Something's Fishy: Exploring Lake Macquarie through light and play

Something's Fishy: Exploring Lake Macquarie through light and play

Something's Fishy: Exploring Lake Macquarie through light and play

Experience Design, Digital Placemaking

Overview

Client: MAP mima (Multi-Arts Pavilion), Lake Macquarie City Council

Located on the tranquil shores of Lake Macquarie, MAP mima stands as a beacon of creative exploration and as an important regional arts centre. Despite its location, it remains largely unknown to the public. To attract a broader attention to the site, Something's Fishy leverages the existing Catenary light structure to create a playful and immersive installation.

My contribution

User Research

Ideation

Wireframing

High-fidelity Prototyping

Code Development

The team

3x team members

Me

Duration

12 weeks

Tools

Figma

FigJam

Processing

In a snapshot

The Problem

MAP mima presents as an innovative and cultural hub centre, however it remains largely unknown to the public and people who are located outside of the region.

The Solution

To attract broader attention, Something's Fishy transforms the Catenary into a dynamic and sensory experience involving light and sound to encapsulate the Indigenous name of MAP mima's Speers Point location 'Milloba' which translates into "Place of Fun".

Background Research

Before jumping towards an idea, we first needed to understand the site and its background.

Our team conducted a site visit which provided valuable context of Lake Macquarie and design specifications. This also provided an opportunity to conduct user interviews from local residents. The aims of our research were to:

Identify the demographic and attitudes of locals and visitors towards the site

Uncover cultural, historical and social background of the area

Discover the landscape and identify environmental challenges

Key Insights

  • The demographic composition of the Lake Macquarie region is comprised of a significant portion young families and elderly population.

  • Lake Macquarie is home to a delicate ecosystem, and is subject to significant environmental challenges due to decades of industrial coal mining, lead smelting and energy production practices in the area. These industries have led to land and air quality contamination.

  • Speers Point was originally known as "Biddaba" (silent resting place) and Milloba (place of fun) to the Indigenous Awabakal people.

Findings and Analysis

Interviewing users, we found that many people did not know about the site and what it could deliver.

From the interviews, the following themes emerged using affinity mapping:

Differing demographic preferences: Children were attracted to more colourful installations however may be more intimated to explore more challenging installations. However, the elderly population were more explorative. This informs the need for diverse user experiences and features to ensure all visitors feel included.

Transformation of Lake Macquarie: From being perceived as unpleasant and polluted in the past to a source of admiration and enjoyment, the lake reflects the positive impact of environmental initiatives and community efforts. Recognising and including elements that showcase the lake will further enrich the cultural experiences and connections to the natural environment.

From the interviews, the following themes emerged using affinity mapping:

  • Many students are unaware of non-Government services other than the main financial schemes provided by the Government

  • Awareness of services is typically spread through word of mouth

  • Application process for Government services are tedious and confusing, and many sometimes do not know if they are eligible, and the documents required are not clear at the beginning of the process. Reasons for rejected applications are also unclear.

  • Students want to be able to just focus on their education and not worry about the rising cost of living

Ideation

Sparking ideas to bring attention towards the site.

With the insights gathered, this helped to narrow down our design vision for our concept. As a group, we conducted brainstorming, concept sketching, and storyboarding to ideate on design concepts. We then compared concepts using a Decision Matrix to help inform our chosen concept.

Design Concept

Paying respect to the Indigenous landscape through a fun and immersive installation.

Something's Fishy

In Something’s Fishy, the Catenary becomes a sensory experience involving light and sound to encapsulate the original name of MAP mima’s Speer Point location: Milloba, which translates as “Place of Fun”. Drawing inspiration from this, Something’s Fishy aims to bring together children, parents and the local community to engage in playful interactions by ‘becoming a fish’. Lake Macquarie’s industrial past and extreme overfishing has resulted in a loss all fish species in the lake. On a deeper level, our concept subtly increases children’s awareness and empathy of the biodiversity of fish in the lake.

