From our previous milestones, we gained a comprehensive and expansive understanding of the running behavior of our target users through diary study and survey. By conducting affinity map analysis, we discovered various pain points, motivations, frustrations and needs of users and iterated on our previous concepts based on these insights we gained from the study. Before we get started with milestone 3, we discussed and narrowed down to focus on our “AR dog” idea, giving the feedback we got during the presentation of milestone 2, as well as the overall evaluation with criteria we created.
In milestone 3, we aim to refine our concepts further to ensure our product suits the needs of the users perfectly. We want to find out how users would potentially react to the specific features we proposed, and reveal the problem and concern that users may encounter in real-world scenarios.
In order to design user enactments that could help us test out our ideas properly and precisely, We started with a Speed Dating Matrix to map out a variety of ideas and scenarios. The matrix consisted of three design dimensions(begin, routine, deviate), the proactive level(low, medium, and high), and three scenarios we named(before, during and after running). In the “begin” phase, we aim to help new users build a running habit through gamification. With “routine,” we want to enhance the running experience for people who have built a running habit and been running as a routine. We also considered “deviate” cases where users encounter unexpected situations such as bad weather, phone calls during the run, and getting injured.
We then choose to expand on five ideas and create user enactments to test out our design alternatives. We mainly focused on those labeled as “medium” proactive level since we assume that users want to be assisted in a neither too pressing or too indifferent way. The medium-level features would make the experience fun and interactive but still give users the flexibility to build their own running habits.
We hope to conduct our user enactments by addressing the following research questions:
We designed five user enactments to study the research questions mentioned above.
Click here to see detailed scripts
Due to limitations of social distancing, we recruited our participants through our personal network, mostly our friends and family, which are not ideal but good enough to provide insights. Each of them is our target user who is either interested in building a running habit or already a runner, ages from 18-40.
Due to limitations of social distancing, we recruited our participants through our personal network, mostly our friends and family, which are not ideal but good enough to provide insights. Each of them is our target user who is either interested in building a running habit or already a runner, ages from 18-40.
We first went through all enactments together and made sure our scenarios and scripts are making sense for the participants. We then conducted each user enactment individually with our own participant and recorded our findings and observations for a future discussion as a group. We also discussed and decided the props we should use for the study, including the dog videos and pictures, paper for route guidelines, etc., just to make sure each participant experiences identical scenarios. Before we started our user enactments, we briefed the participant about our project goal and what we expected them to do. After the enactments, we followed up with questions that we want to dig more into and gather deeper insights. Other than using text to record observations, we also took photos to capture the full scenario of each enactment.
After conducting the user enactments, we gathered and analyzed notes and media from each user enactment. Here’s a summarized list of important insights we gained from the study.
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“I may get bored and numbed after several uses, and start to treat it as a normal reminder. ”
“I wouldn't want to see the same happy face every time that I say yes.”
“Also It would be nice if he can provide some helpful information like suggesting me what outfit to wear, what’s the weather outside, etc.”
“However, I would say that it still depends a lot on other factors, too. Such as my mood, the weather outside, etc.”
“I would like to be notified not only on my phone but also on my other devices - apple watch, ipad, macbook, tv - whatever I’m using.”
“The navigation is only needed in road forks, which wasn’t very common in the route we chose.”
“I think navigation is an essential function to include especially when I run somewhere I’m not familiar with.”
“Encouragement from the dog will make me highly motivated and try my best to finish the run”
“I would suggest incorporating things like “you were doing a better job 5 days ago.”
“If I’m listening to music, the audio feedback would interrupt me and might be annoying. ”
“ I would love to have a function that can show the progress(time, distance, etc.) and maybe the calories burnt on the corner of the UI.”
“I wish during the run I could get some updated weather forecast, which could allow me to find a shelter or go back home as soon as possible.”
“I don’t need my dog to ask me about the calls or incoming text. The current assistant like Siri or Google can do the job very well.”
“ I would love to have a function that can show the progress(time, distance, etc.) and maybe the calories burnt on the corner of the UI.”
“I wish during the run I could get some updated weather forecast, which could allow me to find a shelter or go back home as soon as possible.”
“I may expect an exploration mode that can lead to some trail or challenging routes.”
Some examples include changing outfits for the dog, feeding the dog, helping the dog grow, and redeeming real-life rewards such as coupons and UM sponsored items.
“I care more about what the treasure will be”
“If the treasure can be used within the app, like outfits for my dog or other growing assistants it will be great.”
“I may be more interested if the coins could redeem real-world items or coupons.”
“In addition to collecting coins, I would also enjoy collecting limited/sponsored dog outfits. ”
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“ It will be great if there’s a protocol to follow and allow me to stretch in a more professional way. For example, by showing me the right position and telling me how many seconds I need to do it. So I do hope to see clearly the posture of each stretch.”
“There’s no need for the dog to stretch with me. I can’t imagine the dog doing human-like gestures, and I would feel so weird if it does so.”
“It could be an AR person showing me how to stretch, and the dog can just be jumping around up and cheering me up. ”
“I would like to do that if there is only me but not in a busy park. I worry that it might look pretentious because most people just don’t need an instruction on how to stretch”
“If other people can’t see me interacting with a dog, I would love to stretch with the AR dog”
“I would like to do that if there is only me but not in a busy park. I worry that it might look pretentious because most people just don’t need an instruction on how to stretch”
“If other people can’t see me interacting with a dog, I would love to stretch with the AR dog”
“It would be nice if I could just listen to the audio without wearing the glass in that condition.”
“The achievement of sound and visual applause is also fun to have.”
Examples include competitions with friends & fun games such as poop picking.
“I’d like to see a scoreboard between me and my friends or how much the dog has grown from my running achievement.”
“For example, a poop picking game could be fun and interactive. Users pick up AR dog poop while making stretch postures.”
After analyzing findings from our user enactments, we used collaborative ideation techniques first to ideate design ideas based on our findings and previous ideas. We then separated them into five Feature categories including reminder, preparation, lead the run, treasure hunting and stretching.
Base on the ideas, we re-defined follow design criteria:
With the above criteria in mind, we generated the following matrix with our lists of ideas to help us with the final features selection.
We went through each feature and rated them based on the criteria, and also highlighted the feature that got the highest score. After combing the score and the insights we gained from the user enactments study, we eventually decided to remove some features we initially proposed, and also iterated and combined some of the features to best fit users’ mindset and our product goal.
We are proposing WoofieRun, which is a pair of AR glasses allowing users to see a cute virtual dog. The dog will be their best running buddy to help them cultivate a healthy running/walking habit in a fun way. It will remind the user of their scheduled run by begging for going out, and lead the run while encouraging users during running. Users can also follow the dog for a surprise treasure hunt to discover special rewards or virtual coins, which could be used to redeem dog food or costumes. (Coins could be gained by successfully accomplishing running/stretching goals). The dog will grow stronger and healthier if users stick with their running plan.
WoofieRun also comes with an app which reminds users of their scheduled run, and also allows users to customize their running route and pace.
At the end of this milestone, we have gained a much better idea of the system we aim to design. The user enactments helped us gather insights on what features and interactions could fulfill the essential needs of our target users. We have determined the scope of our project including a list of key features and how we will showcase them with a prototype demo. Going forward, we plan to start creating design assets that build our brand identity including 3D models and 2D UI elements. At the same time, we will develop our physical prototype and record videos for the final demo.
