framing & strategizing; concept & ideation; creating & crafting; reflection & awareness;
In this project we focused on designing an interface for Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB with the aim of delivering real time information to drivers with minimum distractions. In the span of 20 weeks the team explored three different directions, conducted 2 survey user research, a lab research, speculated in the future and returned back with insights for the present. The outcomes of each stage where closely discussed with 2 experts in user experience designers and the client Frank de Wit of ANWB. We believe the future of mobility is in all contexts on the road, and ANWB is heading the correct direction wanting to provide drivers a safe way to to stay informed about events on the road while driving. The team explored different form factors, hardware devices and software applications and validated though user reasearch, and design iterations. The presented concept is focused on smartwatch interaction that require absolutely no touch input, making the system safe and easy to reach any time.
16 February: Meeting with Frank & Joey
7 March: Meeting with Frank & Maaike
29 March: Meeting with Joey
13 April: Meeting with Frank & Jordy
26 April: Meeting with Jordy
9 May: Meeting with Maaike & Jordy
24 May: Skype with Frank & Maaike
8 June: Meeting with Frank & Maaike
The Royal Dutch Touring Club ANWB provides assistance and insurance, traffic safety, travel, publishing, advice and information(ANWB, 2015). It is the biggest club in the Netherlands consisting of 4,4 million members (ANWB, 2017). ANWB provides information to dutch drivers through their Onderweg smartphone application: including delays and the reason behind them i.e. traffic jam, accident etc., speed traps, parking spots, parking services, gas stations and more. ANWB, through their omnipresence and their different services, envision “a safe, distinctive, multi-modal travel assistance, for Dutch travelers, to solve unpredictability along the way, using relevant travel advice before departure, on the road and at the destination”.
Create an interface that provides real-time information in a safe way within every context on the road that adds personal and practical meaning to ANWB Customers.
The name Onderweg (on-the-road) predisposes the user with the idea they can use the application while driving. By the time the user hits the road, the application detects the motion of the vehicle by using its sensors and a safety warning appears which blocks any interaction with the application. The promise that ANWB is with the driver ‘on-the-road’ is not kept as no relevant information are announced about the driving conditions ahead. Statistics show that application users take a quick glance about traffic delays on their roads before starting their drive. Meanwhile, unexpected traffic events appear and ANWB is losing its bet to provide this valuable knowledge to their fellow members. ANWB is losing the game of driving assistant applications as Flitsmeister is growingly becoming the ‘best buddy’ for 1.2 million drivers, Google Maps remains the most informative traffic system from all aspects and Waze is the most personalized and meaningful driving companion. ANWB is willing to step up the game of real-time traffic information for drivers. With their 4.4 million proud members in the Netherlands, their omnipresence out on the roads with ANWB Wegenwacht and their partnership with leading traffic data systems TomTom and Simacan there is no doubt that there are high stakes for this company to succeed equally or better than the competition in providing services for their fellow drivers. The safe driving covenant (Covenant, 2017) between ANWB and 39 more companies and the introduction of guidelines (TUDelft, 2016) for designing safer in-car applications are showing the urge for providing traffic information to the drivers without putting them at risk. These changes in the political and technological context give the opportunity to ANWB to step into the digital applications world with a clearer proposal than Onderweg. ANWB internally, function very single minded. The ‘heads’ study the context and the target group superficially as revealed by the client, customer experience manager, and jump to conclusions and solutions directly. The competition is evolving fast and ANWB is slow at engaging with latest digital trends.The client recognizes the friction between the people of the management and the experience designers. The letter are restricted to making visual design proposals and marketing people are basically the enablers of innovation inside the company. Frank’s internal vision is to communicate with the ANWB shareholders what design can do. He is looking forward to create a positive change within the company and boost it with fresh ideas that will help them deliver meaningful experiences to the ANWB members. Researchers identify the urge for utilizing design thinking to deal with the problem of distracted driving. This does not mean ‘design how to make technology unusable for the driver’, but instead, ‘design technology to make it usable within safe boundaries while driving’. Klauer from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute makes an open call for researchers, designers and policymakers to figure out how to allow people to use tech - which they’re going to do no matter what - without killing themselves (Klauer, 2017). “Distracted driving and deaths on the road are an engineering problem and not the user’s problem” she explains. Our team presents an exploration of different concepts and designs, and takes into consideration latest policy, user needs, users’ opinion, technology available, future mobility trends and stakeholder strengths and limitations to deliver a less distracting interface that adds value to the driver’s life. This project concludes by making a remark similar to Klauer’s point that we can research and design interfaces to minimize distractions while driving to a certain extent, although the problem will not be eliminated.
As described by Frank de Wit in the initial project brief “the goal of the project is to provide ANWB members an interface to consume the real-time traffic information relevant to them, while driving safe. Sub-goal is to have a generic design solution that can also be used for other ANWB apps like Fietsen and Waterkaarten.” For us, this meant to focus primarily on car drivers as a target group and at a later stage within our project to generalize our concept and describe possible applications of it for other contexts like biking, boating or even hiking as the client was wishing. The team reframed the project brief to “Create a safe mobility solution that provides personal real-time information for the user's context (cars, bikes, motorcycles, hiking, boats) that adds personal and practical meaning” to reflect the wish of the client to include all possible mobility methods in the brief. The expansion of the brief to cover all Dutch mobility methods would be both a big opportunity for ANWB to differentiate in the market. It would also challenge our team’s strategy to go back to the research phase and study the commonalities and differences between all mobility methods. This change of the brief came 4 weeks after the beginning of the project. Regardless the challenging changes that came late into the game, the team demonstrated their ability to operationally adjust itself, reframe the problem, align their current research activities to uncover knowledge for all contexts on the road and not just for the car. The team aimed to make drivers feel more carefree while they are on the road. The focus of the project was to ‘Create an interface that provides real-time information in a safe way within every context on the road that adds personal and practical meaning to ANWB Customers’.
Convenant: The safe driving covenant (Covenant, 2017) between ANWB and 39 more companies and the introduction of guidelines (TUDelft, 2016) for designing safer in-car applications are showing the urge for providing traffic information to the drivers without putting them at risk.
Human Factor Guidelines: Design safe in-car traffic information services and interfaces that prioritize safety warnings, information that require urgent behavior change and are relevance to the real context. E.g. traffic crash ahead, overspeeding, road conditions and behavior change information with argumentation and persuasive reasoning - in which ANWB is good at as it is the biggest and most reliable source of traffic updates in the Netherlands and cooperates with large traffic observation systems like TomTom and Simacan.
