Pastiche

A Mindful Travel Experience For Creatives

Team

2 Designers (me)
2 Researchers

My Roles

UI design
UX strategy
Visual design

Context

University of Washington
MHCI+D
Sept – Dec 2022

Pastiche facilitates mindful, unexpected, and creatively stimulating self-guided experiences for travelers with art and design interests, through a mobile app for activity ideas and a companion journal kit to document inspiration.

Explore prompts designed to inspire learning and creativity from uniquely everyday destinations

Pastiche prompts are open-ended activities tailored to your creative interests, designed encourage learning through thoughtful observation of everyday surroundings. You can also explore creative events to get more involved in local arts scenes.

Stay low-tech while documenting inspiration on the go; save and catalog activities to plan or reflect on later

Activities are as low-tech as desired, as the portable journal kit is fully analog, and designed to maximize ease of use while on the go. You can choose to create a digital archive of your experiences by saving and logging activities, as well as uploading photos.

Background

Traveling abroad is on the rise worldwide, and it’s attractive to creatives for unique reasons, as the arts are a unique lens through which they can learn about new cultures and artistic frameworks.

We saw a potential design opportunity to tailor towards this experience, while also encouraging intentioned learning from local people and surroundings, in an attempt to mitigate some disruptive qualities of commercial tourism, such as shallow understanding of or engagement with local culture, and even gentrification.

Lit Review

To learn about current frameworks and impacts related to international travel

Stakeholder Map

To consider the web of players impacting and being impacted by travel

Research

We investigated the relationship between creative practice and travel, and began with the research question: how are creatives staying abroad impacted by their host cultures, and how do they impact them?

We looked into sociology and psychology research on travel, which supported some of our initial assumptions, chiefly that experiences abroad can be creatively stimulating.

We also read up on how, with the rise of tourism and digital nomadism, influxes of foreigners has created friction with locals, as well as gentrification. With this, we looked into frameworks such as slow tourism as alternative models with more positive outcomes for both travelers and locals to inform our direction.

“I like to go to arcades...I just watch people play and it was really fun…I like getting all the different perspectives.”

– P2, International student in game & interaction design

“[I’m] trying to find those spaces where I feel more comfortable…[but] it’s also very important to just throw yourself in a situation.”

– P1, XR designer & self-described digital nomad

“Travel for me is one of the most important ways to nourish [myself]...art, the culture, and the different levels and dimensions of where all those things combine."

– P3, Photographer & serial traveler

Findings

Through generative interviews, we found that third places and activities related to creative interests opened doors to engaging more deeply with local cultures while abroad.

Third places were cited as crucial places to get acquainted with the local culture. Participants were able to connect with locals over shared interests, a powerful tool in overcoming language or cultural barriers to communication.
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We also realized that based on factors such as identity, language, or day-to-day responsibilities like work, travelers had varying comfort levels and capacities to immerse themselves. We wanted our design response to be adaptable to these factors.

Design Challenge

How might we encourage travelers with art and design interests to leverage these interests to engage mindfully and genuinely with new cultures?

Design Principles

We developed the following design principles based on our research based on the needs and values of both travelers and the local cultures hosting them.

Genuine exchange

Open opportunities for genuine cultural exchange between travelers and local cultures

Respect individuality

Account for travelers’ varying individual interests, sensibilities, abilities, and safety

Stay unobtrusive

Avoid burdening unrelated people or causing disruptions in local communities

120 Ideas affinitized

Ranging a wide variety of mediums, contexts, and experiences

3 Down-selected concepts

Ranging individual to group-based

Ideation

We each created 30 ideas and explored our most promising ones through storyboards. We decided on a prompt-based journal, hoping to breathe dynamism what we saw as a form factor familiar to creatives that promotes thoughtful reflection.

We down-selected based on alignment with our design principles as well as our design challenge. Additionally, many of our original 120 ideas had overlapping themes or functionalities so we discussed and consolidated these concepts.

