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Project Overview
The Smart Directory UI project was centered around creating an interactive and intuitive user interface for 55-inch touchscreen displays positioned at key locations across urban environments. These directories are designed to serve as a digital hub for city navigation, providing residents and visitors with easy access to city maps, local services, points of interest, and a suite of applications tailored to enhance the urban experience.
Objectives
Designing for Inclusivity, Usability, and Scalability
User Experience: Aimed to create an intuitive and engaging experience that enhances city navigation and provides useful services through a touch interface
Scalability: Designed the UI to be adaptable to different cities, integrating various local services and applications.
Inclusive Design: Focused on making the interface accessible to all, regardless of language or ability, by incorporating AI-powered multilingual support and ADA-compliant features.
Challenges
Balancing Stakeholder Demands with Design Integrity
Deploying the Smart Directory UI in cities involved navigating the interests of many stakeholders, from private entities managing local press to city employees overseeing public information. Each group wanted input on the content displayed, which required the interface to be highly customizable. This flexibility had to maintain a polished appearance, even when stakeholders made decisions that contradicted our recommendations. Balancing these diverse demands while preserving usability and aesthetic integrity was a significant challenge that shaped the design process.
Solution
A Robust, Accessible, and Adaptive Smart Directory UI
The final product is a Smart Directory UI featuring a highly responsive map interface with highly customizable app pages. It provides easy access to local services, events, and emergency information, ensuring that all users, regardless of ability or background, can navigate the city with ease. The interface dynamically adjusts to outdoor lighting conditions, ensuring visibility and usability at all times.
Customizable Branding and Apps: Cities can personalize the UI with custom branding and app selection, all managed through an easy-to-use CMS.
Utilities for Enhanced User Experience: Includes real-time weather updates, a multi-language selector for broad accessibility, and a customizable "About" widget that allows cities to share important information and showcase local highlights.
City Navigation and Points of Interest: The navigation app offers a detailed city map with unique Points of Interest (POIs), allowing users to search and receive directions to destinations around them. With walking, driving, public transit, and biking options, the app also integrates ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, providing comprehensive and adaptable routing options for seamless urban exploration.
Direct Communication with City Services: An integrated "Contact Us" form allows users to report issues, share feedback, or reach out directly to city representatives, enhancing community engagement and ensuring city officials are responsive to visitors' needs.
Augmented Reality (AR) Selfie Experience: The AR Selfie app lets users capture and share unique memories during their visit. This augmented reality experience adds interactive elements to photos, enabling visitors to take home a digital keepsake of their time downtown.
Conclusion + Lessons Learned
What I’d do differently next time
This was my biggest project i'd ever taken from concept to market! 🎉 More than the actual output, however- I’m immensely grateful to have learned through process, and to be coached by my mentor through the times that I was stuck or felt like I had hit a wall.
Research and apply what you’ve learned. In the beginning stages, I’ve explored so many different options to try finding the right solution for the design. I tried so many time to “reinvent the wheel” when it came to kiosk software and looked past all of the years of research that had gone into it already.
You didn’t fail- you just found 100 ways that didn’t work. From noticing mistakes in my UI to uncovering more foundational UX problems in the software, I’m thankful to have constantly asked for feedback from my peers and my mentor Russ. In the end, I pushed to have the software as best I could, and did not let my own thinking stop me from questioning if my own decisions were truly best for the user.