Distractions & Cognitive load: Visual distraction occurs when a driver takes his/her eyes off the road. For e.g. when a driver looks at his/her phone, the distraction caused by the phone in this case would be classified as visual distraction. Manual distraction occurs when a driver takes his/her hands off the steering wheel. For e.g. when a driver eats food while driving, the distraction would be classified as manual distraction. Cognitive distraction occurs when a driver takes his/her mind off the road. For e.g. when a driver is too involved in a conversation, this distraction can be classified as cognitive distraction (Manneliasinjurylaw, 2017). Estimates indicate that drivers using cell phones (cognitively distracted) look but fail to see up to 50 percent of the information in their driving environment.The brain not only juggles tasks, it also juggles focus and attention. When people attempt to perform two cognitively complex tasks such as driving and talking on a phone, the brain shifts its focus(NSC, 2012). When people are visually and manually distracted,the drivers are aware of it and try to limit that distraction. For e.g. when a driver gets a text message and looks at the phone, he/she is aware of it and makes sure to look at the phone only for a second or two. With cognitive distraction, by definition, people aren’t aware that they are distracted and can’t do anything about it. This leads to inattention blindness ---‘looking but not seeing’ (Teater, 2011). Which makes cognitive distraction the most dangerous. M Cooper, J. (2014). Mental Workload of Common Voice-Based Vehicle Interactions across Six Different Vehicle Systems showed that Siri had a higher cognitive load than several other car based interactions. This was based on the The Workload Rating Scale of tasks evaluated by Strayer et al. (2014). Voice User Interfaces require cognitive and, paradoxically, visual attention because they can cause ‘inattention blindness’. Short and error-free interactions cause the minimum possible distraction. A number of drivers were observed to engage in what could be characterized as Orienting Responses (ORs)(Reimer et. al, 2013). These are instances in which drivers spoke directly to the graphical user interface, oriented their bodies towards it, or acted in a way that suggested the voice system was perceived to be “in” the device screen. Design implications of findings: 1. Keep cognitive the lowest because this is the most dangerous kind of distraction. 2. Spread feedback over different modalities to reduce cognitive overload. 3. Assuming there are no errors, short interactions have lower cognitive load than long ones. 4. But number of errors is an important factor. And if short interactions have higher errors, then it is better to have longer but error free interactions. 5. Voice interfaces are not necessarily as safe as considered by car manufacturers and law enforcement agencies. 6. Test voice interfaces against other interfaces to determine if they are safer or not.
Lab Research: We conducted a lab research with 8 participants to understand if visuals or audio are more distracting and efficient in navigation services. Read the paper for details. Read here for Nazli’s formative feedback on the paper who commented “It was a real pleasure to read your paper; many thanks for your work”. Our hypothesis was that visuals are more distracting but more efficient in comparison to audio to navigate to a destination. The navigation system was controlled through the presence or absence of visuals and audio in the system.The navigation system (consisting of visuals and audio) was the independent variable while distraction and efficiency were the dependent variables. The two different stimuli were: (1) visual-only navigation and (2) audio-only navigation. It was a within group study with 8 participants who were millenials and had a driving license. The participants had to drive a car in a driving simulator and had to follow real life traffic rules. We measured distraction and efficiency as a part of the study. Results showed that visual navigation is clearly more visually distracting when driving because participant’s kept taking their eyes off the screen. But in terms of the impact on mental concentration, audio navigation was found to be more cognitively distracting than visual navigation but without a significant difference.Visual navigation was also found to be more efficient than audio navigation because participants with visual navigation missed fewer turns and took lesser, but not significantly lesser, time to complete the route. Design implications of findings: Both visual and audio navigation have their benefits and drawbacks.The design implication would be to make use of both visuals and audio; to spread information over the two modalities (instead of making use of just one) to reduce distractions, improve efficiency and provide a better user experience with the navigation system we create for ANWB.
Technology trends timeline: The automotive industry is undergoing through a new age of accessible autonomy driven by social trends and the driverless revolution. Consumer apps are incredibly popular and becoming increasingly more efficient. Current apps that fit within the mobility experience are apps like Google Maps, Waze, Flitsmeister and Apple Maps. Aside from these apps there also a market for car sharing: think about Car2go, Blablacar and Snappcar. Android Auto and Apple Carplay are software systems that are developed to encourage motorists to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the steering wheel. A product that is out on the market and becomes more popular Heads-Up-Displays (HUD). A separate device is aimed to reduce dangerous distractions by displaying key information directly in the driver’s line of sight. Some systems project information onto the windshield; others project it on a separate screen. Examples of HUDs are Hudify, Chris and Safebrick (Garmin speak, Navdy are dead). The founder of Aito, a company in the field of Haptic Technology, believes that there will be a shift from HUDs to smart materials. He indicates that HUDs are not user friendly and doesn’t make a car smart or modern; these displays are often just interfering and clumsy. Smart materials can make a difference by replacing conventional components with ones providing better quality of performance and higher levels of comfort. Most major automobile firms like Volvo are currently engaged in bringing out the ‘smart’ and ‘social’ and ‘connected’ vehicle which will represent the next stage of innovation(Aero, Volvo). Because of existing technology the automotive industry is making a significant change where the driving experience is changing. Brand identity will focus more on comfort, entertainment, capacity and high-tech experiences than performance. Data will be used to hyper-personalise the riding experience and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will make every interface both simple and smart, as Accenture 2017 reports. Some companies are also testing prototypes of fully autonomous vehicles, including Tesla’s Autopilot driving experience which is the most popular and then Olli, Waymo, GM’s Cruise Automation vehicles and Self-Driving Ubers. Looking at the Netherlands there is a lack of awareness or adoption of existing technologies. A lot of current existing technologies for the car are not very common or available in the Netherlands. For example Google Auto has yet to arrive in the Netherlands.
ANWB App Store reviews: People mostly leave reviews in the app store about the parking functionality as they like it. It is a function with the connected app, they start there parking with the app, connected with Yellowbrick, and stop the parking through the app or by driving away. Because of ANWB Connected it automatically should stop the parking, which in some cases doesn’t really work well that causes high bills.There are some reviews about the traffic jams, there are some reviews about the gas station feature which people overall use most although mainly before leaving home.
ANWB Internal UX Insights: Internal investigation by ANWB UX team in early 2017. Four participants, eye tracker while driving a car, using ‘Onderweg’ app. Participants want to know traffic delay, how big the traffic jam is and what is the cause behind it, and are interested only in traffic jams that are part of their route (personal relevance). Half of the participants miss a navigation functions (Explorers), the other half only uses theapp before and after commuting to work (Commuters).
ANWB ‘Onderweg’ Analytics: Google Analytics of the Onderweg app reveal that more than 16million sessions happened in 2017 and what’s striking 29% of them lasted less than a minute. The users are daily commuters and not explorers, indicating that the information inside the application are most valuable during daily commuting. The short activity times (1minute) and their preference of map views over list views to understand the general traffic congestions indicating they seek for concentrated knowledge at the time of a glance.
Reflection ANWB ‘Onderweg’: The app produces value before and after the commute for the users. It is not being used while commuting and if attempted to be used it can be dangerous because of its complicated UX. Opportunity to provide relevant traffic information to commuters; they require information relevant to their commute and need to make decisions before, while and after being on the road. Onderweg (meaning On-the-road) contradicts with the fact that it’s not being used while being on the road. The stakeholder’s limitation propose that they don’t want to develop another navigation app like Google Maps or Waze because they dominate the app market. Onderweg cans till differentiate and produce value for daily drivers. It can work complementary to one of the apps that people already use as it can run on the background anytime. Background runtime of Onderweg can use motion and location sensors and offer real-time driving information even when the user has not started any application, thus coming a step closer to the ANWB ambition of being there for the driver at all times and contexts.
Survey ANWB members: 36 Respondents, ANWB Members only. 36% are 18-28 years old. Only 27.8% of the total respondents have an ANWB app on their smartphones and 19.4% have ANWB Onderweg. 84% of the respondents use navigation application to support their driving task and preferably they use Google Maps(48%), Waze(12%), Apple Maps(12%), Flitsmeister(8%). 72.2% check their route ahead of their commute, 81% of whom are interested in total time and distance, 73% are interested in traffic jams, 20% check parking spots and costs. For the rest 72.2% of ANWB members that never used the Onderweg app before, they believe it is about Navigation, Help on the road, Safe driving, Route information, Traffic jams, Assistance by ANWB customer service, Route planner. Just 38.8% of the respondents use a parking applications, where 35.5% of them only use parking functionalities of Onderweg (Yellowbrick). The rest prefer Parkmobile.
