CATour

I decided to move on with an app named CATour with CAT → Campus Art Trail and Tour → Orientation Tour. It is meant to be a platform to: introduce NTU Museum, introduce NTU Mobile App and bonding platform

The Tour itself is to be conducted as part of NTU ADM Orientation Programme in group of 8 freshmen which every participants will download NTU Mobile App.

Flow

After summarising everything, I tried to simplify the experience and explain the flow with the following slides. I feel that the flow is quite straightforward and simple to be understood especially by first time user.

Prototype

I created the prototype using Figma.com and it was my first time using it. Interestingly, it was quite friendly and intuitive even though I still had to look for tutorials for certain functions. Overall, I am happy to learn to use FIgma.com.

It is the link: https://tinyurl.com/CATour-prototype

Video: CATour Demo Video

Design Rationale

The visuals of CATour is meant to fit NTU Mobile App while maintaining the vibe to be fun and personalised to add sense of ownership and retain attention of users.

User Journey Map

Lastly, I wanted to analyse the journey that a user experience and try to create a user journey map and filled it with real-life reasonings to make it as relatable as possible.

Reference

• https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/user-journey-maps-or-user-flows-what-to-do-first-48e825e73aa8 

Survey

Questions:

1. Year of study
2. Gender
3. How familiar are you with NTU Mobile App?
4. Any opinion on NTU Mobile App? 
5. How familiar are you with NTU Museum?
6. Any opinion on NTU Museum?
7. Did you join the ADM Orientation when you were a freshman?
8. Do you think it’s important to know the artworks in NTU? Why?
9. Would you prefer to explore artworks in a group or individual?
10. How do you find the idea of exploring artworks in NTU as part of ADM Orientation?

Results:

Trip

I went to a trip for both routes to take photos, measure travel time as well as finalising activities on each artworks.

Some notes from the trip

• Untitled is inaccessible as the venue is being closed for exam preparation
• The furthest is to go from Tete-a-tete to The Third Paradise (North Group)
• The closest artworks are Media Art Nexus and Fern (North Group)

Each game duration is set at maximum 8 minutes, except for the final game 20 minutesl

After collating the travel time and adding buffer time, and adding game duration, this is the estimated tour duration:

Research Categories

To support the solution, I conducted research to further know more

• NTU Freshmen Orientation
• ADM Orientation
• Case study: NTU Mobile App
• Target Audience
• Survey
• Research conclusion

NTU Freshmen Orientation Research

About Freshmen Orientation

The Undergraduate Orientation Coordinating Committee (UOCC) has implemented the Transition & Orientation Programme @ NTU since Academic Year 2017-18. The First-Year TOP experience aims to help freshmen start off right and make the transition throughout the entire first year. This resulted from surveys that were conducted with students, as well as a long consultative process involving all stakeholders, especially seniors and freshmen. Student organisers have already been briefed. For the general student body, the changes are summarised in the list of Questions and Answers below.

What is the UOCC?

UOCC stands for Undergraduate Orientation Coordinating Committee. The UOCC is responsible for coordinating all orientation activities for freshmen to provide the best experience for them to learn and adjust to University life.

The UOCC is chaired by the Associate Provost (Student Life) and comprises representatives from:

• NTU Students’ Union (NTUSU)
• The College of Engineering
• The College of Science
• The College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences,
• Nanyang Business School
• National Institute of Education, and
• Other university departments

What are the objectives of Freshmen Orientation?

The UOCC, in consultation with student leaders and representatives, has identified the following primary objectives for Freshmen Orientation:

• Welcome all freshmen to the NTU Community
• Share the skills and knowledge for navigating through their first academic year**
• Inform all freshmen about their rights and responsibilities
• Develop a sense of belonging to NTU
• Provide opportunities for all freshmen to meet and interact with other students
• Inform freshmen where they can get help with administrative and personal matters
• Provide opportunities for freshmen to become familiar with the campus, facilities, resources and services
• Provide information about student organisations
  

Schools, Halls, and Student Organisations may place different emphasis on these specific objectives. Organisers are free to design the orientation programme in accordance to the priorities set by UOCC.

For instance, School Freshmen Orientation activities will focus on teaching participants the individual skills and knowledge to help them through their first year. On the other hand, Hall orientation activities emphasise awareness of the surrounding facilities and resources, and foster a strong sense of belonging and identity to the Hall community. Student Organisations will introduce freshmen to the university’s student clubs and societies.

