brewernyu23

[brewernyu23]

UX Design Research, Part 5 - Prep for final

For the end of my project, I have decided to propose the upgrade of the water fountains along with the addition of restrooms.

I plan to add the restrooms on the north and south end of the promenade, so it does not block the view of the city or block the view of the houses along the promenade.

I plan to present this information in a PowerPoint format as well as some kind of mock up plan of what the bathroom would look like and location. I will add some pictures of existing restrooms and working water fountains in other parks in the city, to show how we could add those here and it would work perfectly fine.

I will also add all of the data I collected from observations and shadowing some friends as they walk through. I searched for an online forum about the promenade, but all I found was a Facebook page about the promenade but there were no posts - just a group.

[brewernyu23]

UX Design Research, Part 4

My research for my project has continued to grow throughout the past few weeks. I have visited and observed the park multiple times, and learned that I would like to focus more on the actual Brooklyn heights promenade rather than the bridge park as well.

I have got to the park with a friend of mine and observed how they interacted with the park. I would say their interaction was very similar to others that I have observed. They walked down the promenade a bit, found a place to sit that the liked and took in the view for a while. After some time on their phone, they took a picture of the view then continued to sit and look out at the water. After some time of relaxing, they got up and walked out of the promenade.

When I later asked about their thoughts they told me they had a great time and only wished that maybe their was a bathroom or place to get water near by, as they did not bring a drink with them.

These points lead me into thinking that adding efficient water fountains and at least one bathroom could be a great addition to this promenade. I would like to explore getting feedback from people not living in the city, as tourism is also an important part of this promenade in my opinion.

I would like to explore the idea of getting other peoples feedback on weather or not they think that the addition of the above infrastructure would add value to the space.

I was not in class last week - so I am basing my feedback on the above from the class before. I plan to execute these next design research aspects in the following weeks, as well as making some kind of sketch or model of what I think adding bathrooms to the promenade would look like.

[brewernyu23]

UX Design Research, Part 3

I have continued to study the Brooklyn bridge park area and took a couple visits the weekend of 4/8. I made multiple observations and recorded what I was taking in.

I have came to the conclusion that I would like to primarily focus on the Brooklyn heights promenade in particular, separate from the park. This area has a lot of activity and a lot to offer.

Below are some brief chicken scratch notes I took while I was on the site:

Cloudy weather

Not very many people

Most looking at the view

Some walking their dog too

Weather isn’t the best so it would probably be more crowded on a nice day

You can see people playing soccer down at the soccer fields by the pier

Most people are just walking straight through the promenade

Some walk up to the fence, take a picture then leave. Some sit at the benches by the fence and admire

Lots of couples lots of singles?

Water fountain that could use upgrades or more of them

Sat an observed for about an hour, then walked up and down the whole promenade

END

After observing, I would like to focus more on the infastructure of the space and if it could be altered or improved in anyway.

Immediately I saw the outdated water fountains that were not working properly on that day. That would be an upgrade I would like to see.

Also, NYC is notoriously known for their lack of public restrooms. I would like to see at least one public restroom at this location for the people that enjoy the promenade.

I will continue to explore my ideas on what improvements or alterations could be made to the promenade to help the community better experience this space.

[brewernyu23]

UX Design Research, Part 2

For this part of my project, I would like to select shadowing and Fly-on-the-wall observation as the design research methods I want to use to approach this project.

I am planning to explore the Brooklyn bridge promenade and observe how people use the space and what they do there. Shadowing maybe a specific person as they walk through their experience in the park.

For the fly on the wall, I would like to sit in one location and observe the park as a whole. How many people come and go, people interacting with the space and each other, etc.

Below are at least 3 sources that go into detail about the Brooklyn bridge park/promenade.

[brewernyu23]

UX Design Research, Step 1

When approaching this assignment, I was not too sure what I would begin to write about at first. I wanted to do something involving the city but wanted to make sure I got specific with a certain location.

I eventually landed on doing my research over the Brooklyn Bridge park and promenade. Also called the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, but I want the park to be included in my research as the promenade overlooks the park. I may change that decision as I advance in my research.