Survey Commuters: 42 Respondents, 59.5% aged between 18-28, 10% aged 29-38, and the rest 30% 39+ years old. Most of them commute daily by Car (33.3%) or by Public Transport (33.3%), 11.9% by bike. 14.3% Commutes with a combination of these, which indicates that there is an opportunity for ANWB to demonstrate how to help people combine their commuting methods in an efficient and logical way. In addition to this, 19% commute with different mobility method many times and this depends on weather factors (50% of them), the urgency of commuting i.e. how much time in their disposal to arrive their destination, or on the availability of their commuting methods i.e. family might have taken the car already. 61% take a look at digital applications before commuting mainly for weather conditions, when the next one comes, total travel time and ETA(NS, 9292, Google maps, Buienalarm). 75% do not require any addition information than these before starting their commute. The rest 15% is interested in detailed delays they they are going to encounter (i.e. bridges, constructions), what detours they can take, and alerts for traffic jams. Interestingly only 69% of them do not want any information while commuting daily. The rest 31% require information like Real-time delays ahead, ETA times, Timetables for OV, Weather changes, Hop-off and Hop-on times exactly from public transport to another one and re-confirmation of the previous information (any change in plans of their commute). ANWB could cover the needs of these 31% of daily commuters with a simple, non-intrusive interface that keeps them focused on their commute. This can be backed-up by the fact that 95.2% do not use turn by turn navigation while commuting, meaning that no map is required, which aligns with ANWB stakeholder needs not to create another navigation system. 97.6% of the respondents do not need any information after arriving to their destination. The rest are itnerested about changes in the weather (bikers) and parking tracking & information.
Technology Timeline as researched, Today’s digital services and applications:
Technology Timeline as researched, Today’s artifacts and trending:
Technology Timeline as researched, Future trends:
Lab research set-up: My idea was to use the Wi-Fi camera to simulate the navigation experience from a smartphone while driving. Participants commented positively the ‘hack’ with the camera. Read the paper for details. Read here for Nazli’s formative feedback on the paper who commented “It was a real pleasure to read your paper; many thanks for your work”.
See a quick video edit of our Lab Research experience below:
The generation of millennials, 18 to 35 years old, is the largest generation currently alive. Studies show their needs differ a lot from previous generations, they value differently things in life and stand for their own worldviews. Millennials are digital natives as they were born in the age of rapid changes in technology. Today, they depend heavily upon apps and digital services. When they hit the road, navigation systems are very important to them. In fact, millennials say navigation apps are the number one technology they use when en-route(Allstate, 2016). They think about roadside safety surprisingly often. But does ANWB take any actions to stay relevant to new customer needs? ANWB in 2016 made significant changes in content marketing strategy. Lieneke Roos, e-content team ANWB realizes they need to approach a younger crowd and deliver services relevant to their needs (Roos, 2016). She adds, “you do not get people inside with a loud call about your product, but with giving them relevant knowledge”, meaning that you can attract users with a product that produces knowledge and value for them, in a personal and practical level. It satisfies their needs the moment they need it, and they feel excited to be ambassadors of this product.
They use analytics to personalize information for every individual customer (Roos, 2016) and, as Lieneke Roos from the e-content team of ANWB points out, “relevant knowledge and information will result in conversions as well”. According to our client, Frank de Wit the Customer Experience Manager of ANWB, they want to provide more relevant information to the drivers. Their analytics that Jordy Spruit, UX designer at ANWB, shared with us show the most e-content from the apps is accessed by 45-year-old ANWB customers on average. Client aims to drop the average age of users from 45 to 35 at least meaning they need to approach younger generations with new services. They identify that the older generations trust and are connected to the brand and are feeling to urge to use the services they provide, including digital applications. The different needs of the younger generations, Millennials and Generation Z, needs to be understood and reflected into the ANWB customer experience design.
Role as Digital Designers
Our role as Digital Designers and as young drivers, is to advise and signify ANWB and older, bigger corporations the direction they have to follow for the future. ANWB needs to stay relevant in the digital services today and in the future. They have to be aware and understand the current and future target audience of Dutch drivers, design and develop products and services by wisely using the technologies available today.
ANWB needs to update their perception within the company regarding what their young customers need from them and what will they need in the future. From talking with the client, Frank de Wit and working closely with ANWB’s only UI/UX Designer Jordy Spruit, we identify their internal struggle of designing for the users. They deal with assumptions that each employee is carrying along in their work. The ANWB ‘Onderweg’ app took 5 years to develop and cost a lot to the company. Unfortunately google analytics show that 29% of the sessions in the app drop out immediately. In an interview with an old ANWB employee and developer of the ANWB ‘Fietsen’ application, they create minimum viable products that literally add little to no value to the ANWB customer by the time of their introduction. They raise user’s expectations but the actual product disappoints them. For example, the new ‘Fietsen’ app was updated all of a sudden taking away data of users without warning like custom routes they had created which were replaced with suggested routes created by the company and not by the community of members. All of a sudden personal and practical values are vanished from a system that first had to study the user preferences and then update their product. They develop their new products in a very slow pace, taking old features away from the app users without alert and thus create bad reputation for themselves. Trust will not come by words but by their actions and by satisfying products they offer. Our team conducted a quick survey online where we captured the motivations of people in being an ANWB member. Our research revealed 49% of youngsters aged 18-28 (millennials & gen Z) are members mainly for the practicality of road side assistance and 21% for car insurance. Interestingly, 72% do not have any ANWB app installed in their phones which contradicts with their increasing smartphone usage. They joined ANWB only because their parents advised them to do so and there is no other connection to the brand. The new generation of Dutch drivers have trouble finding a personal connection to the ANWB brand and their services whereas older don’t.
In this project we find value in attracting younger generation in using ANWB information before, while and after commuting. The product we are going to design should reflect the nice vision of ANWB and communicate it in the language of younger people. Although, because of the upcoming changes in mobility sector due to Mobility as a Service (MaaS), ride hailing (Uber, blabla car) and the emergence of self driving cars, there will be less and less interest in car ownership from the youngsters means that ANWB has to recapture their vision and include the new mobility mentalities in their services to add value to the mobility life of their younger members. ANWB is used to having proud members, volunteers and fan-clubs in which people feel the value of being part of. We believe young drivers should be studied more and come in the foreground of their digital applications. We advise that ANWB designers come forward and lead user-centered research, involve stakeholders inside ANWB in the research process, develop hypothesis together, reveal their biggest assumptions either as observers or as active participants.
Drivers want to make decisions before leaving home. The same interviewee uses ANWB web-based File List (ANWB.nl/filelist) ahead of their commute to check traffic congestions. She makes crucial decisions based on what she sees on the list: she takes longer but less busy routes, she postpones client appointments. Visually impaired people that participated in the User Test from Sidewalk project take their time to prepare their route ahead of their commute too, to prevent unexpected events, make decisions, avoid difficult to remember areas, save time, be more safe.
Drivers seek for real-time information that can help them adjust behaviors. An interviewee during our research who commutes to her clients by car every day within different cities of Netherlands uses Flitsmeister which announces speed alerts and events ahead on its own. She calls the application her ‘best friend’ while driving. She finds personal value in this application because it helps her adjust her behavior when needed, it is a unique service, and is omnipresent - being there when she needs it to save her a ticket!
