X-plore

A mobile touring application focused on the UC San Diego campus.

Although the campus of UC San Diego has been around for five decades, many San Diego residents and tourists are unfamiliar with the design and architecture of the campus. Our team partnered with the San Diego Architecture Foundation (SDAF) to create an interactive tour-based mobile application centered on key architectural achievements on the UC San Diego campus. We focused on an “edu-tainment” model of design and chose to gamify the experience by rewarding visitors for exploring and learning about the campus.

MY ROLE

UX Designer

DURATION

11 weeks,
Oct - Dec 2019

TEAM MEMBERS

Amy Nguyen
Anthony Tran
Eric Yu
Hnin Ei Hlaing
Kristy Liou
Rishabh Singhal
Ruben Ramirez
Sarah Youn
Xinlu Zhou

CONTEXT

San Diego visitors and residents need a self-guided experience that invites them to explore UCSD and tells the story of its research, achievements and architecture, because visitors are missing an important destination and local residents need a stronger sense of community with the college.

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

Due to the San Diego Architectural Foundation serving as our clients for this project, it was important that our team kept the non-profit’s mission in mind; “dedicated to the education and promotion of outstanding architecture, landscape, interior, and urban design to improve the quality of life for all San Diegans”.

EXISTING SOLUTIONS

Solutions

an architecture map-based travel guide; an app created by architects, for architects and architecture enthusiasts.

layers multiple media types into one single platform, transforming traditional photos and videos into interactive content.

takes user locations and implements storytelling methods into the way that they present the local historical collections in each community.

Pros

Provides locations spread across San Diego
Provides background knowledge for each of the locations

Upcoming college students get an idea of what the campus is like without spending time and money to travel

Free and easily accessible mobile app and website that provides facts about the nearby historical sites

Cons

Not very interactive
Essentially a small scale Google Maps with some added infographic features for particular locations

Visiting the campus allows students to see more serendipitous places

May discourage users to make an effort to visit these sites in person

DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

Functionality

Users are able to find points of interest to become educated and familiar with UCSD and its surroundings.

Flexibility

A user-friendly back-end to upload information so that SDAF volunteers are able to keep the content updated.

Desirability

Enriches the user so that they find UCSD as a desirable, fun, and engaging campus rather than just another place to visit.

Socio-Cultural Sustainability

A unifying experience through interactions with the campus and potential users that continue to stay relevant.

Usability

Legible and easy to navigate so that users across multiple demographics can interact smoothly with the app.

Feasability

The design must contain features that future teams are able to create in the implementation phase.

FINAL DESIGN

Log In / Home

Easy log in that provides a personalized experience.

The top of the home page allows users to search for specific tours as well as discover tours through a plethora of filters; nearby, popular, recommended, in-progress, short, and long.

Using the phone’s current location, the user is able to automatically see destinations that are closest to them to get them started.

Explore

After selecting a tour, a holistic view of the area is provided before the user starts exploring.

A progress bar and unique badges serve as features to entice users to complete tours and learn about the area.

Once a tour is started, new points of interest can only be unlocked through close proximity using geolocation.

Profile

The user profile contains a record of in progress and completed tours as well as successfully achieved badges.

History / Trivia

FUTURE IMPLEMENTATIONS

Our solution is currently being passed on to a secondary team at UC San Diego that will take responsibility of building out the apps functionality. We have provided a launch roadmap, resource assessment, and a strategy for engaging stakeholders and addressing incentives to participation along with our Figma prototype.