The promenade has one of the best views of lower Manhattan in my opinion, and is a great place for people to gather and enjoy each other and the beautiful city. My girlfriend and I only live about a 10 min walk from this area, so we enjoy going down here all the time to talk about whatever or just enjoy the day/view.

In my research, I would like to discover how people use the promenade and what they are looking to get out of this space when they come. I want to learn if people have routines to come here or just stumble upon in during their afternoon strolls.

This space can really help bring the people of Brooklyn and NYC together, and is a great representation of the city. My first initial thoughts are that this space is perfectly design and could use no more upgrades, but we will learn more during my research and try to discover if I think this space could benefit off of any new design.

Below are a couple of links I have found relating to the promenade and park. A lot of the articles are just facts about the park, some are about proposed renovations already in discussion, and some are about opinions of the park. Either way I have started to dive into these articles to better understand how people view this space.

[brewernyu23]

Time Capsule Part 3

The year is 2148. Civilization continues to advance and cities become more and more streamlined. We as a society have found our ways to intertwine urban and suburban life styles into one. The country keeps advancing with technology and we find a way to better our cities with more and more sustainable buildings. All construction is now operated differently to comply with sustainability laws for the future.

Kyle P is a civil engineer for a contracting company called future builders. They have ventured upon a new area in the city that they intend to build a self sustaining farming building for the people of the city. This project will scale 100 stories, but with no windows as a fully open structure to allow for plant life to thrive. They will have water running through the whole structure to make for very little upkeep necessary.

After they have started excavating, the crew came across a glass container, pill like time capsule. They pondered for a while what it could be. They decided that it was a time capsule from the year 2023.

Kyle then immediately called the historical society to come and check out their findings to ensure they are doing everything properly.

Inside the time capsule they found many objects, but were very interested in 3 items that are now complete relics from the past. The first item they found was a red Bluetooth speaker. They found this object to be humorous as humans no longer use Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. They use Redtooth, which replaced Bluetooth in 2096.

The next time they found was a yellow clipper lighter with a sloth on it. Upon initial inspection, they really had no idea what this item was. The historical society member told them that this was an old school lighter people would use to light things. In this time period, lighters have become obsolete as now they use digital ones. You cannot find a lighter like this at any corner store like you used to.

The third item they found was a picture of a French bulldog. This brought a real somber feeling to the unboxing as humans very rarely have dogs as pets anymore. Dogs have started to become extinct due to all the radiation from technological advances. Very wealthy still have the resources to keep dogs as pets but not the common people. This was a horrible time for humanity as people still love dogs, but we are forced to live without them in most common settings.

After discovering all of these items, Kyle and the historical society member collected all of the items and donated them to the museum of human advancement. They will forever be on display to show the progression of human life.

Note page

[brewernyu23]

Time Capsule - Part 2

For this portion of the project, I already had a rough idea of what I was wanting to do. When I think of capsule, I think of the tradition pill shaped capsule. Not sure why exactly, but that is where my imagination goes. So for this project, I imagined it would be pill shaped and also made out of glass. I thought glass would be a great material to use as it is very hard and rigid, but also fragile when it comes to resistance and impact. For the purpose of a time capsule I thought glass would be great as when you bury it it should be safe, but depending on what tools you are using to uncover it it could become damaged.

I started my journey with sketching the rough ideas for what I had in mind for this glass time capsule. I finished the sketch then wondered what I would use to create the actual prototype.

I really wanted to work with glass, but knew that actually mending and working with glass would be difficult in my current situation. I started to think of what I had in my possession that was glass, and I landed on two wine bottles.

The two glass wine bottles already had the shape I was trying to accomplish, but it just needing the locking mechanism that I had in mind. I then just added paper to the existing wine bottles to create the idea of what the twisting lock mechanism would look like.

Everything looked basically exactly how I imagined, but the wine bottle necks were the only thing throwing it off. Ideally it would be rounded at the ends to create that perfect capsule shape.

Overall I thought this glass prototype for the time capsule turned out well. Ideally I would like the actual product to be a little larger, but this was the glass that I had to work with. I would have liked it to be perfectly rounded at the end and actually hollow inside, but those are the next things I would try to tackle if I took this to the next stage of prototyping.

