LED Seat Finder
This project aims to simplify seat identification at venues through a website interface. Users activate a light on their seat by pressing a button on their mobile device. This immediate visual cue assists in locating their seat by giving a real-world feedback to a digital interaction.
Made together with: Chenyu Li, Mikko Linko, Kalle Nikula, Sari Kukkasniemi
Team
5 Designers
Course
Interaction Design
Duration
6 Weeks
SeatPing optimizes venue seating by integrating LED technology with a purposeful UX design. Attendees' phones synchronize with LEDs on the seats, providing a clear visual guide in bustling environments. It reduces reliance on constant phone checking, facilitating smoother navigation, lessening walkway congestion, and improving the overall event experience.
OUTCOME
SeatPing for Effortless Venue Seating
PROBLEM AND CONTEXT
Navigating Crowded Venues with Limited Visual Distinctions
In vast venues like stadiums or concert halls, locating one's seat among rows of identical options is a common challenge.
Attendees find themselves navigating the space while toggling between their tickets and the physical environment, striving to align digital information with actual seats. This not only slows down individual movement but also leads to broader issues such as walkway congestion.
The venue's layout stays the same, but your seat always changes.
Methods & Litterature
The project’s foundation was laid through an exhaustive review of existing methods and literature. However, some methodologies like F-formations and Google Design Sprint, proved to be somewhat restrictive or not entirely congruent with our objectives.
Color or Toggle
Two design approaches were explored: One featuring a color-changing seat light, and the other, a toggling light. Both concepts were user-tested using extensively A/B testing to ensure their efficacy and user-friendliness in a real-world setting.
Refining Solution
Continuous dialogue and flexibility remained paramount throughout our process. Open discussions facilitated the evolution of our initial concepts into a refined solution, despite the complexity and extensive nature of the ideation and evaluation phases.
Prototyping & Usertesting
Comprehensive prototyping and user testing were integral to our process, ensuring that the final design was not only innovative but also user-centric and practical in a live venue environment.
PROCESS
Methods & Litterature
The project’s foundation was laid through an exhaustive review of existing methods and literature. However, some methodologies like F-formations and Google Design Sprint, proved to be somewhat restrictive or not entirely congruent with our objectives.
A/B Design
Two design approaches were explored: One featuring a color-changing seat light, and the other, a toggling light. Both concepts were user-tested using extensively A/B testing to ensure their efficacy and user-friendliness in a real-world setting.
Refining Solution
Continuous dialogue and flexibility remained paramount throughout our process. Open discussions facilitated the evolution of our initial concepts into a refined solution, despite the complexity and extensive nature of the ideation and evaluation phases.
Prototyping
Comprehensive prototyping and user testing were integral to our process, ensuring that the final design was not only innovative but also user-centric and practical in a live venue environment.
Process
During the SeatPing project, my key achievement was balancing technical limits with our UX goals. The focus wasn’t just on making a good user experience, but also using technology wisely.
I noticed early that using usual brightness controls would overload the system with too many API calls. So, we changed our plan to design interactions that were enjoyable for users and worked within our technical limits so we could achieve a functioning prototype for A/B - Testing.
This strategy made our product adhere to real-world limitations of the technology we were using and taught me important lessons about being flexible and learning the potential limitations and challenges early in the process, to start out on the right path.