Through a user-friendly mobile app, visitors become co-creators to interact with other peoples’ ‘fish’ lights, generating a mesmerising display of shimmering light and sound. This creates an ever-evolving landscape that reflects the community’s collective participation and connection to the natural world.

Initial Mockup and Concept Iteration

With our initial concept in mind, we conducted Wizard of Oz prototyping to iterate and flesh out our idea.

Insights from Wizard of Oz prototyping

A low fidelity early-stage mockup was designed to test basic interaction before investing in building more detailed versions. This involved elevating a simple array of fairy lights overhead with the aid of four office dividers, as a miniature version of the MAP mima Catenary. The design was intentionally large enough for users to experience the structure from below, promoting more authentic interactions between their bodies and the space.

  • We discovered that users always look up at the lights rather than at their phone screens, which informed the type of interface we designed for the next stage of prototyping.

  • The idea of using phones’ inbuilt gyroscope controls rather than touch screens was more intuitive.

  • We also began to consider the idea of having users select their location on a map of the Catenary, so that the system would understand the correct orientation for left/right control movements.

  • We also discovered that one of the most fun interactions was when fish “collided” with other fish, so we decided to incentivise that for future iterations.

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

I began to flesh out the functionality and layout of the screens.

Mid-fidelity wireframes helped to focus on the functionality.

Usability Testing

We tested 5 users' understanding of the interface to interact with the lights without aid.

We asked users to perform Think-Aloud and conducted a simple open questionnaire about their experience of the flow. Affinity mapping helped to generate insights:

  • Users were confused with the instructions on the screen to interact with the lights

  • All users had their own interpretation of using the phone to interact with the lights. It was unclear that they had to use in similar to a gyroscope.

  • All users liked the interaction of light and sound when the lights collided, however wanted a sense of progression to stay motivated and play for longer

  • Some users commented they didn't know when the game/interaction had started when they selected their lights, and having more feedback would be nice

  • Having both the option of steering left/right and tilting the phone up/down to speed/slow down was overwhelming to control

Concept iteration and High-Fidelity Prototype

We went back to the drawing board to explore options for our concept and interface based on user feedback.

What was addressed?

Before

Users found the instructions clunky and unnecessary in order to actually interact with the app and lights.

Users found the instructions clunky and unnecessary in order to actually interact with the app and lights.

After

We modified the overall experience from the beginning to a horizontal mode for a seamless experience. Horizontal orientation allowed more intuitive control of steering left/right movements to control the lights (like a gyroscope).

We modified the overall experience from the beginning to a horizontal mode for a seamless experience. Horizontal orientation allowed more intuitive control of steering left/right movements to control the lights (like a gyroscope).

Before

Many users had difficulties understanding the instructions for them required to interact with the lights. Users also found it hard to tilt and steer the phone at the same time

Many users had difficulties understanding the instructions for them required to interact with the lights. Users also found it hard to tilt and steer the phone at the same time

After

Steps were broken down further, with accompanying clearer visuals and animation tutorials for users to follow. We removed the tilting interaction as it was unnecessary.

Steps were broken down further, with accompanying clearer visuals and animation tutorials for users to follow. We removed the tilting interaction as it was unnecessary.

Before

Users found the map confusing and had no sense of feedback of when they could start interacting with the lights. They also felt no sense of progression to keep playing for longer.

Users found the map confusing and had no sense of feedback of when they could start interacting with the lights. They also felt no sense of progression to keep playing for longer.

After

The map was removed and a countdown feature was added. A progress bar was added showing the lights becoming bigger as users' lights collide, gamifying the whole experience.

Refined Concept

The final concept offers 3 modes of interaction: passive, single and multi-person, and a sense of gamification.

Something's Fishy features an engaging mobile interface that engages users to interact with the lighting installation playfully. The 3 different modes of interaction were coded and visualised using Processing. This can be visualised through the concept video below.

Hope to see you again soon!

Erica Zhang ©2024 to ∞

Hope to see you again soon!

Erica Zhang ©2024 to ∞

Hope to see you again soon!

Erica Zhang ©2024 to ∞