STRANGER CITY

Design Concept | Mobile

 

Team: Zara Anderson, Dwight Stoddard, Catleah Cunanan

Role: UX Designer

Deliverables: Research synthesis, concept ideation, concept testing, interactive prototype, and visual mock-ups

 

An immersive way to experience the city

What is the the Stranger?

Many Seattleites know of the famous newspaper, “The Stranger,” sometimes referred to as “Seattle’s only newspaper.” Although it may not be the only Newspaper in Seattle, it could be the only newspaper with an app that allows readers to immerse themselves in articles and events based on where they are.

Project Focus

We saw a design opportunity to use the existing articles from the column I, Anonymous to populate a map that users could walk around and experience. We also decided to include a component from their current app by including events listed in the current app, “Stranger: Things to do.”

Problem Statement

 

How might we give urban explorers an immersive way to discover the zeitgeist of the city?

 
 
Walkthrough of the app’s main functions

Walkthrough of the app’s main functions

 

Research

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We began our journey by researching The Stranger and its existing app, “Stranger: Things to do”

We found that The Stranger is built on four main topics: 

  • Discovering the “invisible Seattle”

  • Providing advice for the lovelorn 

  • Fostering the artistic community

  • Elevating the dialogue around social justice

Creating Concepts

We created eight concepts; ranging from matching with friends in a new city to a Magic 8 Ball that gives you love advice based on the question you ask it

Rooted in our research, we created concepts and built artifacts for each of these ideas which we tested on users.

Concept Testing

We had users rank the concept based on: initial reaction, likelihood of use, uniqueness, relevancy and appeal.

Users enjoyed the app idea “AR-Anonymous;” an augmented reality experience of a live map which shares geotagged articles on a map view in front of them. In our test, this concept came in first place for the concept that users felt was most exciting and they had never experienced something like it before.

Sketching

After taking a walk outside to test our concept, we decided to change it up a bit

Our original idea focused on the use of an augmented reality mode that would allow a user to use their camera to see articles pop up right in front of them as they were walking around. However, after testing out this feature, we realized it would be easier and safer to have an animated map. This is when we also realized that we should add events from The Stranger app

Final Screens

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Beyond the interactive map, we wanted to give the user more traditional functionalities such as browsing events and articles which they could access in their profile section

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Creating a watch view was a must for an app so focused on physically adventuring. We wanted to find a way to keep the app’s immersive experience while addressing safety concerns with a hands-free mode

 

Next Steps

  • Conducting more user testing and iterate our designs to address user pain points.

  • Flesh out a stronger profile section to create a more personalized experience.

  • Integrate a social feature to all community building within the app.