project timeframe:

2 weeks, fall 2008

team members:

Jenny Allen, Laura Brunetti, Eugene Chang, Vincent Diaz

methods:

Persona Creation, Pre-test Questionnaire, Paper Prototyping, Usability Testing, Post-test Questionnaire

The goal of this design was to create an assistance program for an airport that is experiencing extreme delays.

The fundamental problem that we looked to solve was to make as many people as calm as possible. The first goal was to reach the biggest audenice with traveler-specific information. Our research showed that most travelers have access to phones, and thus we decided to create an automated telephone answering system. This allowed for individuals to get traveler specific information.

However, this alone did not solve the emotional experience problem. In order to do that, we used a combination of following standards, novel technologies, and live operators to help with this. The new technologies included natural language processing systems and mood detection software. Our user testing showed that we were able to break pre-existing expectations of fighting with an automated phone system.

One of the most difficult parts of this assignment for our team was to not immediately turn to touchscreens and kiosks. In fact, our team spent a lot of time debating whether a phone system was chic enough to be interesting. The key lesson from this assignment was that a remix of an old technology can be just as effective as trendy technologies.