[brewernyu23]

Time Capsule - Part 1

When starting to think about this project, I knew I had a couple things around me in my space that would make for good stories. Then I realized I actually am a little limited on sentimental things, as I got rid of a lot of stuff when I moved to NYC two years ago and most of the valuable things I wanted to keep I left at my parents house back home in Oklahoma. But that still did not remove all meaningful items from my apartment. So I came up with these three objects and here are their stories.

A Picture of My Dog Stella

When I first moved to NYC, I told my friends and family that I was looking to have pictures of people I care for in my apartment so that it feels as if they are involved in my daily life. This picture of Stella was one of the only pictures I brought with me when I first moved to NYC, along with another photo of my uncle who passed away my freshman year of undergrad.

This photo was taken at Grand Lake in North-Eastern Oklahoma. This was one of Stella’s favorite places to be. She loved to hangout on the deck with us and soak up the sun while we all enjoyed each others’ company. Stella was a very particular dog, and had a very select few humans on her “approved list”. I was lucky enough to be among the chosen. We got her when I was in high school and then I moved away for undergrad, so I lived away from home most of Stella’s live. However, every time I came home she would be the first one to let everyone know I was home. She wouldn’t leave my side for the first night I was there.

This photo now has even more significant meaning because Stella passed away last year unexpectedly. My mom was driving to the lake (the same lake in the background of the picture), when Stella had a panic attack and passed away. By the time my mom made it to the vet, it was too late. I forever grieve my mom having to experience that since my mom loves those dogs like children. I will always cherish this photo of Stella and all the memories it brings back up. She was a pain in the ass for many people, but will always be one of my favorites creatures I have known.

Next I have my red Bluetooth speaker

My girlfriend and I originally bought this speaker when we moved to NYC with the sole purpose of it being our beach speaker. Our first summer here we explored the beaches on NY a lot, and figured we needed a good speaker to come along with us. We have used this speaker each time we visit the beach, but it ended up having more purposes than just that.

The other day I found myself listening to music while I was working from home. We have some home speakers in our apartment, but they are around the corner from where my desk is. I grabbed my red Bluetooth speaker, put it right on my desk and away I was jamming out while I crunched my final Friday emails.

I also have happened to use this speaker for the shower the other day as the home speakers were also too far. I realized that this speaker will have a lot more adventures ahead of it as I find new uses for it every time I think of listening to music.

This speaker makes me feel comforted and relaxed knowing I have a quality way to listen to music whenever I need it. I love the feeling music brings to me and this speaker can help facilitate that feeling.

The next object I have is my yellow clipper lighter

I bought this yellow clipper lighter in Germany of all places, and the more I think about it I believe it was in Bonn, Germany. It’s actually kinda funny I can’t think of the exact place I bought this lighter, but here I am writing about its significance.

In the summer of 2019, I studied abroad in Amsterdam, Paris, and areas of Germany. It was one of the most significant experience of my life and I will always cherish the memories I made. I picked this lighter because I liked the lazy sloth hanging on the front, and “faulchiller” seemed like a funny term to me. I have never actually googled the significance of that term, but I had to now for the sake of this project. My search was short as I really cannot find any significant meaning behind the word. Looks like this remains a mystery which will add to the meaning of the object for me.

I went with one of my best friends and we knew we each wanted to bring back a couple good things. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to bring back, but somewhere along our journey in Amsterdam I decided that a lighter would be a great nicknack to bring back to the states. I actually brought 3 lighters in total back from Amsterdam, but this one had significance.

Since returning from my trip the summer of 2019, I have lived in 4 different places. My fraternity house in Norman Oklahoma, 2 other houses in Norman with some friends, and now my apartment in Brooklyn with my Girlfriend. I have the two other lighters at my parents house in Oklahoma, but for some reason I have kept this lighter with me the whole time. I have not lost it throughout this moving journey. This lighter rarely leaves the confines of my bedroom drawer, but I will always know it is there and love all the memories it brings along with it.

If I were to post these items to a social media, I think either Instagram or TikTok would be the best platforms. It would be great to use pictures or a short video to document the journey these objects have gone on, and the impact they have on my life.

[brewernyu23]

For this project, I started thinking what apps do I use regularly that would be nice to have a physical interaction with rather than tapping or swiping on the screen. The idea of getting away from the screen - to interact with the screen - intrigued me on how I would make this possible. It seems sometimes adding a physical feature to a digital platform may actually make the application for challenging to use, so it is hard to come up with an addition to an application that will better it and not make it more cumbersome.

