WanderlustNCL is a tourism system designed to enhance visitors' experience and immerse them in the local community of Newcastle upon Tyne. It offers features such as the creation of customizable walkable trails, unveiling hidden gems, and facilitating souvenir collections. To implement this, we came up with the idea of utilizing pre-existing Kiosks and created a physical device called WanderBox.
The Kiosk is used to generate routes and print tickets for users, while the WanderBox is used to provide directions based on the user's selected location and collect stamps on their ticket.
This project was a collaborative effort among our team members, and we divided the roles based on our skill sets. My main responsibilities were in UX design for Kiosk, which I worked on in collaboration with Sutakorn, as well as programming in collaboration with Madhura and Yash. Specifically, I programmed the arcade buttons, added map functionality, and also programmed the stepper motor for the stamping mechanism. I also played a role in research, contributing to background and field research.
27 February 2023 to 31 March 2023
UX Researcher, Designer & Programmer
The objective is to create technology prototypes that facilitate responsible and meaningful data collection from people or the local environment, promoting positive interactions and outcomes within the community. The intervention should consist of social and technical components, and can be in the form of low-fidelity proof-of-concept prototypes or high-fidelity fully functional prototypes. Ethical considerations, privacy concerns, and a user-centric approach should be taken into account, with the aim of promoting responsible design innovation. A specific domain area, such as public services, social media, sharing economies, or smart cities, should be chosen for the design intervention, ensuring technical feasibility and scalability.
After understanding the brief, we engaged in a brainstorming session to generate various ideas. Initially, we considered using data from Newcastle University's Urban Observatory, which collects extensive data on topics such as flooding, air pollution, traffic flows, and even bee behaviour, to design something that could improve the city. We also explored the concept of mental well-being and anxiety, generating ideas such as a mood-tracking display or a smart plant that provides positive reinforcement based on user input. However, as we were struggling to choose a specific idea, we decided to focus on one domain, "Smart Cities," as outlined in our brief, and generate ideas related to enhancing tourists' experiences in the city. Each team member contributed their own ideas, which we later combined to develop our final concept.
As someone with a keen interest in travel and exploration, I was personally interested and motivated in working on the WanderlustNCL project. I was excited about the customizable walkable trails and unveiling of hidden gems offered by WanderlustNCL, which provided a unique and enriching experience for users to discover lesser-known places in the city. Furthermore, I appreciated WanderlustNCL's focus on utilizing physical objects and devices to ensure that all users, regardless of their mobile device ownership, could enjoy travelling, aligning with my values of promoting accessibility and inclusivity. Additionally, the idea of improving user immersiveness in the environment and minimizing their reliance on phone screens, as we are often glued to our phones, which can be distracting, resonated with me.
Each team member come up with one concept.