Project

Info

ETC Portal

An engaging and informative touchscreen kiosk that showcases unique characteristics of the Entertainment Technology Center to visitors.

I am responsible for proposing the concept, designing kiosk information structure, conducting user tests. On the tech side, I am responsible for programming in Unreal Engine 5, writing tools for people to update the program and writing technical documentation to instruct people on the process.

Role

UI/UX Designer & Programmer

Platform

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Timeline

Jan 2023 - Now

Team Size

Prototype

Tech Document

Project Website

Overview

Problem

The tour of Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) building is amazing but lacks some interactivity and exploration. How might we help them to create an experience that inspires visitors to explore and learn about ETC?

Solution

We are creating a touch screen information kiosk that prioritizes simplicity and clarity and provides concise and informative content that engages visitors in learning about the Entertainment Technology Center and leave them wanting more.

Tech Demo

Research & Exploration

01 Interview the Highschool Student Visitors

I incorporated head-fakes into the research process by inviting the pre-college students that are visiting our building and having them play some Kinect demos in our project room. By incorporating this unexpected and enjoyable interaction, we can gain valuable insights into how users interact with technology in a more relaxed and natural setting. Then we casually asked them about their tour of the building.
We found that they enjoyed this hands-on experience the most. And after their tour, they still didn’t know much about ETC, including its history and its current state.

Highschool students playing our demo

Casually asking questions to the students in the back

02 Interview the ETC Faculty and Staff

we conducted interviews with the ETC faculty and staff to explore their needs and gather suggestions for improving the guide tour experience. Our goal was to gain insights from their perspective as experts in the field and to gather feedback that could inform the design process.

…Guide Assistants are really important, for the tour and demo rooms..

Janice

Administrative Coordinator

…We need to surprise the kids during the tours..

John

Director of Educational Outreach

…prospective students are looking for a fun and engaging experience…

Rebecca

Director of Admission and Marketing

I wanted to tailor the tour to the potential clients' interests…

Drew

ETC Director

03 Demographic

Since we gained a lot of feedback/information from the interviews, based on faculties' experience on past guide tours and our own observation during the tour, we finally narrowed down the demographic for our project, which is high school students, ETC current students, alumni and potential clients, because we found out these are the visitors ETC mostly got for the building guide tour. Then we built 4 personas based on our findings.

Persona: Highschool Student

Persona: ETC Current Student

Persona: Alumnus

Persona: Potential Client

We also identified the user needs that we want to prioritize:

Having a better understanding about ETC
Viewing ETC’s past and current projects
Exploring technologies and platforms being used in ETC
Visiting ETC building

Finding Solutions

During our interview with Janice, we learned the current guide tour progress. According to Janice, visitors will receive a paper tour guide that includes a schedule for different groups to visit. The tour begins with an overview introduction of ETC at the RPIS, followed by a tour of the building. Visitors will then have the opportunity to explore and experience hands-on activities with different technologies in the demo room and project room.
We can use this information to identify areas for improvement and to ensure that the ETC portal provides a seamless and enjoyable experience that complements the existing guide tour. So combining all the information and feedback we got, we found the best way to satisfy all the needs, which is to design a touch screen information kiosk, which we called Portal.

Ideation

We ideated over potential interfaces and user flows using sketches.

Sketches

Low-fi Prototypes

Hi-fi Prototypes

Check the interactive Figma hi-fi prototypes

Visual Reference

Check project website dev blogs for more recent updates......