ADM Orientation Research

NTU Mobile App Research

Target Audience Research & Persona Creation

User personas creation steps:

1. Collect extensive data on target users.
   • Majority of NTU ADM students are female
     
   • NTU ADM freshmen are mostly from JC (17-18 y.o.) or Polytechnic (18-19 y.o) or NS Men (19-21 y.o), age range 17-21
     
   • Background: art background & non-art background
     
2. Develop a hypothesis from the research, determining the qualities of and differences between users.
   • The user can be male and female
   • The user can be local or international students, however it’s more likely to be local due to
     • Invitation for NTU ADM Orientation sent by mail might reach International students late
     • International students may not have arrived in Singapore during the earlier orientation dates
   • The user may enrol with formal art education background or no art background
     • JC: majority no art background
     • Polytechnic: more technical background but majority not from art-related courses
3. Ensure stakeholders agree on the hypothesis about the users.
4. Determine a number of personas – more than one per project, but focus especially on one.
5. Name and describe each persona in 1-2 pages, including:
   • Name: Angela
   • Age: 18
   • Gender: Female
   • Occupation: NTU ADM Freshmen
   • Nationality: Singaporean
   • Education: Polytechnic
   • Formal art education: None
   • Marital status: Single
6. A picture.
   
7. User’s values, interests, education, lifestyle, needs, attitudes, desires, limitations, goals and behavior patterns.’
   1. Values
      • Knowledge
      • Friends and belonging
   2. Interests
      • Movies
      • Photography
   3. Education
      • Polytechnic (Accountancy)
   4. Lifestyle
      • Doesn’t stay in hall, travel daily
      • Loves bubble tea
      • Work part-time at a cafe
   5. Needs
      • Guidance on school work
      • University friends and belongings
      • Motivation in work
   6. Attitudes
      • Want to learn
      • Curious
   7. Desires
      • Do well in school
      • Ability to use applications
      • Good portfolio
      • Decide design 
   8. Limitations
      • Limited design application knowledge
      • Limited friends in the same course as she changed stream to art
      • Limited time 
   9. Goals
      • Find friends
      • Decide design art or media art
      • Looking for CCA to join
   10. Behaviour patterns
       • Travel 40 minutes for one-way to NTU from home
       • Stay at school library during non-class time to do work
       • Work part-time at a cafe during weekend
8. Empathy map
   

   Say	Do	Think	Feel
   “I don’t know anyone here, I really want to make some friends.” “I am not sure if I get in to the correct course and which design pathway is more suitable for me.” “I don’t have a strong art background, I hope I will stay motivated throughout the year.”	Join the orientation to make friends Read more on the pathways available Consult with tutors and ask for seniors experiences Find classmate/senior to help familiarise with apps used	What will the orientation programme be like? What kind of people will I meet?  Why do I have to choose pathway only after 1 semester?  Can I do my best in school?	Is excited about upcoming orientation Is concern for not knowing anyone and ability to make new friends Is confused and afraid of making the wrong choice in pathway Is worried about her ability to cope with no art background

9. Extra details about the persona (e.g., interests) – anything to make him/her more real and relevant and help build empathy. A written story is better than bullet points.
10. Describe several situations/scenarios prompting the persona to use your product – put him/her in contexts with problems to overcome.
11. Include everyone involved in the project so they’ll accept the persona (or advise revisions).
12. Send them the persona to use in their work.
13. Ensure everyone develops scenarios – exposing the persona optimally to potential use cases.
14. Make continuous adjustments – revisit the persona, adding new features; add required new personas; discard outdated personas.

Final Persona

• Name: Angela
• Age: 18
• Gender: Female
• Occupation: NTU ADM Freshmen
• Nationality: Singaporean
• Education: Polytechnic
• Formal art education: None
• Marital status: Single
• Online locations: work and mobile
• Computers(s): iPhone 8 and Macbook Pro
• Internet usage: 8-9 hours
• Angela’s story:
  Angela is a freshmen of NTU ADM. She studied Accoutancy at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and decided to pursue art in University. She loves to watch movies and do photography in her free time. She works part-time at a cafe during weekend for her personal allowance. She doesn’t stay in NTU Hall and travel for 2 hours daily to reach school.
  She doesn’t have any formal education in art and worry that it might hinder her from doing well in University. However, she is a curious and fast-learner thus she hopes to be able to cope with the modules. She also wishes to find some course mates who will be able to study and do work together.She knows about the ADM syllabus that require her to choose a programme between Design Art and Media Art but she is still unsure of which one she should choose from. She doesn’t have any friends or seniors in ADM thus hoping to make new friends by joining the ADM orientation programme.
• Angela’s situation
  • Goals, motivation
    • Make new friends and last bonding and belongings
    • Know which pathway to pursue for future aspiration
    • Stay motivated throughout University life
  • Key words
    • Orientation, friendship, bonding, knowledge, motivation 

