STADSEE
2020/2021
Project Overview
For Wladimir Lesius, the creator of the Leiden city discovery app "Stadsee", I came up with a storyline, 25 puzzle ideas, and a hint system for a digital city escape game, on brand with the original app.
Context
When I attended the the entrepreneurial competition LEF2019 as audience member in 2019, I watched Wladimir Lesius present his new app "STADSEE - The app to discover Leiden in a fun way!" As Wladimir and I shared mutual friends he was a familiar face and we found each other during the networking event after the presentations.
He told me then that he considered multiple ways to expand the app and the customer-experience. One of his ideas was to add a scavenger hunt or city escape game to STADSEE.
He was interested in working together so three months before the competition finale we met up to brainstorm about the inclusion of puzzles and games in his city discovery app. Although the meeting went smoothly, Wladimir decided it was not yet the right time to expand.
A little over a year after our initial meeting Wladimir reached out again to explore the options for a scavenger hunt city tour more seriously.
Especially while social distancing regulations were still in place it seemed like a great way for friends and families to spend quality time together out and about.
Assignment
My task was to create three distinct puzzles of different levels of difficulty for the scavenger hunt that could be tested with users, along with a Leiden themed storyline that was on brand with the initial style and feel of the app.
Research Phase
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Competitive Benchmarking
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Online Surveys
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Usability Tests
The App
During the session I presented all of the research data from my own competitive benchmarking analysis, competitive benchmarking analyses of four fellow students, results of the online surveys of two fellow students, and several clips of key moments from the user tests I had analysed - additionally to my notes.
The City
During the session I presented all of the research data from my own competitive benchmarking analysis, competitive benchmarking analyses of four fellow students, results of the online surveys of two fellow students, and several clips of key moments from the user tests I had analysed - additionally to my notes.
Data Analysis
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Affinity Diagram
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Customer Journey Map
Concept
During the session I presented all of the research data from my own competitive benchmarking analysis, competitive benchmarking analyses of four fellow students, results of the online surveys of two fellow students, and several clips of key moments from the user tests I had analysed - additionally to my notes.
It was important for me to create the Affinity Diagram with people who did not share a design background, to increase the likelihood of a different understanding of the data to validate or challenge my own observations and conclusions.
Design Phase
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Flow Diagram
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Interaction Design
Concept
During the session I presented all of the research data from my own competitive benchmarking analysis, competitive benchmarking analyses of four fellow students, results of the online surveys of two fellow students, and several clips of key moments from the user tests I had analysed - additionally to my notes.
Even though I went into a deeper level of detail than necessary for the Flow Diagram, the short descriptions of what could be found on each page and the specific reactions to the interactions made it possible for me to focus on the design and placement of those contents during the next phase.
Prototype + Hand-over
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Medium Fidelity Prototype
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Annotated Wireframes
Concept
During the session I presented all of the research data from my own competitive benchmarking analysis, competitive benchmarking analyses of four fellow students, results of the online surveys of two fellow students, and several clips of key moments from the user tests I had analysed - additionally to my notes.
It was important for me to create the Affinity Diagram with people who did not share a design background, to increase the likelihood of a different understanding of the data to validate or challenge my own observations and conclusions.
Personal Learning Outcomes
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The majority of the positive interactions and frustrations users experience are indeed related to current best practice designs (or lack thereof)
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An affinity diagram session with non-designers is pretty much a bonus usability test
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Babysteps are the key to accurate problem defining and solving
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Adding interactions in Figma early on saves a lot of time down the line
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Test as much as possible throughout the process, it never hurts the design
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Sleep on it
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I have truly enjoyed my study at the UX Design Institute and the process of learning to apply psychology to software technology professionally, with a human-centered approach.