INCLUSIVE SERVICE DESIGN

May 2023

In May 2023, I traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark as a part of a BYU study abroad focused on service design. For our first week, we conducted a design workshop with Aalborg University and its service design program. We were placed in teams of four and given the task of improving the university’s cafeteria experience.

Each day, we worked through different sections of the design thinking process. We observed people in the cafeteria. We defined our problem through “how might we…” (HMW) questions. We ideated by thinking of the worst possible idea. We prototyped our idea with Lego and cardboard. Lastly, we tested and presented our idea to the rest of the workshop at the end.

One particular problem arose during our ideation. One of our group’s favorite HMW questions was “how might we increase the fan base for the cafeteria?” The question was exciting and we all felt passionate about it. Early on, we quickly found that this question lent itself to a marketing solution, rather than a service design solution. By that time, the workshop had quickly moved on and teams were working on prototyping their ideas. Our team decided to pivot. The decision would place us behind other groups, but we weren’t going to succeed with the given route. 

We changed our HMW question to be focused on making the cafeteria more inclusive. We suddenly began to think about wheelchair users and how they interact with the environment. Some of our ideas included lower-placed menus, mobile-friendly checkout options, accessible seating, ramps, lower water bottle filling stations, and a customized food tray.

At the end of the workshop, we presented our ideas to the group and received great feedback on our innovative solutions. From this experience, I learned the importance of pivoting when necessary in design. 

CUSTOM JOURNEY MAPPING

November 2023

While working on the product management team at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library, I was tasked with creating custom journey map templates for my team to use. We were exploring the different “jobs to be done” in the Library and needing a way to understand how our patrons were interacting with our services.

I started researching different journey map templates on the internet. I found a lot of different ideas, but faced an obstacle. Many of the published templates were specifically for commercial, for-profit organizations. Our Library was a part of a university, meaning we were non-profit. I saw this as an opportunity to customize our template for our needs.

My first iteration of the journey map focused on the customer’s emotions. It included the touchpoints, reactions, and emojis to better visualize the customer’s emotions. Looking back on it, I didn’t like how it left out the business aspects and how it met the customer needs. 

I started looking for resources that gave underlying principles. I found Mapping Experiences by James Kalbach where he talks about service blueprints, journey maps, and mental model diagrams, to name a few. His expertise was helpful to better understand different elements. I liked how service blueprints and mental model diagrams related the customer journey to what the business offers. However, the diagrams were too complex for us. We needed something simpler to show to stakeholders to help them understand the patron’s experience without having to take a course to understand the diagram. 

My second iteration involved more of the business side. I refined some of the columns to be less restrictive. I added rows detailing the services involved in certain stages as well as the “job to be done” (JTBD) for the patron. I still liked how the emojis visually communicated the customer’s emotions easily, so I decided to keep that at the bottom. I’m happy with where this journey map has come and I’m looking forward to improving it more in the future.

I’ve published the template as a FigJam template if you would like to use it here.

"IN YOUR FEELS," A SPOTIFY REDESIGN

October 2023

For my human-computer interaction class, we were tasked with a personal design project to help users with a task that they do on the go. I started with observing. I interviewed my boss from work as well as my roommate about their activities. My roommate talked a lot about how he liked to listen to music that fit his mood at a certain time of day while he walked home from work. He said that the right music helped him to feel understood. I latched onto that comment and used it as a starting point for my design.

I framed my ideation process with the narrow question: “how might we redesign Spotify to help walkers feel understood by music?” Some of my favorite ideas that I came up with were:

• After starting a journey on Google Maps, Spotify suggests songs based on that destination

• Take a quiz before the walk starts to determine certain moods and Spotify creates a playlist

• Give Spotify a schedule of your day and rate each event (Work was stellar, but the commute was terrible, etc.) and Spotify creates a playlist based on it

• Add songs to your queue from your lock screen

• Select a playlist based on mood and walking speed (Spotify selects songs based on BPM to match your walking speed)

• Spotify selects songs based on the weather in your city (rainy days call for different days than sunny days)

• Set a certain amount of time for your walk and Spotify selects songs that tell a story with a peak and ending before you end your walk

I combined multiple ideas to deliver my prototype which was to create a pre-walk quiz that allows walkers to input certain information that influences what Spotify’s algorithm gives them. Ideally, I imagine that walkers wouldn’t need to access their phones while walking because the app would meet their needs enough that they wouldn’t need to skip songs. You can view my paper prototype in the pictures above.

I tested my prototype with two of my roommates and learned some insights about the app. They were both confused about the purpose of the feature and had trouble finding it on the home page. They also mentioned how complicated the process was. In future iterations, I would make the quiz simpler and easier to understand for first-time users.

CULTURECONNECT

October-December 2023

For my Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction class, we were tasked with creating a high-fidelity prototype based on a specific need. Our task was broad. We went through elements of a human-centered design process to create the final product. 

The need that we focused on was helping college students learn about other cultures. I had recently attended a study abroad that opened my eyes to the world that we live in. However, I almost didn’t attend, however, because I had a tight schedule and not a lot of money. Reflecting on my experience, I thought other college students faced these same situations. As a part of the class, each student presented their need. I presented mine which allowed me to connect with my team to start building out the project. 

One of our first assignments was to do a strategic analysis of other solutions. In the digital learning industry, our biggest competitors are LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Skillshare. Each of these allowed users to learn new skills that would help them in their careers and other pursuits. Our solution strived to be different because we were helping users to enrich their life through cultural learning.

We began to prototype a lo-fi solution. We identified three tasks that we wanted users to accomplish and built a paper prototype to accomplish them. In the end, we tested the prototype with several users. I facilitated the testing session with users by welcoming them and walking them through the session. Other team members operated the paper prototype and took observation notes. One particular issue was the overall navigation of the app. We knew that we had to change it in future iterations.

Our data from our lo-fi testing allowed us to build a hi-fi prototype in Figma. The results from the testing allowed us to build a better app in terms of navigation, explanations, and design. We added back arrows and clarified the wording that was being used. We conducted another round of testing with our hi-fi prototype and specifically looked at two variables: the time needed to complete a task and the number of taps to reach a certain screen. Thankfully, both of these were low which helped us know that our revised prototype solved the issue of navigation for users.

Feel free to use our final prototype here!