JOURNEY

Driving Anxiety Design
Duration: 15 weeks
Personal Project

HOW MIGHT WE… assist young adults in adopting mental wellbeing behaviors to better cope with the anxiety and stress induced by driving?

RESEARCH

OBSERVATIONS

Focal Points:

  • How drivers react in parking lots filled with multiple other vehicles and pedestrians

  • How drivers react while approaching, arriving at, and leaving intersections

  • How drivers interact with stop lights on campus

  • How drivers interact with pedestrians

Context/Environment:

  • Tech Square intersection - Sunday, 3:00pm

  • Howey Parking Lot & Student Center Parking Garage - Sunday, 4:00pm

  • Fowler St NW - Monday, 11:00am

  • Ferst Drive - Monday, 2:00pm

Insights:

  • Drivers in parking lots & parking garages are aggressive and drive recklessly

  • Cars slow down near pedestrians bu their speed increases significantly after they pass

  • Drivers seem either very hesitant or very aggressive

  • Facility maintenance trucks drove at significantly higher speeds near intersections but were quicker to stop faster than others

Analyzing Data: Affinity Mapping

EMPATHY

RESEARCH METHODS

Participants

  • 11 survey participants between the ages of 18-24

  • 4 interview participants in early twenties with 5-7 years of driving experience

Data Collection Methods:

  • Online questionnaire

  • Interviews

  • Coding transcripts

KEY FINDINGS

  • 64% of survey participants said their stress is caused by the actions of other drivers but are unsure of how to cope

  • While most participants make attempts to de-stress, they’re unsure of whether or not the methods they used worked

  • Stress in busy or crowded areas is significantly greater than in quieter, less busy areas

  • Secondary electronic devices cause the most distraction (i.e. phones)

DESIGN IMPLICATIONS

  • Must implement methods to decrease stress while driving that are specific to the driver

  • Must include a sensor or detection devices to help users monito and decrease stress levels

  • Must provide stable driving environment (safe space) for users

DEFINING THE PROJECT

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

With the increase in cars on the road, many drivers today find driving as a stressful activity. Therefore, our goal is to create a product that would allow drivers to decrease their stress and anxiety through proven methods. The target users are young drivers ages 18-30 who need to drive to classes, work, or social activities. Currently, there is one driving-specific product that assists in reducing driving anxiety and stress. This product is a partnership integrating Waze’s phone application with Headspace and is not yet on the market so not much is known about it. However, we found phone and phone applications to be one of the biggest distractions on the road, thus leading to unsafe driving. Therefore, there are no existing products that allow users to monitor and decrease their stress and anxiety when driving.

PERSONAS

In order to understand who we’re designing for, we created personas with specific health conditions that we would have to meet.

 

IDEATION

TASK EXAMPLES

Persona: Jasmine (Health Condition(s): Tourette’s Syndrome)

  • Unlock the car

  • Step into the car

  • Sit down

  • Put on seatbelt

  • Turn on car

    • Put foot on brake

    • Press a button/insert keys and rotate

    • Holds breath

    • Releases breath when car turns on

  • Turns on GPS/pull up directions

    • Opens phone, opens app, inserts desired destination

  • Turns on radio/bluetooth music —> keeps her tics at bay

  • Takes a breath —> calms herself

  • Begins driving

    • Sings out loud/talks to herself —> helps her keep control

  • Parks car

Persona: Christina (Health Condition(s): Generalized Anxiety Disorder, SOcial Anxiety, ADHD)

  • Mentally prepares to drive

  • Ques up songs/podcast —> doesn’t like being alone

  • Gets into car

  • Turns on background noise

  • Bucles in

  • Adjusts seat and side/rear view mirrors —> has to double check

  • Turns on GPS/pulls up directions

    • Opens phone, opens app, inserts desired destination

    • Turns audio all the way up

  • Faces her phone away from her

  • Begins driving

    • Ocassionally looks at phone

    • Sings/talks to herself

    • Bounces her legs up and down

  • Parks car

DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

Absolutely Must Include

  • Stress detection methods to help drivers cope

  • Haptics

  • Audio

  • Personalization

  • Different methods to cope

Should Include

  • Access to other applications

Could Include

  • Visual creation of a safe space

  • Aromatherapy

Could Exclude/Infeasible

  • Too many visuals on electronic devices

  • Built-in interface

REFINED DESIGN DIRECTION

  • Design for mindfulness

  • Improve multi-sensorial communication between the user and interfaces

  • Provide a sense of control

Objective: Design for a sense of control through encouraging mindfulness through the implementation of scientifically proven de-stressing methods that allow environmental mastery for the user while on the road.

  • Environmental mastery - the ability to choose or change the surrounding context using physical or mental actions as well as being able to control events

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Metaphor: exercise studio

Concepts:

  • exercise instructor is the voice of the driving system

  • exercise studio is the system itself

  • exercises/equipment are the breathing exercises of driving system

  • students in the exercise class are the drivers

Relationships:

  • instructor is contained in the exercise studio

  • instructors guide people through the exercises

  • students take the class

  • students are strengthened by the exercises they take

CONCEPTUAL MODEL STORYBOARD

PARTICIPATORY DESIGN WORKSHOP

GOALS

  • Better understand other ways of mindfulness that could be included

  • Gain a better sense of how to incorporate music and audio

Ta-Da!

Heart rate tracking

Picking playlists based on mood

Incorporating fun with a driving “theme”

KEY INSIGHTS

  • More control = better for the driver

  • AI is only there to help guide users

  • Users’ moodinfluences the music played

  • Users’ mood influences their driving habits

  • Users’ music choice can influence driving habits

PROTOTYPING

ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS

Visual Accessibility

  • Font size & weight

  • Light & dark mode

Content Accessibility

  • Visual, tactical, and audio cues

  • No need for alternative text

Language Accessibility

  • Common English words used

 

Branding

THE APPLICATION

FINAL THOUGHTS

Throughout the creation of JOURNEY, I found out just how much user research and input could help in terms of the final design. I had never done a participatory workshop so I found that was helpful in getting the users involved in a very proactive and productive way. Likewise, I had never created a conceptual model and I found it easier to process our overall idea for what we wanted by using metaphors to better understand it ourselves and explain it to others.

If I had the more time with this project, I would have liked to involve more of the audio we had recorded for the exercises and integrate them into the prototype rather than having them separate from the prototype and playing it over.

Overall though, I really value the experience I gained in user experience research and gained a new perspective on the benefits of it as well.