Designing experiences in the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for travelers to learn about the historic Tulip Mania.
ROLE
Experience Designer
TIMELINE
12 weeks
SKILLS
Experience Design, Physical Prototyping, Digital Prototyping, Visual Identity
TEAM
Individual
Tasked with creating an experience for airports, I chose to design a distributed scavenger experience at Schiphol Airport where travelers learn about the Dutch Tulip Mania that occurred in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Interactions are designed for a low barrier of entry, specifically for layover passengers with time who are curious about learning about the fun history of the city they are in.
SUMMARY
FINAL EXPERIENCE
Explore the airport with map.
DISCOVER AND LEARN
Sunny is a conversational assistant that helps when users are overwhelmed by the number of meditations on the app. With Sunny, users can ask for the most personalized meditation exercises.
Learn about varieties of the Tulip Mania.
PRIZED POSSESSIONS
Sunny is a conversational assistant that helps when users are overwhelmed by the number of meditations on the app. With Sunny, users can ask for the most personalized meditation exercises.
Experience the emergence of tulips in Dutch art.
AUGMENTED REALITY AS A LEARNING TOOL
Sunny is a conversational assistant that helps when users are overwhelmed by the number of meditations on the app. With Sunny, users can ask for the most personalized meditation exercises.
CRISIS MODE
Understand the fall of the Tulip Mania.
Sunny is a conversational assistant that helps when users are overwhelmed by the number of meditations on the app. With Sunny, users can ask for the most personalized meditation exercises.
Learn how the rest of the world enjoyed tulips.
TULIPS INTERNATIONAL
Sunny is a conversational assistant that helps when users are overwhelmed by the number of meditations on the app. With Sunny, users can ask for the most personalized meditation exercises.
How might we encourage feelings of wonder and excitement about local cultures in the waiting experience for people who do not travel often?
In the initial research phase, I tried to understand what people felt while traveling in other countries, what they did during layovers, and how I could design to provide people with excitement about the place they are currently in. From conducting this research, I identified 3 principles that I cared about and wanted my design to embody.
RESEARCH + DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Modeling the display to be informative and simplistic for visitors to grab map.
Designing the learning gear interaction and iterating the visual layout of the gears for optimal legibility.
Conducting precedent and literature research to understand how to design for education and what was already out there.
After identifying the principles that I wanted my final design to embody, I began to storyboard the entire experience. In this process, I also developed the look and feel of the experience, creating a visual design system to make the distributed experience look more cohesive. While developing my ideas, I considered very heavily readability, usability, and my skills and time to develop and make the interactions.
DEVELOP
Storyboarding.
Prototyping ideas to work through problems.
Exploring visual systems through different styles.
Refining the poster to be readable and beautiful.
Map.
Refining map design with the visual design system.
Initial sketches laying out the interaction descriptions, map, pencil rubbings, and introduction.
Learning Gears.
References and inspiration
AR Art Experience.
Poster.
Display.
Throughout the semester I explored a great deal of storytelling and that is what I learned the most: how to tell a coherent, interesting, and complete story through very concise interactions. I had to think about the essential elements that made up my story and how best to tell it so that it was palatable and worthwhile for both me as a designer and the users of my experience. In the beginning, I had so many ideas and parts that I wanted to execute but as the semester went along and as I began tightening up that story, I realized many of the things I wanted to create didn’t aid the experience in a way that I thought it was. My ability to pivot in this way is something I learned from and am continually working on implementing in my design practice.
TAKEAWAYS