Every city corner holds a story, a fragment of history that, when pieced together, forms the tapestry of its heritage. Traditionally, human guides have been our primary access point to these stories. However, in today's fast-paced, digital-first world, there's a clear need for a more flexible and personalized way to engage with urban history. Relying on human guides can sometimes be limiting due to schedules, varying expertise, or tailored interests.
Design a way for learning a city's history that doesn't require human guides.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?
Designing: 3 weeks
Developing: In progress
WHAT WAS MY ROLE?
Sole UX Designer
Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Visual Design, FE Developer
WHAT SOFTWARE DID I USE?
Figma
Adobe CS (Photoshop, Illustrator)
Visual Studio Code
To create a solution that truly resonates with its users, I first needed to understand who the users are and what they desire from such a product.
Because this challenge could relate to a wide audience, I researched three personas that represented the target users. Understanding some of their pain points, would give me some insight into their needs and expectations for this product.
"I want to bring my followers on a journey through time and history with my posts!"
"I want to bring history to life for my students. The more interactive, the better!"
"Disability should not be a barrier to learning. With the right tools, we can explore the world in our own ways."
Antonio Lopez
AGE
JOB TITLE
LOCATION
LANGUAGE
35
Travel Blogger
Madrid, SP
Spanish
About Antonio
Antonio loves travelling and exploring new cities, particularly their historical landmarks. He is an avid user of technology and relies on various travel and navigation apps during his journeys. Antonio enjoys sharing his travel experiences with his followers, often focusing on the history and cultural significance of the places he visits.
Pain Points
Donna Jones
AGE
JOB TITLE
LOCATION
LANGUAGE
28
Teacher
Toronto, ON
English
About Donna
Donna is a history enthusiast who enjoys exploring historical buildings and monuments during her free time. She is tech-savvy and often uses her smartphone to look up facts and information. Donna believes in interactive learning and often organizes field trips for her students to learn about local history.
Pain Points
Lucy Schnieder
AGE
JOB TITLE
LOCATION
LANGUAGE
30
Developer
Berlin, GER
German
About Lucy
Lucy is a lover of history and culture and enjoys exploring her city's historical sites. Despite her visual impairment, she is tech-savvy and is familiar with assistive technologies. She believes in inclusivity and accessibility in all areas of life, including technology and learning.
Pain Points
After empathizing with some of the users' challenges, I summarized some of the key goals:
How can I provide history enthusiasts with an intuitive, engaging, and informative solution that allows them to independently discover and learn about historical sites and monuments in real-time?
Using an IMPACT versus EFFORT matrix, I was able to prioritize the ideas and visually see what would be the best solution given this criteria.
It resulted that designing an AR overlay that scans buildings with a smartphone would be the likeliest MVP for this project.
Based on the the user's goals, I made a few assumptions that would help me with the design of this product.
Users have smartphones compatible with AR technology.
There's a demand for self-guided exploration.
Users have reliable internet connectivity.
I set out to create a journey map of steps a user would take while using this app - before, during, and after.
I sketched the linear task for the Bookmarking information flow of this app. I realized that there were a couple of actions that could be eliminated to lighten the flow.
Assuming that the user will have opt-in for camera access and set up their language preference during onboarding and initial set up, I reiterated my original flow and simplified it to make the path flow a little cleaner.
Next, I began wireframing key user journey touchpoints. Starting from onboarding which gave some introduction of what to expect from this app.
Then I wireframed the user flow from the homepage starting from pointing the camera towards a monument, receiving data, and saving favorites.
I made sure that the UI is simple and intuitive, reducing the cognitive load for the user. I carefully designed every frame to provide the user with the information they need in the least amount of steps possible.
With my wireframes ready, I developed an interactive prototype. I tested this with four users, observing their interactions, understanding their pain points, and gathering feedback.
Objective:
Their task was to scan a monument of interest and save it to their bookmark. I encouraged them to click around to familiarize themselves with the app.
Participants: We conducted tests on 4 participants ranging from ages 17 - 57, from differing professional backgrounds.
Post-testing, I refined my design based on the feedback gathered.
Some of the following iterations to the app were improved:
As part of this project requirement, I developed a fully responsive website. The purpose of this site is a way for users to access the information they saved from the app on other devices including desktop, laptop or tablet at any time.
With the help of w3.css, I created the onboarding introduction flow as a zigzag river layout and the "My Bookmarks" page as cards with expanding and collapsing text.
Here's a sample of the live page...
In conclusion, HistoriScan achieved my initial objective of creating an accessible, informative, and user-friendly application that enhances the experience of exploring buildings and monuments.
From identifying the problem, understanding the user needs, creating user personas and journey maps, to ideating solutions and conducting user testing, I was able to appreciate how each step of the process contributed valuable input to the design and development of the app.
HistoriScan has the potential to redefine how we learn about history and architecture, making every journey a unique educational experience. I believe it is well-positioned to become a valuable tool for students, educators, tourists and anyone interested in exploring and learning about historical sites independently and interactively. The user feedback highlighted areas of improvement and potential new features which have presented opportunities to further evolve the app.
My next step is to continue to improve and make updates based on user feedback. I would like to include enhancements to the onboarding experience, optimization to real-time features, introduce an offline mode, and even some gamification.
