The project

The “Mein Wegweiser” project was developed in collaboration with CELLULAR GmbH as part of Prof. Dr. Ansgar Gerlicher's “Mobile Application Development” course. Within one semester, an idea was to be developed on how the journey of guests on a TUI Cruises cruise could be simplified. After a brainstorming phase, a team of seven students developed the concept for a navigation aid. Using the “Mein Wegweiser App” and a smart wristband with LED display and vibration motors, cruise travelers should be able to find their destinations on the ship quickly and easily. My tasks in the team were to create a mood board, the app wireframes and a multi-screen interaction concept.

Finding ideas through design thinking

Cellular provided us with particular support when it came to brainstorming: The team went to Hamburg for a design thinking workshop. The final concept was worked out together using creative methods and we were able to return to Stuttgart full of energy. There was a lot to document: How were the navigation instructions shown on the wristband's LED display? Which navigation concept is the most user-friendly? How do the app and wristband work together and what information should be shown in the app? As a first approach to visualization, I created a paper prototype. This was then discussed with the team and necessary changes were made, which is what makes this approach so popular.

Conception

We then created wireframes in Sketch to work out the app more precisely and in more detail and to get it ready to be passed on to the team for visualization. Due to the cooperation with Cellular and TUI Cruises, we wanted to stick to the corporate identity and used the style guide provided by TUI Cruises for all results. As the official app has already been used by many cruise visitors, the “Mein Wegweiser” app should be based on it. This way, users know immediately where to find the information they need and, alternatively, it is also easier for TUI Cruises to incorporate the idea into its own app.

During this phase, the exact functions of our app were also documented and a use case was subsequently created in which the interaction process with the wristband was worked out. The use case allowed us to use a fictitious example to demonstrate how the two components work together.

Wristband and smartphone app - the interaction concept

By recreating a ship's corridor using pinboards, we were able to show our idea to visitors at the MediaNight of the Hochschule der Medien and navigate them to their destination.