaires and interviews. This data was analyzed with the adjusted use of the Critical Incident Technique. We looked at the most significant and meaningful answers instead of pure quantity.
We found our main focus, which was losing one’s checked-in luggage when traveling.
We decided to visit Billund Airport and using the contextual inquiry as presented by Löwgren and Stolterman. We interviewed and followed the staff around at the baggage claim and conducted unconstructed observations.
From the interview with the staff we gained insight to the complex airport systems and the stressful and sometimes aggressive feelings the passengers have when losing one’s luggage. From the observations we could gather information about how people interacted and talked about their luggage.
This visits direct impact on the final design can be seen, directly in the feedback loops and the how it is built into the current airport systems.
2. The Design Sprint
Before this method we had done the contextual inquiry and received feedback from Alm Brand and our professors.
We decided it was time to apply all the gathered insights, and physically transform them into a testable prototype. We knew beforehand we wanted to creating something visible to the user, something that could be determined whether it was stolen, lost or retrievable by the insurance company.
To find out what we wanted to create we used an applied Design Sprint. There are many different ways to understand a design sprint, but we went about it the following way:
- Understand the user is usually the first part of a design sprint. We had alreadt done this part in the first phase of the process. Instead we gathered inspiration by looking at what others have created in this genre (luggage), and how other design products looks and feels like.
- Diverging was then done by sketching as many possible solutions as possible.
- Deciding three final sketches, was done by comparing them all and gathering liked aspects and creating final sketches.
- Prototyping is of course a key aspect. We made use of parallel prototyping so it was easy to compare them with each other. We gathered suitcases, where we could test our prototypes on which made it easier to replicate the usage situation.
- Validate is the final stage which we dropped and did lab-tests instead. This was done out time pressure or else would testing at an airport with real users be preferred.
After this process we knew what technologies should be used and how, we then only needed to test and readjust aspect of the design, which was done through the lab-tests.
The Outcome
The Insurance aspect
The outcome was a GPS tracker which could be accessed by the insurance company when the customer wants to. The insurance company would then be able to tell if the luggage is in the airport, on a different flight or airport, or even out in a city somewhere. Then it would be possible to determine if the luggage would return or not, and by having the possibility of this, they could pay-out the full insurance claim, and the customer wouldn’t spent time wondering, being nervous or getting as aggressive as before. This would speed up a process and take a lot of the responsibility of the user.
The user aspect
The GPS tracker would be inside a buckle on a strap. To activate it, the user simply closes the buckle and LED’s would light up like when a car is locked. This would inform the user that the GPS is active. These LED’s could later be activated inside the Airport if it is lost, to make it recognizable to both the user and the personnel. This would also deal with the issue of privacy, as the personal don’t like to go inside others luggage to find personal items as medicine.
This final design is a product of the knowledge gained in the aforementioned methods.