Zeit
Democratizing time travel tourism
Introducing a new technology to the world... through an e-commerce website?
When I was tasked with designing a time travel booking site I thought to myself, “Is that really it, I mean we’re talking about time travel, am I really just designing another Expedia?!?” As I later discovered, a simple, functional e-commerce focus was not the true priority from a user experience or business standpoint.
User research uncovered crucial insights concerning the underlying concept of time travel tourism (moreso than a booking process):
- Insight 1
The top time-traveling fear was getting stuck in the past.
- Implication
Explanation of current tech and risks should be clear and prominent.
Impacts: Design/Marketing
- Insight 2
Users preferred the idea of observing rather than participating heavily in the past.
- Implication
Multiple modes of time travel experiences should be explored.
Impacts: Business/Design/Engineering
- Insight 3
Users worried about a high cost of entry and wondered if it would be accessible to them.
- Implication
Explore what time travel for all might look like.
Impacts: Business/Marketing/Design
Guiding Solutions
The insights had profound business implications as well as design implications that needed to be addressed.
With all insights and implications in mind I focused on four solutions to help guide my design process.
- Solution 1 - Time Travel for All
The slogan “Time travel for all” sums up the desire among users for democratization as opposed to boutique experiences for the super rich. Long term Zeit intends to form a bond with the public to maintain its market share.
- Solution 2 - Education
Offer substantial education through the website (and other out of scope channels) in order to familiarize the public with the technology in hopes to ultimately increase perceived value.
- Solution 3 - Immersive Visuals + Ease of Use
Immerse website users in a visually powerful experience while navigating the site, simultaneously maintaining ease of use. Creating delight capitalizes on and accelerates the existing excitement around the new technology.
- Solution 4 - Additional Experience Types
In addition to the standard option of traveling to the past and fully participating in the local ecosystem, two additional experience types were imagined to alleviate our users primary concerns.
When wireframing, I focused not only on the functional flow aspects but also the experiential.... Again, it’s time travel, let’s have fun with it!
- Immersive Visuals
Animated & layered content
Taking into consideration mentor & peer critiques I implemented a few changes (departing from the vertical nav, for instance) before moving into UI design.
Interested in my sweet logo & UI design work for Zeit?
Check it out here!
To test intuitiveness of navigation, vet my current design assumptions, and reveal any painpoints I created a HiFi prototype to conduct focused user tests.
Through moderated user testing and a quick affinity exercise I came away with the top 8 findings.
Users preferred the idea of observing rather than participating heavily in the past.
No task failures
High interest level in virtual experiences
Users preferred to browse vs. search directly
Animations lagged
Experience type filter unclear
Date input unclear
Categorization of VR/360/AR caused confusion
I refined further based on the problematic findings
Click below to see iterations
The real issue here was that Figma simply doesn't handle HiFi animations well. The intent was to mimic scroll based action for prototyping purposes but it ultimately became an un-needed user distraction during testing.
I used Webflow to visualize the idea in real world HTML/CSS. This, of course, solved the lagging issues that showed up in the prototype.
Flexing my sci-fi mind muscles, I crafted a story about how the technology works adding depth to the experience.
By generating customized virtual experience ideas I created an additional revenue stream for Zeit.
Check out the latest prototypes
Animations have been removed for your sanity!
Big Picture Takeaway
There’s a time and a place for taking a task at face value. In this case, I kept an open mind going into user interviews and allowed the brief to evolve after talking to real people. Prospective user’s concerns actually resulted in more revenue opportunities for the business as well as a fulfilling user experience.