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Role: Product Designer & UX Researcher
Team: Audrey S., Taylor T., Timothy G., Eric
Tools: Figma, Notion, Miro, Adobe Suite
Sasaki is known for its incredible narrative storytelling. Today our presentations often include static imagery, plans, and analysis; this is limiting. We can pioneer dynamic, interactive storytelling at Sasaki, position ourselves as an industry-standard in design communication, and unlock potential technology-based partnerships with other firms.
The AEC product market is growing, and our app has a unique opportunity to tap into this market. With our focus on simplicity and dynamic storytelling, we can attract a broader range of users, including architects, landscape architects, interior design designers, marketing staff, and clients looking to view, review, or share a dynamic model of a design.
Respondents who have access to the latest design technology report a great project experience 3.7X more often than those whose work places do not have the latest technology.
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Key phases and milestones
Using user-centered research methodologies, we will engage an internal group of designers and external design marketing professionals to understand the various types of projects across disciplines to provide the versatility of storytelling.
Existing products provide a suite of presentation tools, many catered to static images and animations, with limited interactivity and narrative tools for model-focused presentations.
Each offers unique strengths: Model prioritizes simplicity, Google Slides emphasizes accessibility and collaboration during editing, and Adobe Suite provides powerful design capabilities. No application provides completely dynamic presentation tools catered to the Architecture industry, with live model interaction, adaptive narrative, text editing tools, and a streamlined approach to architecture presentation and client interaction.
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I used an early prototype in moderated in-person interviews in office and virtual user testing over Zoom. The resulting qualitative data was gathered and combined with quantitative survey results from unmoderated tests conducted using Maze. Data from user interviews was recorded using Rainbow Spreadsheets, affinity mapping, card sorting, and qualitative surveys.
I conducted five user interviews to understand the users' needs, goals, and behaviors.
By speaking directly with users within the AEC industry, it became clear that a limited learning curve, rapid usability, zero distraction, and clean UI design were not only a want but a need not being met by many existing products.
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How can we translate these pain points into design opportunities?
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User personas were distilled from user interviews and into actionable journey maps. These informed the design of the app's features and functionality while ensuring that they aligned with the users' needs and goals.
What are our users telling us?
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The application's Information Architecture was developed through two rounds of user testing, giving us the foundational structure to create initial wireframe designs.
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Animations allow users to visualize the and the actions effects on the model.
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Most users will open the application on a desktop or tablet, with mobile devises being used primarily to preview and share presentations or edit on the go.
Design iteration and prototyping have been a process of improvement and refinement based on user feedback and testing. Design iterations progressed from low-fidelity wireframing through to mid and high-level prototypes. The app recently underwent further revisions following additional user research and UI design.
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Start a new project, open an existing project to edit or share, and adjust application and profile settings.
34% of user testing comments during the prototype phase noted that the StoryArch toolset is simple enough and familiar to use, and effective in delivering a range of end-use presentation results.
The StoryArch tool provides a low learning curve solution for quick presentation design. Add text, annotations, models, views, and animations keyed to scenes. Work across multiple devices, locations, and team members in real time.
V1 and V2: 40% of users tested mentioned ease of use and experience simplicity. 90% of users tested in A/B testing chose V2 UI, making note of a cleaner interface and integration of collaborative features.
Upload and edit models before adding views and scenes to your presentation. The model features include tools that allow users to view and share 3D models created in programs such as Sketchup and Rhino, with features such as annotation, view transitions, model styles, and layer visibility control.
21% of comments from users tested mentioned that distilling model presentation tools to basics and allowing for importing from well known model tools streamlines the presentation process.
Create dynamic and interactive presentations by using the views and scenes tools.
V1 and V2: User flows for Views and Scenes received small updates but remained similar to our mid fidelity prototype. The screens did receive a User Interface update and a majority of users tested during A/B testing had a positive response to the version 2 UI.
Simple templates are key in streamlining the model presentation workflow. Add annotations and page keyed interactions to elevate a static presentation.
The reception of our prototype with users tested was very positive, with 80% of users stating that the impact of our application would have a positive performative impact on their day to day work.
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