Team:
Adriana, Peilin, Sahba, Vannesa, Delaram
Timeline:
(5 Weeks)
My Role:
UX Design: Wireframes, Prototyping
Game Design: Theme, Trivia, Role-Play Prototype
UX Research: Observational Study, Interviews, Feedback Survey
Design Challenge
Each team will invent, prototype, and evaluate a novel social computing experience that is functional and can be "played" by multiple people within a specific in-person setting.
The Problem
Disneyland theme park attracts on average 18.67 million visitors a year, therefore, the wait times for rides can be up to 3 hours. Attendees need to find ways to entertain themselves as they wait for their turn to get on the ride. In order to avoid waiting in lines, some people choose to spend more money to get Park priority, and some choose to wait in “single rider” lines, sometimes separating themselves from their party.
The Opportunity
Under these conditions, we want to help to enrich the line waiting experiences for attendees at Disneyland by adding inter-relation interaction through a mobile device gaming system to provide the background knowledge and story about certain rides.
Disneylines
Disneylines is an app that people can play by themselves or with other members while waiting in line. The purpose of the game is to play themed games that are inspired by the ride the user is waiting for. Here the user can compete with other people in line, and they can have a chance of winning a fast pass. The goal is to create an enjoyable and memorable experience for visitors during their time waiting in line.
User Research
In order to understand our users’ desires, we conducted three methods of research which are observational study, big data, and interviews. The insights we found from our research allowed us to carefully study the mental states of line waiting through scientific reports.
Observations
We used a mixture of previous personal experiences, on-site studies, and videos on youtube.
Insights:
People are waiting in line in different group sizes varying 2-10+
When first entering the line people have conversations but the conversation tend to die down after a while
Younger kids begin to get impatient when waiting too long
Big Data
Our survey reached a total of 75 people. For our online survey, we had 5 questions about the respondents’ experience with Disneyland and an optional question about their suggestions for ways to improve their waiting experience in line at Disneyland.
Insights:
Many dreaded a wait with nothing to do while others didn’t mind the downtime
69.7% of them play on their phone while waiting in line
Q: What do you normally do when you are waiting in line for a ride at Disneyland?
Interviews
Interviewed a total of 6 individuals where half of them actively go to Disneyland whereas the others go occasionally.
Insights:
Those who go to Disneyland often know how to avoid the lines that are over 30 minutes
More than 80% of the people said they would use the app to help them get distracted while waiting
those who do not attend Disneyland often would benefit the most since those active attendees found ins and outs to make the lines shorter
Prototype
The prototype created was a working prototype that was tested through a coordinated role-play with peers. We used a combination of Google Sheets and Google Forms to mimic an actual game that visitors waiting for Space Mountain could experience.
Link to prototype: https://tinyurl.com/disneylinetest
The Game
The game for Space Mountain consisted of answering Trivia questions about Star Wars
The Battle
As users answer the trivia questions, for every correct answer they begin to fight the Death Star
Prototype Testing
We conducted our prototyping session with 12 teams and paired the teams into a total of 6 trivia groups. The setup of the prototype session was structured to make the attendees feel like they were actually waiting in line to get on Space Mountain. The attendees stood in a line, and the objective was for two teams/families to “join forces” by answering trivia until they defeated the Death Star.
The team that wins receives a fast pass for their next ride.
Testing Feedback
After the testing, we asked our participants to fill out an online survey to evaluate our idea and prototype.
Insights:
Users liked seeing the Death Star break down every time they submitted the trivia
90% of our users liked to join families and create bigger groups
Shortcomings:
Failure to consider the differences in timing
Failure to consider the willingness to join other groups
Failure to consider the time to break the ice with new members
Problem 1
Need to consider the differences in timing when other users will be entering the game
Solution
We added turn systems to balance the time differences in the game, so once the previous game is finished you can enter. We decided to include break sessions to make the transition more seamless.
Problem 2
Need to consider the willingness to join other groups
Solution
Not everyone wants to join forces with other teams. Some people rather play the game alone or simply with their group, therefore, we gave the option to not pair up with an additional group
Problem 3
Need to consider the time to break the ice with new members
Solution
We added short breaks in between the session to be able to interact with other members
Wireframes
Final Product
Project Takeaways
Our prototype helped bring to life our social setting and allowed us to see behavior on a more ecologically valid scale. We had already known of some problems, such as how to put groups together and how to handle a constantly changing user base. The class testing session also brought to mind new problems. We had grouped two families based on their proximity of the line, but what if a potential player was surrounded by park-goers who didn’t want to play the game? How would we handle scoring if some players had been on the app longer? How could we know that users have gotten on the ride and are no longer participating? Getting user feedback brought all of these questions into consideration when designing our final prototype.
Next Steps
With more time and resources…
Expand on different ride games
Find a better solution to address those ending the game early to get on the ride