References

• https://www.ntu.edu.sg/AboutNTU/CorporateInfo/FactsFigures/Pages/Undergraduate-Population-by-Gender-AY2018-19.aspx
• https://www.ntu.edu.sg/AboutNTU/CorporateInfo/FactsFigures/Documents/NTU_glance_2018.pdf
• https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/publications/education-statistics-digest/esd_2018.pdf
• http://www.hey.ntu.edu.sg/issue31/highly-reputable.html# 
• https://www.ntu.edu.sg/Freshmen/FAQsonFreshmenOrientation/Pages/index.aspx
• https://wis.ntu.edu.sg/pls/webexe/REGISTER_NTU.REGISTER?EVENT_ID=OA19053120445568
• https://www.instagram.com/admfo2o19/?hl=en
• https://www.ntu.edu.sg/Freshmen/hp/Pages/default.aspx
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blackboard.android.central.ntu_sg&hl=en_SG
• https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/personas?r=natasya-adistana
• https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them

Artworks Categorisation

I proceed with grouping and analysing each artwork. As there will be two routes, I want both of them to be complementary to each other, and for the artworks to be able to be classified and categorised together.

I realised that the number of initial artwork of 13 (including landmarks) was too much, thus I wanted to shortlist them. In doing so, I read more on each artwork and how they can be categorised and grouped.

And I end up with these possible categories:

1. traditional art (painting & sculpture)
2. community art
3. renewable energy art
4. functional art
5. eco-friendly art

with this, I grouped the artworks to be:

1. traditional art: Vibrance & The Wind and Wings
2. community art: Media Art Nexus & Apollo’s Dream
3. renewable energy art: Fern & Dandelion
4. functional art: Red Solace & Tete-a-tete
5. other art: Untitled (historical) & The Third Paradise (mixed media)

and also eliminated three artwork which are The Hive, Yunnan Garden and Loop.

Tour Route

Processing the information, I created the routes for the plan

(North Group)
Dandelion > Media Art Nexus > Fern > Red Solace > Apollo’s Dream > The Third Paradise

(South Group)
Dandelion  > The Wind and Wings > Vibrance > Untitled > Téte-a-tété > The Third Paradise

Tour Device

For the use of device, I decided to use mobile phone for every participant and the number of participants per group will be limited to eight.

Tour Aim

Planning further after realising the different category of artworks, I wanted to make the experience to be more meaningful for the target audience, ADM freshmen by showing them on how their study in ADM can lead to different possibilities of artworks that they can create, and even to be a part of NTU Museum. The tour hopefully will serve as an eye-opener as well as motivation for the newly enrolling students.

Tour Activities

I continued with the possible activities at the artworks. The idea was to use Augmented Reality (AR) in order to identify and interact with the artworks where afterwards, everyone will get to collect information about the artworks. The information will later on be shared among the two groups in order to complete the final task and finish the tour.

Feedback

Some feedback that I got about this:

1. It is a good idea to have involve a specific target audience with a specific purpose of the tour
2. The NTU Museum is relevant for ADM students where students are part of the design process of some artworks
3. AR is expensive and may brainstorm to more affordable solution

Initial Mapping

Initially, the project began with two different zones (North and South) from my group’s previous mapping exercise. With the two different zones, it is then implied that there will be two routes for the tour. In addition, it was for secondary school students who are visiting NTU.

Concept Ideation

After thinking through more of the idea, I wanted to explore on other target audience and repurpose the tour. I came up with two ideas:

1. A tour for ADM freshmen that will be held during ADM orientation
2. A tour for anyone to find a random buddy to explore the artworks (the concept of Tinder)

Both will be given incentives if completed the by the participants. There is also idea for them be participatory and leave their marks (photo, comment, sharing, etc) online after the tour completion. The main difference is the number of participants (big group vs smaller group) and the purpose of the tour.

After further sharing and discussion with Kristy, I decided to go with the first option.

Feedback

Some feedback that she has given asked me to explore more on these:

1. Is there any greater purpose for the participants? Like what can they gain by joining the tour (other than the knowledge that they actually can read online)
2. What makes the tour different than just following a map?
3. A better map is printed or digital?
4. As the group size will be big, will they use tablet or phone? How many device will be needed?
5. Find other activities with the artwork, not only Q&A
6. How will the two group interact with each other and what’s the intention of splitting them? i.e. competition

As a follow up, I am to proceed with this:

1. Research on each artworks
   1. find relations
   2. pair/group artwork
   3. create narrative
2. create experience plan
3. create prototype
4. finding a greater purpose of the tour such as to introduce ADM students to technology and possible artworks