Great Gondola
February 2019 - March 2019
Project Brief
This project focused on cross channel service design and challenged us to utilize different methods to design across channels.
To explore different types of transportation available today, we chose to redesign the gondola or sky-lift experience.
Our team’s goal was to create a multi-channel experience within the transportation space.
My Contribution
Arduino/Feather Coding
Physical Prototyping
Secondary Research
Sketching and Ideation
Bodystorming
3D Model
Brainstorming
Our ideation began by listing out all the potential transportation areas we thought about working with. We wanted to be creative and fun with our transportation areas, and therefore listed out more extravagant ideas like: zip-lines, Boilermaker Express, hot air balloon, skyline, etc.
Later in the project, we listed all the touchpoints on the board and decided to simply vote on the touchpoints based on what we each thought would be the most immersive. The voting results left us with the interactive window, the 3D/Hologram map, and the camera.
With the three touchpoints in mind, we decided that we needed to discuss how the touchpoints would tie together and be properly integrated into the gondola lift, in order to create the multiple-channel experience. Therefore, we listed the 3 touchpoints on the board and went through the features. We quickly realized that the camera feature could tie into the interactive window, so those two touch points merged together.
After discussing our options, we mutually agreed on the skyline/gondola lift as our focus of transportation. We then decided to do a round of sketching that directly focused on touchpoint ideas for the gondola lift.
The sketches included touchpoints for 1. an interactive window, 2. rotating seats, 3. a 3D map for the boarding station, 4. a controllable camera on the gondola lift, and 5. a gondola lift app.
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Secondary Research
As we were ideating and sketching, we also did secondary research about the existing gondola lifts and interactive technologies that could be considered to enhance the gondola experience.
We looked at different potential touchpoints of the experience, including travel apps, interactive displays, 2D/3D maps, and interactive tables. Our research gave us a good direction for an immersive gondola experience and we created an annotated portfolio.
Emirates Air Line: This is a gondola lift transportation across the River Thames in London. It is a unique way of public transportation and intends to provide a newer and richer perspective of the city. Every year, it attracts a lot of tourists to travel with it as a special experience in London.
Visit London App: The “visit london” app is an official guide for tourists to discover London. It lists and introduces top attractions in the city and provides an attraction map for tourists to explore. The app is easy to access and use and offers helpful information for people who are new to the city.
Hologram Table: Euclideon released the Hologram Table in June 2018, which it can show 3D images to multiple users simultaneously. It is designed for industries of building developers and property developers.
Toyota Window to the World: Toyota’s window to the world project is an interactive window concept which creates a space for children to interact with the window while travelling in vehicles. Children can draw, zoom in and out, and tap on the transparent window display to interact with the outside environment.
Physical Prototyping
We decided to prototype both the interactive window of the gondola and the hologram map. The supplies we used included cardboard, colored construction paper, saran wrap, and the Arduino.
First we built the 3D map prototype. We included buildings, some trees, a river, and a beach, on the map. We also added numbers next to the buildings and corresponding numbered buttons below the map. Interactions with the map were shown with lights/Arduino and construction paper.
Next we moved on to building the interactive window prototype. The plan for this prototype was to design one of the walls of the gondola lift. We wanted to make it big enough to give the user the feel like they were actually sitting one. Therefore, we made the frame of the gondola wall out of cardboard and then covered the window hole with saran wrap to give it a window like appearance.
Digital Prototype
Based on the feedback we got from a bodystorming session and testing, we did some changes and created digital versions of prototypes.
Interactive Window Interface:
We added a limit number of pictures the user can take. It informs users how many pictures left at the top of the camera mode, stating “# of pictures left”. After a picture is taken, we added cancel and save buttons so that users can discard the pictures they do not like and only save 10 pictures they are satisfied with.
Gondola Lift Car
We created a 3D model of our gondola car itself, as it was the only thing that we had not prototyped or visualized yet. This and our 3D map model was created via the Shapr App on IOS.
3D Map
The map would allow the rider to know what attractions and buildings they would be seeing throughout their gondola ride. If they click the corresponding buttons that go along with the buildings, they would see the attractions and buildings light up, as well as some additional information on the place.