Taking back Singapore with you after a visit at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre
During my forth week at General Assembly(GA), I was given a tight deadline of 10 days to re-design a whole new experience for tourist dining at a Hawker Centre. This article documents my journey on how i tackle the challenges, the flow of my thought process, and how i made my design decisions based on the data collected.
Background of Old Airport Hawker Centre
Built in 1973, Old Airport Road Hawker Centre is the largest hawker centre, and it is home to many famous hawker legends. Serving mouth-watering Satay Bee Hoon, Char Kway Teows, Rojak and many other local famous delights. Food are reasonably priced and it is located just 15 minutes away from Singapore’s Central Business District.
Project Brief
The Problem
This goes out to the countless of tourist who have been in this situation before. The example goes as such: It’s your first time in Country X. You only have two hours to explore famous local delights at a Hawker Centre recommended. What is put before you are more than 300 different food choices to select from, and the Hawker Centre is huge.
Opportunities
Today, mobile devices have become the main source of interaction with the digital world. This enables businesses such as hawker owners & government institution to leverage on new efficiencies to enhance customer satisfaction.
Another opportunity presented is the steady increase in the number of Tourist entering Singapore, from 11.6Mil tourist in 2010, to 15.1mil tourist in 2015, a 30% spike.
Requirements
Identical to the mission of Singapore Tourism Board(STB) and National Environmental Agency(NEA), I want to raise the tourist dining experience by creating an interactive digital platform for tourist dining at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre.
The way how I do this is by applying the User Experience(UX) methodology such as information architecture, Service Design Thinking & content strategy to aid in my design decisions.
Process
Double Diamond Process
Here are the milestones set for a period of 10 days.
Primary Persona
I have introduce Lina as my persona
Personas is a summary of a specific type of customer that represents a broader customer segment — Moses
Contextual Inquiry
To begin my research,
At the end of the day, i compiled all my data, and inserted all the data into an excel spreadsheet as per below. The fields are as follows; Unit number, store name, cuisine, food/beverage type, and more.
Open Card Sorting Process
With Lina on mind, I started involving business travellers in an open card sorting interviewing.
By observing and prompting them for further insights, I’m able to identify patterns on why they group certain food contents together. With that, i took the information to create the navigation tab bars.
Close Card Sorting
Thereafter, the navigation tab bars are tested using the close card sorting method. This is a usability testing to observe on real-time how users interact & use the new features created.
Some notable feedbacks were gathered from users as per the above. In sight of that, i have improved upon the feedbacks by adding sub-categories into my navigation bar & remove the less popular categories such as breakfast.
Service Design
To emphatise and enhance user experience, i have used Service Design methods to help me document users experience from the time the idea pops into their head that they want to head to Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, and to the time they leave the venue.
Going back to Lina’s needs and goals; she wanted to try famous local food in the shortest time possible, and this journey map depicts her pain and pleasure she experience to achieve it.
Her pain points are summarised as per below
And this has aid me in creating the potential features which is 1) Mobile Responsive Web, and 2) Digital Kiosk.
Features Prioritisation
I have mapped out a feature prioritisation diagram to see what are the most essential and low effort features to build. After piecing them together, i could clearly zoom into the critical feature that could be added onto the mobile responsive website.
Experience Prototyping
This is the 3D visual modelling of an experience prototype. By running role plays and simulations, i’m able to see how people react to future implementation of digital touchpoint.
Again, with every study, there are feedbacks we can learn from the users.
This gave me the inspiration to design a digital kiosk shaped as Singapore to capture the eye’s of the people so as to use it and also, be able to print information in relation to the hawker centre.
Information Architecture Heuristic
Service Design Hueristic
Mobile Responsive Website
Digital Kiosk
Future features I would like to explore
- Proper signage in Hawker centre
- Singapore Identity. Singaporeans’ touch and lingo to every aspect of the digital and physical touch points
- Ambience of the Hawker centre
- Personalised story by vendor owner in every store to be documented in digital print
The biggest challenge I faced in this project is piecing together the principles taught jn UX to the application of a problem. Example;service Design (Heuristic Evaluation)
However, as i get myself more involved in the research and empathising with the users I have interviewed, I start to see the co-relations and I’m able to apply the heuristic evaluation to make better design decision
In summary, this project has gave me many valuable insights, and has certainly open my eyes in understanding the importance of UX to never underestimate any small problems. In addition, it made me learn the value of time and careful planning :) — Moses