The user would like to see the route
The user want to know how long the route/travel time is and the estimated time of arrival
The user wants to know the traffic jams on their route and how that influences the travel time (delays)
The user would like to be updated with the traffic delay time (traffic jams), how big the traffic jam is and what the cause of the traffic jam is
The user would like to see the route
The user would like to be warned for speedlights or speed checks (just like Flitsmeister does)
The user is interested in the fastest route as possible in consideration with traffic delays: optional routes
The user would like to be updated with jams/delays on the route (constructions, accidents, obstacles or open bridges)
The user expects that the map ‘zoom function’ will dynamically change based on the road and speed
The user would like to see the nearest gas station based on location and price when needed
The user would like to have the possibility to add an intermediate stop if necessary instead of changing the whole route
The user wants to easily reach the roadside assistance if necessary (assumption)
User would like to be guided to possible parking spots near the end-destination if needed
The user would like to know general information about the parking spot (example: price)
The user would appreciate if the app(s) automatically stop when arriving at end destination
The user would like to start the parking costs from the car and have the flexibility to stop the parking costs at any time
After generating our biggest insights from our research we saw and created two personas, the commuter and the explorer. They both have very specific needs and preferences when it comes to navigating and using apps for this.
Who is the commuter?
The commuter is commuting to work on a daily basis by car. A commuter doesn’t need a step by step navigation to get to this location because they are familiar with it. They however are interested in for example traffic jams, delays, road constructions, parking availability and gas prices. This information needs to be up-to-date and personalised to their needs. But because they know the route they will probably not use the phone in the car.
The explorer is a someone who uses navigation to discover new places. An explorer does need a step by step navigation to that place. They either use an external navigation system or their phone for this.There is a possibility for a commuter to become an explorer. When an unexpected event happens (car crash, open bridge) and they have to take a route they have never taken before.
We used the technique of Crazy 8s (DesignSprintKit by Google) method that is used by Google for their sprints. Each one of us came up with 8 ideas in 8 minutes.
Ideation: My Contribution
I like to produce ideas while being in the context of the intended use of the product. The idea is to think by the eye of different stakeholders: User>Product Shareholder>Technology>Design. Putting myself in the shoes of the user helps me keep a critical stance towards current solutions (i.e. Google Maps, Onderweg) and makes me generate ideas based on my needs on that very moment also taking into account findings from user research (impersonating other people). Second step is to see it from the eye of the product shareholder i.e. ANWB: What does their company vision say? Do the company values reflect these user needs i just revealed? How can the company satisfy those needs? Do these needs add value to the project brief? Next step is to see it from a technological perspective: Is this feasible? Are there data and technologies available for satisfying these needs? Final step, is to see it from a design perspective: Ok, we can have these information at this very moment that the user needs them. Can this piece of information be presented in a way that is not putting the user on a risk (driver)? Can it be presented in an non obtrusive way?
An example of how i applied this process in ideation phase is while i was biking a Saturday morning to a favorite cafe.
Context: West Amsterdam. Activity: Biking. User: Me. Technology: Smartphone.
Background algorithms understand that the user is biking.
Notification appears confirming that ‘ANWB is on your side, by your ride’ achieving personal and practical meaning.
Notification dynamically changes and suggests what place the user is riding to: ‘White Label Cafe?’ or ‘Hogeschool van Amsterdam?’ trying to predict and validate where the user goes making them feel comfortable that ANWB is by their side.
User can confirm (qualitatively) that they are heading to the ‘White Label Cafe’. If not, no problem. The sensors expect this to be valdiated or not quantitatively.
User pops their phone out and confirms that they go to ‘White Label Cafe’ as they do almost every Saturday afternoon.
App reveals a low fidelity map supporting the users way. Shows Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) and Delays ahead. User is in explorer mode and thus system shows alternative ways to explore your destination (get to know more from the area) adding to the personal meaning reducing practical meaning.
User stops somewhere in-between their route unexpectedly. System knows where user goes but what happened? is there a traffic light near? Sensors try to understand without interrupting user...
ANWB, wants to help at all times and changes the app UI to provide Parking spots around for bikes (if it's close to destination), or Roadside Assistance, as it’s more possible that teh user might want to stop there for a reason. adding to practical and personal meaning.
User just snaps a picture of the view and then continues biking.
The app updates the UI back to ETAs, delays and the minimal map staying there for the user in case they need it.
User leaves from ‘Scandinavian Embassy’ cafe and is heading to home from unconventional ways.
Phone knows that: “I am away from home all day. I went to school already. The time is 18.21. Usually on Tuesdays I return home around 18.00. Usually on working days I return home 89% around 18.00. So, open ANWB App, suggest me to get the bike and go home. Didn't be here usually before so it starts from exploring to home (nav following you without actually giving you instructions)
User says "Ok ANWB" for providing voice input directly to the app.
User says “going home”, letting the system know where they start commuting to (qualitatively validating sensors estimations).
user does not want any voice or tactile feedback. They just want to pop up their phone when they stop aside and know that they are heading well.
User ‘I stop aside the road and check. I got nice so far, also burnt some calories.’
Like Google Fit, I might optionally want the app to lock at my screen and provide me the information I want at a glance. Be there for me. Really.
I stop at a nice cafe and I want to save the location. I take a pic of it. As a good explorers’ app I would like to go back and check what I explored today, where I stopped and what was around. ‘TRACE ME’ in a way that is meaningful for me and I can understand.
These ideas of a new assistance application for Commuter and Explorers demonstrates that ANWB could develop their service to actually be there for the user while they are out on the road. Both ideas demonstrate the difference with Google Maps: they are not silently observing the user’s location. It let’s them know they ‘are there for them’ adding to the personal value of being an ANWB member. The practical aspect of this idea is that sensors quantitatively try to geuss what the user might be needing at that very moment from ETA, Delays, to a Parking spot or Detour to their destination, or direct button to Road Assistance. Unlike Google Maps, it provides a minimal map so that drivers orient themselves quickly without a lot of details because they are commuters and most likely will not need a map to make their way to their common destinations.
ANWB Quick Assist (by Konstantinos Partheniadis):
As of today there are many navigation systems little of which assist for a quick glance on real time information while being on the road. Commuting refers to going to destinations via routes already known to the user where no particular navigation assistance is required. In commuting routes there are unexpected delays as a result of traffic jams, car crashes, open bridges. There are dangers where behavior change is required like speed camera, police cars, speed limitations. All these real time information can be provided on the spot by ANWB through their Quick Assist app. ANWB Quick Assist starts running automatically when the user is moving, it constantly updates a widget with information and in case of emergency send notifications to the driver. In the Quick Assist concept, ANWB is expected to use minimal design elements, clear visuals, large, short and accurate text for minimal distractions. It will speak aloud these information, short and accurately, even when the smartphone screen is off. In case of emergent route change Quick Assist can raise confidence for the driver to take a street they never took before, understand their surrounding and the device will light the way to get back on track to their destination. It differs from Google Maps as (a) it is a lightweight application which will show content in less than three seconds by the time the user clicks it, (b) Dutch maps can be available offline, (c) identifies your vehicle type even if you are on-foot, on a bicycle, a scooter, a motorcycle or a car and sometimes asks you to confirm it, (d) predicts your destination to show and speak relevant information and events ahead (e) takes minimizes visual load effectively (f) provides local traffic information that members of ANWB will trust. ANWB Quick Assist will show limited clickable targets which automatically hide when you are moving to minimize interactions.
Smartphone Application for before, during and after commuting. Compatible with all contexts on the road ranging from catching the bus, hopping on the train, riding the bicycle on a rush, walking down the street. It’s there for you, with enough battery and endurance to last at any circumstance. ANWB is there to inform you about anything that happens around in the dutch streets and paths, be it constructions, delays on the highway, an open bridge kilometers ahead, parking costs for your car in the specific area you entered. In commuter mode it informs you without annoying you. It’s there, updated in real time for the context that you are currently into. It may ask for confirmation to qualify the context and activity. For example it may ask are you biking now? did you park your car? unexplored area, do you need directions? With its predefined Quick Assist buttons you can instantly ask for directions, parking spots, gas stations, road assistance and more
In our concept we minimize the design elements to complete simple tasks on the road. The main task of daily commuters an ANWB customer wants to achieve is to (a) quickly check locations as an explorer (b) easily turn into commuter when you feel confident finding the place yourself (c) change your vehicle for different routes. ANWB let's you know of information around you (a) alerts of delays: roads blocked, opened bridges, construction so that you plan the quickest, safest route and make quick behavior changes and decisions (b) alerts of dangers: speed limits, speed cameras of police.
