Marco
The story of Marco
Marco is an app that provides dynamic binaural soundscapes along with exotic recipes to provide a feeling of total immersion and escapism.
The problem? Covid-19 had everyone trapped, unable to explore. I set out on a journey to bring back what people were missing in the best way possible.
I discovered interesting correlations between food, travel, freedom and autonomy, and set about creating a solution for what people were sorely missing.
Year
2020
Discover
Interviews
Overall we conducted interviews with 12 people in order to garner an understanding of issues from a variety of demographics.
Key findings
People were desperately missing travel and exploring.
The same four walls were claustrophobic. Nobody had any way to control the mood.
Lack of thrill and spontaneous stimulus was causing depression and deep anger.
“There’s nowhere to hide from the depression now…”
“I just want to be back in Paris with a whole box of macarons”
Define
Affinity Diagramming
I began to organise my findings from the interviews into key categories and ‘spaces’.
All unique observations from the interviewees were documented and accounted for by sticky notes, and I synthesised these by finding links, common themes and similar emotions.
There were a huge amount of fascinating insights found which gave me plenty to move forward with the rest of the design process. It was clear that people were incredibly passionate about their circumstance, and it was intriguing to find out exactly why.
I created insights via yellow sticky-notes, and started to ponder with ‘how might we?’ questions.
Persona
I created a user persona to build character around what I was doing; to ensure I was designing the right product. The goals and frustrations of the persona would be key moving forward to ensure I was forming the right solutions with the user at the heart of them.
Scenario
Rebekah is feeling trapped, and due to Covid restrictions can't go on holiday. She installs (app) which allows you to pick from a large amount of locations and become immersed in the area, exploring the food and culture.
The app uses dynamic soundscapes to provide a feeling of immersion, and a wide array of recipes to accompany them. Rebekah selects a recipe from Morocco and listens to the sounds of an Arabic market around her as she cooks.
When she sits down to eat her meal she is transported through sound to a side street restaurant in which she relaxes and unwinds. This allows Rebekah to escape her surroundings and experience the joys of travel and culture again.
“It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.”
Marco Polo
How Might We?
I used my research to formulate ‘How might we’ questions.
I took forward what the persona detailed and began to question how I could achieve realising some of those goals. Would it be AR? VR? How could I make her feel a sense of freedom again?
“How might we provide a feeling of immersion in another place?'“
“How might we surprise and create a feeling of adventure?”
“How might we combine food and experience?”
UX Development
User flows
I like to start the process with user flows, just to get a sense of the order.
This concept had a multitude of potential solutions, and so I set about drafting up multiple user flows to get it just right.
What did people expect to see first? What gave them the most autonomy and freedom? Did they expect to explore by dish or by country? How would the soundscapes be integrated? These were all questions I needed answered.
Wireframes
I decided to focus on two major use cases for the wireframes. After the user flows I had a good sense of where things should go, and such began to sketch out the screens and the links between them.
I intended for the home screen to offer the same sort of freedom and exploration as an app like instagram, with a heavy reliance on imagery, and I was keen to see if this was well received.
Paper Prototyping
Usability testing was conducted by paper prototyping, which led to major insights about my design.
Task
Cook chicken Tagine
Find a soundscape.
Results
When they clicked on a recipe they expected to see the details of the recipe, but instead were greeted by the soundscapes page. I iterated on this by moving soundscapes to in between country selection and dish selection.
Filters on the dish screen were too vague.
Ingredients and reviews seemed too congested.
I went back to my flows and restructured sections to make sure everything had its place; that everything made sense.
Hi-Fi Prototype
Prototype
Feel free to look around
Usability testing
It was vital for me to test Marco in context to iron out any pain points or areas of struggle before proceeding to the next stages of the process.
Task
Cook a recipe from Morocco and listen to a soundscape.
Findings
As I assumed, voice control is essential. When someone enters the kitchen and your hands are covered in sauce, you need a way to smartly lower the volume and not miss out on any content.
Need an option to save a story for later.
Being able to change the soundscape halfway through would be nice. You shouldn’t be locked into a process.
Delivered