In collaboration with Rogers Communications
ROUTE+
plan the date, skip the wait
Opportunity
Given the prompt to create a 'digital twin' and explore emerging technologies like 5G, our team of four explored different domains that this prompt could appeal to, including healthcare, service industry, hospitality, education, and others. We eventually narrowed our interest down to the theme-park industry, taking ease of usability testing and feedback into consideration. Route+ aims to target wait-times and provide users with the most accurate wait times for all rides and attractions, and offers visitors with personalized routes.
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FigJam organisation
Problem Statement
Statistics show that 85.4% of park-visitors have had to skip a ride due to long wait-times
User Persona
Through multiple research streams including secondary research, surveys, and interviews, we have verified that wait times are in fact a common issue amongst theme park visitors.
ROUTE + aims to target a specific pain point shared with all visitors at the park; long queues and wait times. By doing so, we’re able to tackle the most problematic issue hindering a quality customer experience. A content analysis of Canada’s Wonderland’s reviews revealed that wait times were the most talked about issue when it came to the park (Canada’s Wonderland).
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Based on our research we created a user persona of Jeff, a father of two, visiting Canada’s Wonderland (see above).
Our Solution
A digital-twin based mobile application that optimizes and personalizes way-finding for park-visitors by tracking their location via park wristbands.
This project solves the issue of prolonged wait times, initially focusing on Canada’s Wonderland. We intend to utilize emerging technologies to provide Canada's Wonderland guests with accurate wait times and additional personalized route services. This service would in turn benefit Canada's Wonderland management through the collection of foot traffic data which can be used for maintenance of crowds, park design predictions and upholding public safety.
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Mitigating the problem of long queue times via a digital twin is a new-age solution. By providing users with a 2D and 3D interactive map of the park, active attractions, event schedules, and hotspots, they are able to further improve their own experiences at the park using our application as a tool.
Application Prototype
Ideation
Our team conducted surveys and interviews to further zero in on customer pain-points. Based on our results, we formed a story-board of our plan to solve this issue. Brainstorming as a team assisted us to get on the same page and have a comprehensive idea of what and how to tackle the problem.
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In our interviews, we also conducted a comparative analysis and after showing our interviewees ROUTE +, they stated how they like that it provides them with exact wait times at any given moment, which they aren’t currently receiving. It was also deemed that participants were willing to wear wristbands during their stay at the park, especially if the information collected was strictly used for the purpose of accurate wait times. This allowed us to design a system similar to the existing FastPass, but with RFID chips encased within them to track the user's location throughout the park. The wristbands will be handed out to everyone in attendance at the park, included in the price of admission. The sensors in the wristband will allow amusement parks to get accurate data concerning the park's wait-times.
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Brainstorming
Storyboarding
Usability Testing and Feedback
The first round of testing was performed with low-fidelity prototypes, wherein our target audience was asked to use a ‘think-aloud protocol’ to showcase their thought process when interacting with our application. Certain design modifications that were implemented from feedback were a change in the color scheme and icon sizing. Other modifications included implementing features like a ‘filter’ option and optimizing the map feature with interactive elements. Another major consideration was thinking of how this application can benefit Canada’s Wonderland and what features it could provide from a maintenance and management standpoint.
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By the second round of usability testing, we found that our major area of improvement was the map element. These particular pages were improved on. However, with our limitations wherein Figma lacked certain zoom features, we were unable to showcase our full idea. Ideally, the map element involves zooming in and out as well as swiping to view the whole park at a glance. Each attraction and building is clickable and ride types can be filtered to match preferences.
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Low Fidelity and High-Fidelity Wireframes
Our major element revolves around personalized content and an easy-to-understand UI. This ensures that our application can be relevant and usable by people of all ages. Feedback received from multiple iterations of usability testing was fairly positive. The first round of testing was performed with low-fidelity prototypes, wherein our target audience was asked to use a ‘think-aloud protocol’ to showcase their thought process when interacting with our application. Certain design modifications that were implemented from feedback were a change in the color scheme and icon sizing. Other modifications included implementing features like a ‘filter’ option and optimizing the map feature with interactive elements. Another major consideration was thinking of how this application can benefit Canada’s Wonderland and what features it could provide from a maintenance and management standpoint.
System innovation
Minimum Viable Product
In summary, the product uses a combination of advanced technologies, including RFID, and artificial intelligence, to provide real-time updates and personalized recommendations to users enabled by a 5G network. The use of these technologies allows the product to function optimally to reduce wait times, improving user satisfaction. The hardware requirements include RFID sensors and tags within wristbands, which are technologically feasible, while the network requirements depend on 5G technology. The software requirements depend on artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze user data and behavior patterns to offer personalized recommendations. All of these technologies and sensors would make our product highly feasible in today's environment.
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By analyzing the competitive landscape and understanding what other theme parks offer in terms of attractions and overall features on their mobile applications allows for the development team to chalk out new features and layouts that make us not only different but also unique.
My Take-aways
I provided my team with the exact amount of research required to make our application both viable and relevant in real-time. This information was crucial for our pitch to Rogers, which I took upon myself to prepare for. Along with working on the visual slide-deck, I also worked on presenting this pitch. Overall, working on Route+ was an excellent experience and my team was amazing to work with.
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Assuming the role of a Project manager was quite the experience. I took the opportunity to learn a few concepts crucial to a designer’s growth and practice it throughout the term. Additionally, since our team only comprised of four people, I had to assume multiple roles, including that of a business analyst, UX Researcher and UI designer. I’ve picked up the following concepts.
Information Architecture:
As Project Manager I’ve been organizing content and ideas using tools like FigJam and JIRA. During the ideation process, it was easy to come to a consensus by jotting down everyone’s brainstorm and organizing ideas in an aesthetically pleasing document. Every business idea and decision made was recorded in order to move forward with our project in a well-defined and informed manner.
Prototyping Challenges:
Learning to make the map clickable was the most challenging part of the design process. Since there were so many attractions and the map of Canada’s Wonderland was outdated, it was impossible to prototype all rides within the given time period.
Our work-around to this challenge was to design a scenario, where the idea of how the app would be used would come through, via a specific run through of all the features the product offers. In doing so, I was able to practise certain Figma concepts that I had little experience of in the past.
Design Documentation
This project helped me improve on design documentation. In addition to organizing every design decision that we’ve made, we also made it a point to organize and record our progress in terms of design. This assisted us rationalize our design decisions and improve per iteration.
In addition, this is the first project I explored building a UI Kit.
UI Kit
Data Analysis
We relied heavily on secondary research for this project and often I found myself filtering through varying technology to build a system that our application would be most efficient in. In addition, we were tasked to understand the market and it’s financial implications on our product.
Incorporating AI tools
​​​A fun take-away from this project is using AI tools like Bing AI and ChatGPT to assist my secondary research and cross-checking concepts and predicted trends to better work on my project. Since AI was first on the rise during this project’s development phase, I’ve made it a point to work in tandem with AI to make me more efficient (and it’s the best decision I’ve made yet)