Commuter to explorer (by Roselinde Loeffen):
We want to design a service that will focus on this commuter and his/ her wishes and needs. It not give them a step by step navigation as they don’t have a need for this. It will however provide them with a timeline view of their route. Pointing out trouble areas (construction, speed lights and traffic jams). We also want to give the commuter a helping hand when they have no other choice then to become an explorer (think of traffic jams, delays and so on).
The commuter should also be able to become an explorer voluntarily when they feel adventurous, with just the switch of a button. This might also make sure the app becomes more then just a commuter app, so the amount of users on a Sunday might rise. This will be the unique selling point, setting this app apart from for example google maps. It is focussed on the commuter. We want the user to be able to select and customise the experience of the system in terms of functionality and content prioritisation. For example we want the user to set up or mute notifications, set default commuting method. The concept is based on the core values of the ANWB. Which are trustworthiness (which is also very important when it comes to the design ), openness, involvement. According to our debrief and client needs the concept will hold more values then just these. Confidence, companion and understanding will be implemented as well.
ANWB Controller (by Pinar Kesenci & Edwin D’Mello):
This concept consists of a digital assistant (attachable screen in car + phone) and a physical controller to help commuters reduce distraction and to safely reach their destination on time.The physical buttons (which can be easily attached to a steering wheel or the handlebars of a bike) are used by the driver to get information from the system whenever he/she desires. Thus, instead of the driver talking to a car and having a back and forth of audio commands that can take several seconds (which causes high cognitive demand due to the duration taken to complete a task and the chance of error), the driver just pushes the specific button and gets that information. The four buttons can be customised from the app to whatever the driver wants. But besides the driver being able to ask the system for information, it also provides information before the driver asks for it. For e.g. when a driver is on a regular commute, the system prioritises low distraction so the screen stays off and there is no audio. In this mode, it does not give out any information except when it detects traffic before the driver has reached that point. But if because of unforeseen circumstances a driver takes a new route and becomes an explorer, the system prioritises information over low distraction and provides turn by turn navigation.The system also provides information before the driver is about to go on a commute and after reaching there.
Strengths: This is based on the research as we found that (1) talking to a car causes high distraction and cognitive demand because it takes a lot longer to complete an interaction and there is a higher chance of error (the buttons in our concept don’t require any speech and the is effortless, accurate and provides the information the driver desires)(2) commuters don’t want turn by turn navigation and are annoyed by it(3) they want to know about traffic (both getting a traffic update without being asked and getting an update when they ask for that information).
Your personal AI passenger (by Pinar Kesenci)
ANWB will be your personal AI passenger while commuting. With the reframed focus and new flow the app will be focused on giving valuable data to the user before, during and after the whole journey. During the onboarding the user is asked to add places for their commuting route, like there home and work. The user is asked to prioritise information that is important for them, to make the app more personal. With the ANWB widget users can directly access the most information the user need at that moment in time before they start commuting by right swiping. It’s quick, easy and convenient. Giving the users the right and relevant actions within the widget the users can adjust the data and get more details if they want. Whenever the users starts the commute they only simply have to open the app. Since the app is using sensors and AI the app will recognise when the user starts their commute. The app will switch to a commuter screen, where only the most important information is shown for the user that is personalised. When an unexpected event happens and the the traffic jam becomes to big which causes a lot of delay the user can choose to take a (faster) alternative route through the ANWB app. At that moment the app will provide an alternative route by giving a very simple, less noisy step-by-step navigation to arrive at destination. At the end of the route, depending on the context, the app will provide relevant information or functionalities (i.e. parking functionality).
ANWB Overdrive for 2025 (by Konstantinos Partheniadis):
After research and personal speculation about the future of transportation and ANWB , future looks closer than imagined. In 2025, car ownership will be limited to the elite of the citizens. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) will rule the commuting scene with smart self-driving vehicles playing a vital role in the transportation system of the city. Finland is a pioneer in transportation. Recently their Whim app and MaaS Global receive large Red Dot award for their innovation.
ANWB in synergy with MaaS businesses will generate bigger economic benefits the more people move and use their Overdrive service. With Overdrive, ANWB will quickly become an information and data center of what's happening out in the streets, selling information to other MaaS and cooperating with Government to regulate and predict traffic jams. ANWB Overdrive will make everyday commuting fun, efficient, more predictable. Fun, because it will embrace the spontaneity of the commuters, constrain them less and give them more flexible choices from a large spectrum of available vehicles nearby. Predictable, because sensors, self-driving cars, car sharing, scheduling and knowing people's commuting routines will help predict traffic conditions better than today. Commuters will have the opportunity to explore theirs and other cities of Netherlands behind different vehicles and never care again for maintenance, fees and regulations. ANWB shall rise. Without ANWB Overdrive, ANWB itself will have a hard time keeping up with new mobility services, their services will probably shrink because of the demotion of car ownership, new M-a-a-services will have a hard time converting customers, commuters will struggle with traffic jams and government regulations, Dutch innovation will grow slower, and foreign MaaS systems will be integrated also in the Netherlands (e.g. Finland’s Whim service).In the future, we expect ANWB to have adapted to the ever-changing technological, cultural, social demands in the sector of mobility services in the Netherlands. Citizens will commute by public transportation, similar to what we know today, and the first, in-between and last miles will be conveniently covered by Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) systems: shared cars(LyncCo,Forbes,Medium,DriveCanvas), bicycles (VanMoof+,RidersShare), motorcycles, self-driving vehicles(Olli,RAC,TaaS,IONIQ), taxis and ride hailing services(Uber,Drvver) rental and pay-per-mile vehicles(TaaS). Predictability, security and trust will be essential for delivering customer value(Accenture, 2017). ANWB with their new service named ‘ANWB Overdrive’ will play a crucial role for bridging MaaS businesses with commuters and will help keeping the Netherlands in the top three leading innovative countries in the world(InvestInHolland, iAmExpat). For businesses, ANWB Overdrive will provide a convenient mobility service that will integrate smaller MaaS services in a larger one. ‘The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts’, Aristotle once said. ANWB Overdrive will help smaller MaaS businesses gain exposure directly to ANWB’s loyal customers. They will be provided with road assistance for their fleet of vehicles and access to real-time traffic information and other data. The ANWB Overdrive service will make all those services more trustful, profitable, convenient and efficient to use while commuting in the Netherlands.
For commuters, it will help hop-on and hop-off from one MaaS to another with little to no effort, through a pay-by-mile or a monthly subscription model. Every mobility service will be accessible to use through the click of a button and ANWB will be there to guarantee the security, privacy and efficiency of your ride. Drivers will know when it’s the perfect time to hop-off and hop-on to another transportation medium that they wish. For example, imagine knowing that there is a brand new, fast, fully charged electric bike close to the next metro station and that you could use it today as a last mile commuter to arrive to work. ANWB Overdrive will provide a trustworthy sensor package to be installed in all vehicles types for tracking their location, detecting available rides nearby ready for hop-on or reservation, ensuring security, privacy and consistency in the customer experience (CX). Blockchain technology will be used to keep a detail record of previous drivers, routes and vehicle fixes for maximizing trust, privacy and security.
