E Studio: Designing for Airports
Designing for Terminals
How might we create a integrative, memorable experience for families at extended layovers through YVR’s existing values?
Looking into terminals, there’s a wide variety of options
Websites for general research inspiration (that peak my interest):
Large installations at airport terminals:
Areas for neurodivergent individuals:
10.11.23
Post-crit, there were a lot of different directions to go from. I think it’s good to not feel limited to one idea, especially with the three of us in such a large time frame.
Research on Interactions
- https://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/interactive-vending-machines (interactive vending machines)
- https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/carnegie-mellon-smart-walls/
- https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/8/2736
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_eGIeyyu1c
- http://raonsquare.com/?ckattempt=2
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3208680_Electric_field_sensing_for_graphical_interfaces
Research on Form/Material
- https://www.bareconductive.com/collections/interactive-wall-kit (conductivity)
- https://yang-zhang.me/files/research/electrick/electrick.pdf (electric-field tomography)
- https://gizmodo.com/scientists-figure-out-how-to-turn-anything-into-a-touch-1795016303 (more conductivity)
- https://fidgetstrips.com/ (sensory stims)
Research on Product/Gift
- https://dime.jp/genre/1349772/
- https://japan-forward.com/hidden-wonders-narita-airport-has-gacha-machines/
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/88nw7a/japan-vending-machine-gachapon-airline-flights-surprise-destinations
- https://www.haneda-tokyo-access.com/en/news/2018/20180110.html
Ideation
Initially, we thought about using the International Arrivals area, and using the motif of “Land, Sea, and Sky” to reflect the Salmon Swimming story. This, in turn, reflects the journey of going from landing, to arrival, to exit.
Ideation (pt. 2)
However, after some discussion we realized that we wanted to change directions into something that could be more tangible and give us the passion we needed to drive ourselves throughout the rest o fth esemester.
Thus, we started leaning more into the problem space of Layovers, and what interactions we desired out of it. Daphne wanted us to push more towards something whimsical, rather than just logical, and really use the power of three minds to generate something more novel.
A lot of our ideas stemmed around action and reward: if a user did a thing, they would receive a thing. Because of this, we proposed something machine-like, such as a punching machine to exert anger out of, that generates some form of reward related to layovers.
Midterm Review
For our midterm we received some feedback from members of the Pittsburgh International Airport:
- Are there more actions that are less violent than just punching?
- The feedback one is receiving is a little too short. A layover is a long time, is there more you can add to the experience?
- With Layovers, there is the aspect of wasted time. The time that is burned flows naturally and with the expectation that it is meant to be lost anyways. Is there a way that we could capitalize on that?
Most importantly, we also had to start creating more. For a group project with something as large as Layovers, what can we build that’s more than just a single machine?
Ideation (pt.3) + Additional Research
Moving forward post-midterm meant accelerating tenfold. We started with thinking about ways to stem outside of just a machine. Initially we thought about rather than making one machine, making a system of machines that all have different uses and rewards, scattered all across the airport.
However, after conducting user interviews there’s a lot of additional things we realized were worth considering
All interviews: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KXi5cd6-yTk1awa5LckZMiCVPpfGgiT_avcKBBQ74ac/edit?usp=sharing
In general, there were a couple good takeaways:
- The large majority prioritized some form of rest
- A lot of the younger generations enjoys having something to do. An airport is boring if a person walks around and there is nothing stimulating to them
- Overnight layovers are universally considered really rough. Moreover, most ammenities are closed by then, which makes it worse
- A layover is an extremely scaled problem space: someone could experience a <2 hr layover, while another individual may have to experience an 8+ one, or even stopover
These takeaways, in turn, generate good questions for us:
- What opportunities can we build for rest that aren’t just another lounge?
- What elements are unique to YVR that we can bring to the table? To entertain?
- Is there something that can be run 24-hrs to overcome the untapped market of overnight layovers?
- How can we create a scaled experience, both physical and temporal, for such a large and diverse problem space?
To keep ourselves accountable, we developed a scheduled list of actionable items to create. Thus our set concept became:
- Location: YVR Departures, near the retail area where the aquarium and atriums are located
- Physical Space/Central Hub: A central rest area with more logistical needs
- Gacha Machines/Stamp Stations: Scattered Interactions with more journey, whimsey and emotional needs satisfied
Physical Deliverables
Small diorama (like pop-up exhibit)
Working Gacha Machine
Physical Prototype of the InteractiveWall
Branded products
Explorers Map
Digital
Mocks of everything
3D rendered space
All gatcha machines
Animations
Final Presentation
Developing Assets
Setting up the wall (size and scale)
A large thing to juggle with the interactive wall was incorporating it in the overall model (which Chelsea was 3D modeling), creating something ideal conceptually, and also accommodating it for physical prototyping.
For size, a the entire wall in real life would be 5 x 10 ft, making a 1:2 ratio. But in our actual proposal, it would be much taller than that (~8ft).
Initially, my buttons were much too large, so Daphne suggested putting in a kid to scale (as well as looking into some real-world research)
Online, an average child was between 48–65 inches. Moreover, many children from the Child Development and Learning Lab downstairs at Maggie Mo were my chest height, and could maybe reach to the top 60% of the wall at best. Therefore, we wanted to scale the viewing point to this desirable target audience.
To help look into ideal viewing points, I sourced the Canadian graphic standards for text hierarchy: https://id.humanrights.ca/graphic-standards-for-exhibits/text-hierarchy-and-readability/
Graphics
Having a graphical system was a challenge for a while because we had to think about what would look good on a wall (far away), on paper for things such as the booklet (up close) and as an animation for the machines (in motion). Currently, Susan had a very blocky, YVR-branded style for the Explorer’s Map, so similarly the wall had developed a blocky, bordered style as well to match that of existing artifacts decorated amongst the airport:
The biggest concern regarding the graphical style was the animations, specifically the scope difficulty. So we were brainstorming ways that they could be done feasibly yet effectively.