Low-Fi Prototypes for Concept Testing

Prompt Cards

Experimenting with physical cards to see what appeals to participants

Prompt App

Determining how prompts might be best presented and navigated digitally

Analog Journal

Determining functionalities needed for a highly usable portable journal, supporting prompt activities

Prototyping
& Testing

Through prototyping, we sought to determine concept viability, how people responded to different types of prompts, and whether they preferred digital or analog form factors.

We prioritized testing with people who were from abroad so they could imagine the experience in context. Testers chose between analog or digital prototype versions so we could learn what appealed to people.

We had them share their thoughts on all prompts as well as how they would go about choosing one. Finally, they chose a prompt and made a journal entry (as close to the activity as they could get).

Testing with participants

We utilized the think aloud protocol to learn their thoughts on prompts, app navigation, and trying out a chosen activity using the journal

Outcomes &
Refinement

Our prototype tests helped us identify three major areas to modify or refine our design for both greater appeal and usability.

Making prompts appealing

Participants’ preferences for types of prompts were highly individual, so we decided to maintain variety and add customizability to allow users to tailor their experience.

Participants were also most interested in prompts when they could immediately understand the value, so we decided to edit the copy to try and communicate the potential takeaway for prompt activities.

Improving ease through the app

Most participants liked the convenience of having prompts accessible in an app, but wanted it to afford easy browsing rather than shown individually as in the prototype.

Based on feedback, we also determined the app could also make the experience more seamless overall, including onboarding to set preferences for prompts, and incorporating map navigation to help guide users to specific locations.

Optimizing journal for portability

All participants preferred a physical journal to a digital one, but echoed the importance of the design being optimized for portability if intended to be brought and used out and about for prompt activities.

Considerations for portability included size, which we got right, but also how the journal is carried, and what materials it can include.

Refined Design

In our high-fi prototype, we integrated the learnings from testing and fleshed out four key touch-points. I spearheaded visual and UI design, while my teammate was responsible for physical prototyping.

Feature / Onboarding

Establishing context and motivation through app onboarding

We designed the onboarding to contextualize the experience for new users, which we found was important so they could foresee the value of the experience and buy in
Onboarding includes setting preferences for topics, activities, and preferred creative mediums, in order to enable personalization of prompts, as we found preferences varied highly by individual interests

✷

Based on testing feedback about what information and context was needed to be interested in the experience

Feature / Prompts

Activity prompts designed to inspire exploration

Prompts are both specific and open-ended, so users can get a clear idea of where to go, while allowing for independent exploration (i.e. “a local library,” a user could decide to visit a small local one or a historical institution)
Clear call to action—users showed concern about not completing a prompt “correctly,” so we framed creative activities clearly but also as suggestions to spark ones own creative ideas

✷

Based on primary research on how people most successfully explored new cultures, as well as feedback from testers

Feature / Navigate & Sort

Explore and catalog a variety of prompts through the app

The homepage features a curated daily prompt deck as well as suggested location-specific events, based on preferences set in onboarding
Users can explore an catalog prompts with a filter-based search, a profile where you can keep track of prompts, and option for navigation to a specific location

✷

Based on user feedback on how they would like to be able to browse, interact with, and save prompts throughout a journey

Feature / Journal Kit

Modular, portable journal design for getting inspired anywhere

Modular design enables inclusion and replacement of various materials: from the inner journal itself, to writing utensils, as well a magnet system to hold extra materials
The journal is carried in an external folio with carrying strap for durability and portability, and is capable of storing a variety of materials

✷

Based on user feedback on importance of portability for creative activities intended to be completed on-site

Takeaways

This project challenged me to get creative in working around being unable to test ideas their intended contexts, due the scope of the product concept.

We designed our user tests to be a truncated, largely stationary simulation of our envisioned experience. We tried to account for limitations by testing with creatives who had experience living abroad, and could imagine it in context. When making design decisions I also utilized secondary research and intuition based on previous design experience.

I was also challenged in how to seamlessly integrate a digital and analog experience, which I believe could be improved in a future iteration.

All testers preferred the tactile quality of a physical journal over a digital one. As such, we focused on designing a physical journal that could easily accommodate the types of activities available in the app. In addition to this, I think we could have added more affordances integrating the journal with the “activity” system of the prompts.