Significant Design Decisions 2:
Client meeting was about choosing either Future or Today concept. Both Jordy and Maaike, as young UX designers, were excited about the future with ‘ANWB Overdrive’ concept. Frank reviewed our work later and suggested we go for Today’s concept ‘Quick Assist’ because it aligns better with the initial brief and satisfies his wishes as client. But in the end he leaves the choice up to us. He commented positively on graphical user interface concepts (1) and (4) of concept ‘Quick Assist’. The team chooses to develop different form factors for the Today’s concept in order to explore different levels of user safety and satisfaction. The team expected that after this iteration it would be clearer to decide which direction to go in the end and which would provide the most meaning for all stakeholder. The complex problem was about to be solved. For this reason significant design decisions were made:
1. Use little to no Voice UI. As shown by literature and as proven by our research, people do not like receiving instruction aloud. Giving voice commands increases cognitive load and easily annoys the user which we want to avoid in the context of driving.
2. Suggest Mobility Method. As user research suggests, most people have more than one mobility method that they use to commute daily. Different context factors are affecting their choices especially for bikers. The system must give all the argumentation on why the user must take this mobility method, why start now from home, why to avoid their usual road, how much are the delays today, what time are they expected to arrive if they leave now etc. All these are very important to the commuter as indicated by our last survey. As indicated also by the speculative concept, it will be important in the future that the users know when and why is the correct time to hop-off a mobility method and hop-on to another in order to reach their destination effectively. ANWB has the data, it only needs to put them in the same screen and visualize it so that it makes sense to the user. Then, more users will take glances when the wake up with minimum to no effort. For more details they will have to possibility to explore more for every bit of information.
3. Focus on Commuters. Doing a competitive analysis and creating the user journey showed us that most navigation apps are already solving the wants and needs of the explorer (Google maps, Waze, Flitsmeister) but not so much the needs of the commuter. For this reason we aim to focus on the needs of the commuter. Since commuters don’t use navigation, they are not using their phone in the car. We see this as an opportunity for the ANWB. Finding a way to communicate the personal and relevant information they need in a safe way. Cater to their needs when it comes to relevant information (traffic jams) and when they have no other option then to become an explorer.
A personal attempt to bring Overdrive in today: The following UI was designed by me to demonstrate to my team how we could be inspired from the Overdrive MaaS future in order to serve commuters today. This smartwatch application gives ANWB members the ability to receive suggestions for which mobility method to get to reach their destination. The user has the ability to predefine their usual commuting destinations, work, school, gym, family, friend, and the system gets to know the person’s habit. It uses arguments below every suggestion to support why the user should commute or shouldn’t commute with this method now. To do these I used Figma, and smartwatch mockups.
The new commuting driver mode, follows the principles of the above design. The team gave positive feedback on it and we decided to explore this concept also in different form factors: smartphone, smartphone with a remote controller called ‘buttonset’, smartwatch, and a custom hardware device the ‘assistant kit’. The aim was to validate our assumptions regarding what is safer, what is less distracting, what people want, what ANWB can do. User can check at a glance which vehicle is suggested for today’s commute to their usual destinations: for example, ‘Work’ if its Monday to Friday, ‘White Label Cafe’ if its weekend morning, ‘Grandparents’ if its Weekend afternoon time etc. User can always check what’s up with traffic in their region i.e. Amsterdam if they are located there now, by swiping to the left the yellow bar of the destinations. The system will display information and delays related to the mobility method the person selects below i.e. if Amsterdam + Car, the information prioritized will be delays, traffic jams, speed traps and similar to traffic intensity events. The colored dots on the left of each item have a function: If it’s red, it attracts the eye immediately and means that this piece of information will very likely affect your commute. If it’s green it gives the user the feeling of safety and confidence, giving them the ‘green light’ as the specific factor will likely not influence their commute i.e. for biking, a good weather day will give a green light, but a late ETA to work will give a red light as the bike choice will very much likely make them reach late at their workplace. This way the UI helps the user make their glance very efficient and make decisions quickly based on all the factors that we found during our research that interest them for their commute: ETA, delays, total time, traffic intensity, weather conditions.
Smartphone app: The concept is firstly implemented in Smartphone.
Smartphone app: While Commuting, the today’s way of using smartphone while people commute. In the contrary this concept disables all other notifications from other apps and the interface becomes short and simple and displays only relevant real-time information: delays ahead changing, bridges openning, ETA.
Smartwatch App: Before Commuting, same information as presented in the smartphone app.
Smartwatch App: While Commuting, tactile and visual alerts that are small short and ‘glancable’ and can be auto-dismissed keeping distractions low. Drawback is that sometimes users will be tempted to touch the watch which requires all hands away from the steering wheel. Watch is expected to contribute very effectively in all-contexts on the road: bike, car, scooter, OV.
The Smartphone + Buttonset: The buttonset allows for user intervention to the smartphone solution while driving.
Foam forming with sandpaper. Measuring and designing digitally using Sketch (Edwin) and PTC Creo Parametric (Konstantinos). The foam models were 4 in total, one with large diameter screen and buttons, one with smaller diameter only buttons, and smaller variations of them. We invited two esigners from the unviersity to review our early prototypes in terms of perceived safety, distraction and ergonomics. Pinar and Roselinde designed the interfaces and made interactive prototypes for the smartphone (find it here) and the smartwatch (find it here).
Watch here the process of making these tangible foam artifacts.
The hole was made using Cinema4D to remove material and make room for a smartwatch to fit it (borrowed Apple Watch Series 2). I then used PTC Creo again to measure and scale the model to match the actual size of the Apple Watch (42mm exactly).
An the iterated model to be thinner with bigger buttons, easier to press and hold:
All the magnetic props, the iterations (from Foam to 3D print to 3D print again) and the steering wheel on which we applied them for optimizations.
Concept Evaluation & Form Factors Comparison
The first survey revealed that drivers want to know about traffic jams (44%), Route (20%). Speedlights (8%), optional routes (7%), construction (5%), gas stations (3%). What is the optimal way to alert of the traffic Jams? How lo support them make decisions? How to be ‘omnipresent’ as ANWB? How about overspeeding in the specific context? In the evaluation we recruited 9 people at different times and contexts to try out our 4 different prototype form factors of the same concept: the smartphone, the smartphone + buttonset, the smartwatch, the assistant kit.
We gave them simple tasks like ‘select a vehicle for commuting today’, ‘where did you base your choice on’ ‘There’s a speedight trap as you drive, and you receive this notification, how do you behave?’, ‘Which form factor you prefer for everyday use?’ etc. The user then rated on a Likert scale from 1-5 all devices in terms of Safety, Distraction, Confusion, Confidence, Obtrusiveness, Added Values, Ease of use, Practicality, Usability, Learnability, Personal Preference, Likelihood to use. All these terms were chosen to reflect the brief and the attributes that vary between the different form factors. A copy of the table with the results can be found here. In summary, smartwatch is considered to be the most practical solution especially for the users that wanted to be active in multiple contexts on the road. It is also the most likely people would use for this kind of application: real-time traffic information for all contexts on the road. Smartwatch scores the lowest in terms of obtrusiveness meaning that the having something on my wrist to alert me about relevant events and take quick glances while the user is driving is not obstructing my driving activity almost at all. It scores the highest by difference in added value, people would use it more frequently, and they would like to personalize it. Smartwatch scores low on safety especially for the case of driving a scooter because drivers, with the current interface, wouldn’t be able to touch it and interact while pulling the gas. Smartwatch comes second on distractions, after the buttonset. Smartphone with the buttonset comes first in a lot of ratings too including Ease of Use, Lowest Distractions, Highest Safety and Confidence of Use.