Initially, we thought about having our “expanded system” assets, like our gacha machines, incorporate more designs that were similar to that of basket weavings:
This would allow for more bitmap/sprite style animations, which were certianly feasible. However, it became clear that it might have too strong of a contrast to YVR’s branding of solid green, blue and teal:
We thought about simply swapping out the colors to the brand palette, but it wasn’t working out as well as we wanted:
To fix some of the artist block + branding pairing issues, Chelsea suggested a more graphical, curved style that was prominent in many buildings across the city. This helped us incorporate more of the YVR colors while still maintaining cultural notes.
Thus, the wall had revamped graphics accordingly, which we were a lot happier with. Moreover, the file was separated from multiple dioramas (our pipe dream/in-concept plan), to a single diorama for the sake of scope. At this point, we realized that we were serious about making this interactive wall prototype a reality.
The intention of the wall is to reveal a series of visual surprises for short bursts of delight. Moreover, we wanted to encourage play that was quick and reactive, but cumulative as well. Thus, a visual graphical system was developed per animal (which is also reflected in our explorer’s map):
When an animal’s button is pressed, it activates both the “stamp” graphic (similar to the stamp of the capsule ball that Susan was working on) but also three additional reactions:
- The hidden animal in the wall’s embedded graphics reveals itself by lighting up.
- A correlating animation appears that signals the First Nation Story it’s related to (ex: The Bear activates stars to represent the story of the Spirit Bear).
- The Diorama box lights up, breaking the one-way mirror mirage and revealing a physical collage of said story.
When all buttons are pressed, then the wall feels full:
Each of these animations were cut up, exported, and sent to TouchDesigner to be used as separated inputs. Using the view output node on the software lets it connect to the projector and onto the wall.
For each button, there was also an additional set of blurbs for context (paired with custom iconography).
Additional Animations
Because I was the only one flying home for break, a lot of my contributions became more digital. While Chelsea and Susan set up the Gacha machine from our initial cardboard prototypes, I started to map out how the diorama would look.
For the Diorama, we used the cricuit cutter to cut out the graphics and assemble them into the foamcore space. Using acrylic and one-way mirror material, it could maintain some of that “magic” effect:
For animations at the stamp stations/gatcha machines, the motion should tell a slightly different story. Whereas the dioramas are also meant to be telling a First Nation tale, they’re more “static” while the stamp station animations are more “dynamic,” rewarding to watch in the way one would receive a collector’s item for, and also allude to the falling of the capsule toy. Lowkey, a strong inspiration was from Kura Revolving Sushi Bar (and also the Lindt Factory Chocolate Museum). https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=906661097398906
Thus, the example stamp animation created alludes to the story of the Raven stealing the Sun, Moon, and Stars: https://stoningtongallery.com/artwork/raven-steals-the-sun-3/.
Explorer’s Map
Additional Research: https://carterhales.com/work/vancouver-international-airport/
A big part of the Explorer’s Map was making sure it was both readible from a graphic design standpoint, but also integratabtle to YVR’s existing branding.
Therefore, to pitch it as a unique experience (but not too far out from the airport’s brand) we chose a sans-serif font, Epilogue, as our Display font, as it had similarities to the established Typography Palette, and would still pair well with the body copy. Using this font pairing, along with the illustrative graphical style and some typesetting of the informational content, helped develop a cohesive layout in the Explorer Map.
Model
I enjoyed helping out in some of the model assembly from what Chelsea 3D printed, especially with faking the vegetation and painting the totems.
A big part about the model itself, and the value in its physicality, was being able to discuss how materiality is tangential to branding and wayfinding. This part interested me a lot, so we incorporated styles, materials, and flooring to match YVR’s branding and values. Some articles I was reading around this time were sourced from the YVR website, as well as general branding and accessibility guidelines:
https://www.yvr.ca/en/blog/2019/accessibility-at-yvr-a-journey-of-constant-improvement
https://www.yvr.ca/en/passengers/accessibility-at-yvr
Because of this, after some additional feedback we moved away from the black/teal combo and explored more wood styles. Moreover, the flooring of the platform itself was renovated with a combination of laminate and carpet to reflect the materiality in wayfinding in order to signify retail and rest space, and also scaled down so the patterning was more realistic.
Assembling/Prototyping
The most complex part was the interactive wall, which required a lot of moving parts.
This took many, many hours. And there were lots of hiccups along the way:
- It was difficult printing the graphics to scale. After a lot of finagling, Photoshop, waiting for results, and access to Smillie, it finally worked out
- Putting in the photoresisters and arduinos was also hard. The cords could only stretch for so long, but we had pre-carved the holes to match the initial graphic, so that the animations projected would line up.
- Things had to be callibrated in a certain way, since so much of the interactions were reliant on light changes. Because of that, there could only be so many light switches on, blinds opened, or we prayed for weather to be in our favor.
- Getting projections and real things to line up the right way wasn’t as easy as it seemed. We tried the Kantanmapper node on Touchdesigner, using Susan’s projector features, or just stacking the projector with extra pieces of paper for it to look similar.
- A lot of animations were really huge and made Touchdesigner lag. Because we wanted the wall to be as close to the genuine concept as possible, we wanted them to compile/layer on top of each other, rather than just interrupting and replaying over each other. This meant a lot of compressing to fit in all 8.
- Sometimes, they just didn’t turn on. Or break.
- Also, the wall fell over a couple times.
Final
