WENHSIN | UX + Interaction Design
Welcome Wall - Entertainment Technology Center (ETC)
Overview
Experience Designer
Duration: 3 Months
Tools: Adobe Creative Suite, Invision, HTML/CSS, SketchUp
Led the design of CMU Entertainment Technology Center's new Welcome Wall, including visual design for the wall and UI/UX design for two interactive kiosks.
Intro
Welcome wall is a summer project at Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University. Our mission is to renovate and create new display contents for the department to show visitors. Display contents including department introduction and mission, student works and hall of fame.
Core issues
Before
1. Project sponsors logos are dim and out of date.
2. Project searching kiosk is unnoticeable and data are also out of date.
3. National flags causing distraction.
1
No platform to retrieve past projects
Many ETC projects from past years are archived and there is no access to them.
Client wanted a kiosk for students to use, meanwhile showcase to visitors.
Information out of date
2
The original kiosk display was made in ten years ago, and did not update since then.
As a result client hoped to have a new system that is easy to update information.
3
Reuse idle space
According to research over 80% of the students in the building did not notice the wall existed. It's a shame that the space is wasted and not have actual function.
4
Create new platform for career connection
School hoped to provide a platform for current students to get in touch with alumni, and help students expand their networking.
1. Wall appearance and space renovation.
2. Design and built kiosks for projects search system.
3. Design and built kiosks for alumni information system.
4. Create systems that is easy to maintain and update.
Project goals
" As a designer I am designing a new Welcome Wall including appearance and space redesign, and two touch interactive screens. "
Project timeline
" As a designer I hope to create an experience that satisfy users' need as well as bring joys to them. "
Target Users
User Flow
Wireframe
Design Challenges and Solutions
0. Tight timeline, budget constrain, stakeholders.
3 month timeline including frequent communication with clients, technical consultant of the department, took down old wall, designed new wall, and final product construction. As the only designer I have to in charge of everything.
1. Simplified searching steps, avoid keyboard input method.
Avoid keyboard pop out could decrease system crush opportunity in the future, easier to maintain.
Solution : Utilized category and alphabet filter system.
I divided projects into categories based on the sponsor type. Using years of the project made, and alphabet filter for advanced searching.
2. Physical space constrain lead to the change of technology.
Due to the space limitation, large computer station could not fit into the space. Also the narrow space will cause the heat problem and lead computer crash more often or slow down preformance.
Solution : Use cranberry pie machine instead.
We use cranberry pie to solve space and heat issue, but we still need to consider the performance issue. In that case we have to lower down the quality of picture and simplified the whole system.
3. Building decorations over shine old Welcome Wall.
The Welcome Wall is located at the center of the hall way where fill with other hero comic theming decorations. The location and the original design make it hard to notice, almost 90% of students did not notice the exist of Welcome Wall.
Solution : New display design with bright colors and cohesive theming.
In order to make a coherence experience for visitors I decided to utilize existing decorations and created the same comic theming for the wall. I used vivid colors with simple graphic design as content and backlit display method to make to wall catch people' attention.