After thinking for a while on what I will be manipulating, I finally landed on the MTA app. The MTA app allows you to see the arriving trains to the station you are at, and how far away they are. I find it tedious to go into the app, press on what line you are wanting to see, then press on what station you are at for it to finally show you the arriving trains in both direction.

At this screen below, it will ask you to select what train line you would like to view times for.

After that, it will ask you what station you want to view along this train line.

Then after selecting a station, it will finally show you the times of the upcoming arriving trains.

It would be great to add a physical movement function that can get us to this final screen, without us clicking through the options - and even better - without us even knowing what station or line we are at.

To get away from the screen, I think it would be great to add a tap function that we are already utilizing in the subway system with tap to pay at the turnstiles. With my addition, all this would take is opening the MTA app once you get down to the platform of the line you want in the station you want, and tapping you device next to a NFC tag in the station that will automatically bring your app to the correct station and line to show the upcoming trains in both directions and times. Ideally we can add these tags to every or every other column so that it is easily accessible by all users.

I started my sketching my showing what this interaction with the NFC tag would look like.

Then I wanted to show a more detailed version of what the human interaction with this tag would actually look like as well.

I then attempted to show a rough sketch of what the app would show you once you make the tap with your device. If I was a programmer or tech guy, I’m sure I could have made this look a lot cleaner with some kind of software.

I also wanted to create a prototype of this NFC tag that would help illustrate what this interaction overall would look like.

In conclusion, this was a difficult assignment to come up with what software I wanted to navigate but once I landed on an idea it was fun to explore the possibilities. I feel like it gets difficult to alter an affordance when most of the softwares and apps I was thinking of seem to work as well as they should. Adding a physical feature to these apps would be a fun idea, but in a lot of instances it didn’t seem to be a practical add. I feel like my addition to the MTA app would be both fun and practical to be added as a function for this application.

[brewernyu23]

The animal I selected for this assignment was the Vaquita. I was initially intrigued by the way it looked like a dolphin, but with a more animated face it seems. Once I started my research I discovered this animal in extremely endangered with only 10 left that we estimate, making it the worlds rarest marine mammal. They are found in the Baja California region in Mexico. They have really begun to be extinct due to Mexican fisherman, so the goal is to put more regulation on their fishing practices in order to have this species thrive and live in the long run. They are pushing to eliminate fishery bycatch entirely in order to save the population of this creature.

I begun my creative journey by sketching and thinking of what material to use for this assignment. I started with a water bottle for the body shape, but wanted to wrap that to give it a more fluid body look. I knew the water bottle would help accomplish the shape I wanted, and taping the paper around really helped it come to life with one color. I also felt like using the plastic water bottle was great as the base since plastic is one of the most polluted material into our oceans, making it the center of this model. I wanted to use cardboard for the fins so that they were hard material that would stand up straight. All the materials were things that I had in my apartment already, so it was great to be able to repurpose everything I already had.

I then started to put the material together. I found that my initial design ended up perfect for what I was trying to accomplish. This assignment was great in order for me to explore creating 3D models which I feel is a skill I usually lack. Having to adapt and make my recyclable materials useful for this assignment was a rewarding challenging and I believe ended up better than I imagined. I enjoyed repurposing things I would have usually just recycled.

[brewernyu23]

Here you can see 50 different renderings of a strawberry. This took me multiple hours, dived over three days. At first, I felt like this was easy to come up with different ways to show a strawberry. About halfway through - I became stuck. I tried to expand my ideas to see what else I could come up with. Experimenting with different pens and markers helped, but I still felt stuck on how to show a strawberry 50 ways. Adding strawberries with bites, chocolate strawberries, and weird shaped strawberries also helped. After thinking about it for a long time, I let my mind just draw. No plans of what I was going to show - just pen to paper. I quickly realized that once I didn’t try to plan it, it all started coming together. It may look like a mess - but this is my creative mess.

This project has shown me that I can be more creative then I originally thought. If I just give myself the time and tools, I can get back to the “play” era of my mind and begin to really just let the creativity come to life.