Team
Yirang Choe, Mahitha Kalyani
Project Duration
September - December, 2018 (3 months)
My Role
Usability Testing Moderator, UI Designer
Tools
VRoom, Figma
Introduction to GABI
GABI, standing for Ghostbusters Academy for Brave Individuals, is a training academy for aspiring Ghostbusters in Ghostbusters universe. GABI enables users to learn and practice basic knowledge about it through theoretical lectures, tutorials, and audio/video resources. The user will go through a realistic experience through our world-class VR system, which will simulate real-life situations for the users to practice ghostbusting in so that they can be prepared in real-world situations.
*Intro video about GABI
Project Process
1
User Analysis
Identifying users and their needs
2
Brainstorming Design Ideas
Generating design ideas for solving the
user's problems and meeting their needs
3
Low Fidelity Prototyping
Building paper prototypes of the
solution derived from user needs
4
High-fidelity prototyping
Creating a high fidelity prototype after incorporating user feedback on low fidelity
5
User Feedback & Design Revision
Getting feedback from users on the working high fidelity system and making a change based on user feedback
Target Users
Devon Davis
30 years old | Male
"I want to protect my precious ones from the ghosts. I seek for professional training."
Ana Lin
23 years old | Female
"My role model is Egon, but there is no particular education system to be like him."
Elina King
27 years old | Female
"I need access to a trustworthy resource regarding ghosts to deal with them."
We have chosen to cater to the general public who are aspiring to be Ghostbusters. Those people who want to become Ghostbusters themselves have no direction on how to begin the process. The resources are scattered and not complete enough for people’s use. Apart from this, the equipment is expensive and not easily available. The training opportunity in GABI is open to the general public who want to be Ghostbusters. However, there are certain restrictions in place to avoid any mishaps during the course of the training and further in real life scenarios.
Requirements for aspiring Trainees:
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Age between 18 to 50
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Does not have any of the following medical conditions:
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Heart disease
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Pregnancy
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Asthma
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Allergy to slime
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Motion sickness
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Strong-hearted personality
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Ability to perform well under stressful conditions
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Ability to hold/wear heavy equipment
Low Fidelity Prototype
Once we determined the features and user flow for the product, we generated low-fidelity VR sketches and paper prototype for user testing. We made paper prototypes for the VR Training Game only and not the introductory lectures about history, ghost and weapons as these contents can be accessed outside of the VR training system as well.
High Fidelity Prototype
We created the high fidelity prototype on Figma VRooms keeping in mind the user feedback from the low fidelity prototype. The users requested information and instructions about the game and how to tackle the ghost. So we decided to make all the stages of training in the high fidelity prototype starting from creating the account with GABI and courses on ghosts, weapons and ending with the VR Training game.
*High fidelity prototype video
User Feedback
We were able to get 5 users to try our high fidelity prototypes out of which 4 of them generated valuable data. Due to the limitation of the time and money, the users interact with a laptop, not VR equipment. The average rating was 3.5 out of 5 due to the limitation of our VR system — It only allowed the users to move around with the cursor built in the website, not the actual cursor. All of the users found it difficult to control, but other than that, they were satisfied with the experience. The three major issues that they commented on after the testing were below:
1) The size of the screen is too large to interact with
2) Too much text on one page, it is hard to define what is important
3) The color of the text needs to be changed since it does not contrast with the background
Next Step
The Ghostbusters project was a prime example of how to design for people in unique and unfamiliar situations and environment. It forced us to break out of the habit of thinking within our own context and instead think in terms of the user’s context and their environment. The main learning that we gained from the project was to empathize with the user. It is easy to fall into a habit of assuming what a user needs from a system based on our perceptions and understandings. But as a designer, it is important to understand that the user is different from you and you need to put yourself in their shoes when you are designing for them. Our next step for this project will be collecting more useful feedbacks and working on design iteration.