Blue Door Neighborhood Center
Creating a check-in system for Blue Door Neighborhood centers using Research and Design!
Don’t feel like reading through everything? Check out the Final Prototype Here!
Problem Statement & Background:
Blue Door Neighborhood Centers are small, local community centers throughout the Chicago area which help provide essential skills, classes, and activities to under-served communities. They asked if we could evaluate their current check-in process to see if we could discover a quicker, more convenient way to help guests check-in for classes & activities, and sign up for additional activities while they are at the center.
Investigating the Problem Using UX Research:
Contextual Inquiry
The main goal of our contextual inquiry was to gain a better understanding of how the current center's check in works. We spent an entire week at the center, making sure that we had enough time to fully observe guests, staff members, classes and activites, and of course our main focus, the check in process. We made sure to be present right as various types of classes and activities took place since this is when the current check in process was tested the most. Classes and activities are also when guests and staff members tend to interact and we wanted to see what their general interactions were, and if they had any effect on the check-in process.
Contextual Inquiry Findings
New guests need to provide additional information that current members don’t, making their check-ins longer
Long lines build up right before a new class or activity is about to start, but is generally pretty quiet before that
Guests can only check in via the concierge, and there’s only 1 person who can check guests in at a time
User Interviews & Personas
Lastly we conducted user interviews to get a general idea of how both the staff and guests felt about the neighborhood center; in particular we structured questions around what currently works well, what's frustrating, and what do both sides feel could be improved. We also took this opportunity to investigate what our guests are expecting the Blue Door Neighborhood Center to offer in terms of classes and activities.
Guest Interview Topics:
Current thoughts and feelings about the check-in process
Ideas on how to improve the neighborhood center via classes/activities
Learning more about the overall community, their needs, and unique challenges they face
Staff Interview Topics:
Current frustrations and issues with the check-in process
Desired functionality for checking someone into the center - what does the kiosk need to do really well?
Learning more about the overall offerings and goals of the center, and looking towards the future
Creating Persona’s Based on Observations + Interviews:
Interview Findings
Check-In is going to be expanded for multiple upcoming centers, so the solution needs to be scalable and cost-effective
We need to learn more about our guests in order to create services and activities they would be interested, Data is a top priority
Staff members and guests have very close personal relationships - they often know each other by name and spend a lot of time chatting before and after activities
Designing A New Solution!
Mapping Out The User Flow
Before prototyping, we needed to lay out all of the various tasks users need to accomplish using our kiosk. We hosted a white-boarding session with designers, researchers, and stakeholders to go over the tasks we could think of, and also gain additional input from other parties to see if there was anything we missed. After these sessions were held, we strung everything together into a flow diagram to determine what we would need to show in our prototype. A version of the flow diagram can be found below.
Creating Initial Wireframes/Mockups
After figuring out the overall user flow, we created a simple prototype using Sketch and brought it to live using InvisionApp. The initial prototype focused mainly on the check-in and sign-up experience, and used current Blue Cross and Blue Shield branding and design elements.
Initial Mockup Examples
Stakeholder Feedback and Design Updates
Before we started finalizing any elements of the design, we met with our project partners to review the original concept we created for the check-in kiosk. While the overall reception was very positive, they had some ideas for changed and additional features which they wanted to be added.
Prototype Changes Based on Feedback
New Feature: Key-card for Quick Check-ins
We added a new brand new feature to the demo, a quick access key-card which allows current members to check-in by scanning a small card they receive when they sign up.
New Feature: Signing Up for Additional Activities
We added the ability for users to sign up for multiple activities when they arrive at the center. We also added additional information such as dates, times, capacity, and sponsors
Updated Overall Design Language
The initial prototype used standard Blue Cross and Blue Shield branding; we updated the overall look and feel of the prototype to better represent the Blue Door Neighborhood Center, which has its own branding guidelines and colors
User Testing and Final Changes
The final step of our process was to put our designs in front of users to ensure they were easy to understand and use. We tested our prototype with 6 total users, and received a bit of feedback for changes and improvements.
Final Changes
Many users were not very familiar with tablets and self-service options, so we added a option for live assistance
Increased overall text size for fields - it was difficult for certain users to read due to its previous font size