BEATRIX

Introduction

The Goal

Beatrix was designed to give users the ability to travel to any event in history, past or future, so that they may experience what it was like in that time.       

Challenges

• The audio-only activation transported users to dangerous places as a result of errors

• Users had a hard time picking time periods to visit due to a lack of history knowledge

• The app led to fatalities as a result of time travel to dangerous places

• Users needed to know how to appropriately dress for the time period/weather

• Users needed to be encouraged to visit featured times in history

My Solutions

• Design an AI supported time travel app interface

• Allow only the consciousness of users to time travel. Hence, while time traveling users feel like they are in a dream. Since they are not corporeal, they cannot get lost or hurt

• Make users purchase a travel package before they are immersed in the experience. These travel packages include tours and other experiences the company is advertising

• Have both the dashboard and the AI recommend featured destinations to users

Inspiration

Black Mirror is a sci-fi anthology series exploring a twisted, high-tech multiverse where humanity's greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide.

In the episode “San Junipero” the main characters, Yorkie and Kelly, are able to time travel in a virtual world and interact with other time travelers. This experience is accessed through a device called an “experiencer disk”.

Assumptions

• Users have already purchased the experiencer disk that syncs with the app

• Users are merely spectators, and they cannot interact with the time periods or be seen by the people of those time periods

• The time travel experience occurs in a safe place since the experiencer disk puts users in a deep sleep

UX Research

Competitive Analysis

The main app I analysed for inspiration was Vrbo because I wanted to ensure that the interface of Beatrix was familiar to users. I also analysed the usability of two other popular travel apps, Expedia and Tripadvisor.

Empathy Mapping

Due to time constraints and the science fictional nature of the app I was designing, I decided to use the behavioral research method to study the experience that the main characters of  “San junipero” had while time traveling in the virtual world. I did this by observing the characters in the episode and later crafting an empathy map with my research notes.

Affinity Mapping

I sorted all the sticky notes from my empathy map to organize the information into groups. I was able to gather key insights that helped me ideate the app I needed to design to solve the pain points of time travellers.

User Persona

Using my research data and problem statement, I was able to design a persona that highlighted the needs and pain points of the app users to ensure that I kept them in mind as I began the ideation phase.

Storyboarding

After creating my persona, Atlas, I made a storyboard to visually predicts and explores his experience with the time travel app I was designing.

User Journey Map

I also created a user journey map to further visualize the processes Atlas would go through in order to accomplish his goal.

Site Map

I designed a simple site map to comprehend the information architecture of my app and the basic features that I needed to incorporate in the designs.

Prototype

Sketches

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Basic Prototype Demo