Significant Design Decisions
The user test and the client meeting helped us make decisions and make a plan on finishing the project with another iteration on the Smartwatch concept. The client was excited about our 3D crafted models and our concept validation with 9 users. Client understands our arguments that Voice UI can be distracting and annoying while driving. He sees potential in a Smartwatch UI because it is attached on the user’s wrist and it does not require the ANWB as a company to build custom hardware but instead, software in which they are experts. If a smartwatch application is successful for ANWB at least for early adopters and proud members, they will explore the possibility of getting into hardware and making simpler wrist-based assistants for drivers of all ages. The buttonset was appealing also to the client but it would require hardware development which stakeholder wanted to avoid. We also, as digital designers are not in favor of iterating on the button set because in our point of view would require expert industrial designers and human factor engineers to make it comfortable for the user in all contexts and vehicles on the road. In sort, it would require extra research and the outcomes of a redesign could be questionable since the Masters is about digital applications mostly and industrial design can be supportive to it, but if possible, not a protagonist of the solution. As a result the decisions are:
1. Smartwatch will be the form factor to go. It can provide valuable real-time traffic information for while being on the road without obstructing the driver while maneuvering in contrast to other devices we evaluated. In the Netherlands 20% of iPhone users have a smartwatch (Deloitte, 2017) which is enough to approach early adopters. For this reason we ordered a smartwatch Ticwatch E to think around it and prototype the upcoming experience.
2. The UI should support no touch events while the user is driving. New laws introduce tickets (UK, 2018) to those who touch their touch-enabled devices while driving. “At a court (2018) woman said she was using the watch to check the time and needed to touch the screen to activate and deactivate it.”. There are setting in Android and Apple watch devices that wake the devices on the wrist raise so there are no big worries here.
3. Smartphone for before and after driving. This way other peopel can try ANWB commute to receive relevant information before and after driving. Although the app is not usable while driving similar to what Onderweg does today.
Back to the drawing board, we mapped the different information that would be required before while and after commuting also depending on different mobility methods (car, scooter, bike, public transport).
The ANWB commute is the final iteration of the new commuting driver mode for ANWB. It includes the same information as the previous version but it has become much more safe while driving than previously. The user can now provide input to the device by flicking the wrist either inwards or outwards. This will be explained in the strengths of the concepts below. The team equipped with a new smartwatch by Android called Ticwatch E. I took some time to develop a prototype that demonstrates how the watch can work without touching it by just (a) glances and (b) flick gestures.
The concept iteration 3 called ‘ANWB Commute’ is the result of research, design and reflection on the findings, the stakeholder and user feedback, and our own expertise. ANWB Commute is a strong concept for ANWB to introduce to the market a real-time, omnipresent digital system that will stand for the values of ANWB. Going back to the debrief that reflects the project focus.
Multicontextual: Smartwatch is attached on your wrist and never goes away unless you want to charge it - unfortunately battery life still remains challenging with average life of 24hours(TomsGuide, 2017). Jumping from car, to public transport means that I dont want to think too much, I can just take a ‘glance’ on my watch and see details of whats ‘ahead’. Getting on my bike to school means that the device is there observing my context and alerting me if there is a bridge on my usual route that is opening. This can help em make decision and avoid this part of the commute. The device can help me get out of traffic jammed contexts and suggest alternative routes. With a simple UI it supports me with turn by turn navigation to get to my destination with high confidence and no need to open google maps, type ‘school’, click bike and click go... ANWB is there for me at all contexts.
Safe: The assistant is there, waiting for user to consume the information at a glance. While driving, touch input is intentionally not functioning. In this way, we prevent the driver touching the watch screen and (a) keep both hands on the steering wheel or the handlebars as suggested by Covenant and the Human factor guidelines and (b) avoid any police tickets for using touch devices while driving. As European traffic law says ‘You cant re-programme or touch it while in motion, the same rules apply for any sat nav’ (Flowers, 2017), the ANWB commute enables glances and the two ‘flick’ gestures that allow the user to provide input to the system when needed staying away from the punishable ‘touch’ interaction. Flick is said to be ‘awkward but awesome’ and the team tested it out and works rather good! Following picture is from the official document by Google for Smartwatch Navigation Patterns.
The fact that users required little information while driving worked in favor of the concept as the law is limiting the in-car interactions. The fact that ANWB is capable in developing software and not hardware means that Smartwatch solution is the only way to go for answering the project brief.
Glancable: The screen lights up only when the driver raises their wrist as if they want to check the time; this happens by default on Android and Apple watches and is like taking a ‘glance’, what we like to call ‘glancable mode’. The watch stays silent and doesn’t really give you any information unless you ‘take a glance’. Here it is trying to keep you distraction free by not bothering you again and again because you already know everything.
Opportunity for explorers: Now imagine there is traffic and you take a new unfamiliar route. The information you get remains the same, but the interaction is different. The assistant gives turn by turn navigation constantly telling you where to go because you are unfamiliar with this route. Here it is trying to give you more information and not prioritising low distraction. You have an assistant for your commute which gives you some relevant information safely.
(Video) Below, the 20 hours of ‘extreme programming’ on Android Studio in 1 minute. The smartwatch flick works and will be demonstrated at the final presentation at the university:
My initial Goals: My passion for cars attracted me to the ANWB Brief from the beginning. The team had the capabilities to deal with this complex problem which was initially looking humble and simple. Our previous experience with navigation systems (Sidewalk) would definitely give us some insights in our work. I wanted to build some cool interface for cars, better be physical product. My initial goals were to iterate on a product multiple times. My secondary goal was to work along with real users like co-create workshops. This didn't happen as priorities where given to conducting lab research, writing paper, updating the brief amidst the way. So the project was receiving research insights mainly from literature, trends research, lab research, surveys and client feedback. My third goal was to deliver a meaningful solution that adds value to every stakeholder involved. This is more of a general vision that applies to my works. My inspiration from Stuart Walker continues as applied in WWF-Foodprint Project and my Album2020, I want to continue creating meaning from all aspects of teh Quadruple Bottom Line (QBL framework): personal, practical, social and economical. This is reflected in our design process with the iterations where we were going back and asked ourselves multiple times: is it practical? What about personal meaning? Can non-ANWB members have it? What about other contexts? What happens in the future? Does this give ANWB any business opportunities? Can they actually build it in a possible future? Could this thing sell? What could be the user acceptance if it came to the market?
My Strategy. In the very beginning of the project my goal was to study, organize and propose a complete strategic plan to my team mates. You can see it here on my personal blog. It was a personal learning goal. I never officially wrote down activities to do within a project but for this one it felt really important to do because of the extended timespan of 20 weeks. My strategy used concrete research and design methodologies like agile, waterfalls, co-design session, extreme programming (XP) after a study I did online. The plan separated the project in 7 different stages (i liked to call modules) that were interconnected with each other and would allow us to go back and revise and also close and document previously finished tasks (items).
My initial, waterfall-looking plan:
Turned out to be more cyclical like:
The plan was presented to the team. Strengths of the plan was that it was covering all the expected stuff from us in order to explore and iterate based on user and stakeholder feedback. Team liked the idea of organizing a co-design workshop but they believed it would be challenging to do and might also be optional if we have other choice. My rationale was that in the past I had never participated nor organized a co-design workshop and given the fact ANWB is a big organization, with 4.4 million members we could very likely organize such an event with users members. Weaknesses of the plan was that it was looking like a waterfall method and iterations weren't clearly visible. The client gave feedback on the plan in the first meeting and introduced to us the 'Better together' Lean UX cycle.
The client suggested we do a Lean UX (yellow) cycle for the project:
He firmly believed that we as a team need to take a cycle there and suggested we adapt the current strategy into this plan that he was also more familiar. We saw this as an opportunity to learn from professionals and worked with Lean UX in mind. We had our hypotheses/assumptions: visuals vs audio, physical vs digital. We experimented in lab settings, out in the field. We analyzed our knowledge and introduced it into our research and into our requirements list as insights. The strategy o initially came up with, worked out overall. Several notices (a) no extreme programming took place and that was because experiments were made to run firmly ok on wizard of Oz prototypes. The extended ideation phase did not allow me to start extreme programming sessions with the team in which I was planning to give them tutorials and split tasks for each member to deliver for our experiments. The only programming took place the last two weeks were the ANWB commute smartwatch application was developed as a prototype for (a) demonstrating how the concept works in a video the team is working on and (b) demonstrating how to concept works to the client and to the master's final presentation to let people tinker with it (c) for me to have something to remember and leave back at HVA and to ANWB who can potentially upgrade my basic prototype and try it with users. Client gave feedback on the prototype saying that he is impressed although, 'without offense' he believes the process of the design was more valuable than trying to show how the final interaction works. I finished the prototype quickly after this, with quicker tricks bypassing the difficult parts of programming. In the meantime I enjoyed a couple or more 'extreme programming' 13-hour sessions by myself. The sense of accomplishment after making the thing work dynamically and programmatically is unique. This feeling comes along because you know the idea is now applied and that with the implementation of more advanced APIs Like Google Maps traffic API or TomTom Traffic API I can source the actual delays at my area and on the road I am located on which can turn the ANWB Commute from concept to an actual minimum viable product that can be testable with users in the real context of the road. Although the remaining list of deliverables (iterate the UIs, get client feedback, make a video, document everything) had bigger priority over making a fully working prototype similar to what I did for Sidewalk project which could potentially bring us closer to received user's feedback.
My Card-Sorting Game that we never got to try, was a tool i created myself in order to generate ideas together with users. The game was about the context of driving on the road. The player would have the ability to pick their mobility methods (car, bike, motorcycle, bus, foot) and create with the researcher a story around which they would describe, in a think aloud process, their emotions and actions. The game was never played with users unfortunately. Quickly after I designed this game, we decided to focus on commuters, and the team efforts focused on preparing an extensive survey that would reveal user behavior similarly to my game. I still believe such a game would have been fun and very generative to be played with a team of ANWB members. Or, it could also be very fun to try as an empathy game for the ANWB employees who have a hard time understanding their user’s needs when it comes to digital applications.
Increasing Complexity. The team demonstrated quick adaptation to changes of the brief and challenges that the client introduced amidst the project. The team started with clear strategy and had to revise the strategy and operationally deal with new challenges. Client was avoiding to steer us in possible direction that they would have in mind. As a result, it happened that we explored a concept that was similar to the Onderweg stakeholder’s vision ‘Mark de Bruijn’ about Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Through our research and design iterations we evisioned ‘Overdrive’, a concept that sees ANWB as the major digital platform that will connect all MaaS systems in one digital application and make them accessible and usable to commuters in the future. They day we presented this concept to the UX designers they showed us a video the marketing team made 2 weeks earlier that envisions ANWB to have a part in the game of MaaS transportation in the future. This says two things. Firstly the team produced results that correspond to leading stakeholder expectations without even taking to him. Secondly, ANWB really has to start making strategies on how to deal with the future of mobility today and prepare the grounds for safe and meaningful connected driving, shared driving and self-driving experiences. Frank, wanted us to discover ourselves and think about future proof concepts and he succeeded in this. No strict boundaries were applied to the project leaving the team in charge of steering the ideas by taking in account research findings, user requirements, trends in mobility, stakeholder capabilities, granted and upcoming regulations and more. The following video demonstrates the way we worked.
Lessons Learnt: ANWB showcased how big, slow-paced companies that want to catch up with competition need external help. Not only people from outside the company but also young multidisciplinary designers. Young digital designers usually share a common for positive transformation. At least this happened in our team. We were all motivated to help ANWB see the context with a clearer eye, see that they provide their target group with information in the wrong time, they don't ask them for their opinion. Digital Designers can utilize the company's reputation, their knowledge and tools, take in account where they want to be in the future and build solutions that solve something today and are inspired by the future. In the case of ANWB commute, if it wasn't for speculating in the future -which we almost believed we could direct the project into a speculative one- ANWB commute would likely look different. That's because in the future of MaaS mobility services different companies with different combinations of fleets of vehicles, from two wheeled to four wheeled, from private to autonomous, will require a a digital system that will allow access from one vehicle to another meaning from context to context. This multicontextuality inspired me to design the UIs of the ANWB Overdrive, supposing there will be some square, screen-based interface that the user will have access at all times.
This reflects back to two popular interfaces: smartphones and smartwatches. The small interface allowed me to concentrate information about.multiple contexts and connect different contexts through a swipe gesture as if it is today's smartwatches. My best lesson what that speculating in the future can bring unexpected inspiration for answering today's problems. This tactic most probably ensures that there will be scalability in your concept that most likely you have not even though of before. Essentially the speculation derived out of company's values and size and the trends in technology and mobility. Similarly for other projects, learning who the company is, what it stands for and how the stakeholders see it in the future can allow better framed and sustainable solution for today and the future.
Using the smartphone while driving is like driving with visual impairment
To consume information while driving is contradicting with safety regulations. Similarly to the Visually Impaired People (VIP) project, Sidewalk (Sidewalk, 2017), it was interesting to investigate different input methods and feedback modalities to understand which can minimize the cognitive load for the user to interact with the system and stay connected to their real context which contains risks. Back in 2011, Auto Accident Attorneys of Michigan created a video to demonstrate how distracted driving by smartphone usage is similar to being blind (MichiganAutoLaw, 2011). Raygo used their patented technology for the blind to create a tactile and voice interface to use your phone while driving (Raygo, 2015, Indiegogo, 2015).
There is a relevance between creating digital solutions for people with visual disabilities and for people that are driving. In analogy, VIP that want to commute to their usual destinations, need a system that verifies them that they are heading correctly, that makes them aware of the context, and supports them to make decisions. Drivers, similarly want a system that is there for them, that can understand the urgency and the situation they are in, that can support them make decisions to reach their destination in an efficient way. Drivers and VIPs want to keep their confidence levels high, move in their contexts safely and reach their destination efficiently and on time. For both, it’s important they prepare ahead of their commute. Sighted people have an advantage here and should at a glance know what to expect in their daily commute. What they know might change because of unexpected events ahead, i.e. traffic accidents, bridges, and thus the system must let them know through a feedback modality which can vary based on their context and activity. For example, if the user is still at home, the system can use vibration, audio, visuals to alert them and might expect touch or even text input by them. Unlike when there is an unexpected event while being on the road, the feedback modalities must be restricted primarily to distinctive vibration patterns and secondarily to short, ‘glancable’ and understandable visuals whereas input must be required only for urgent situations and must be conducted through air gestures to maximize safety.
Personal meaning is always important. People usually understate personal value for practical value. For example, my father never enjoys music in his car while commuting to work because he wants to have the local news radio on which announces traffic events for the roads he takes. Based on that, he makes decisions for his commute and takes a different road. Although the new generation of drivers, the millennials, rely on navigation applications on their smartphones whiled riving to receive information such as Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), faster alternative routes and make it easier to access turn by turn instructions. They also use roadside assistance more than any other generation (Allstate, 2016). The use of their smartphone gives them personal value and studies indicate that it’s not only them who are driving distracted, it’s that they are more comfortable admitting it.
