Case study- Optimizing balcony experience

Credits- Unsplash

Introduction👋

Hey there! I am Sakshi and this is my first UX Case study where I tried to enhance user’s experience in their balcony using the design thinking process.

This project is made under the guidance of Anudeep Ayyagari(UX Designer @Amazon )

Project Details🔍

As part of the project, we were divided into groups of 7–8 people and were asked to choose a household area such as a kitchen, bedroom, balcony, etc in such a way that no two members of the group choose the same topic area. I selected the balcony area.

🤔Now you must be wondering why would someone have a problem with their balconies; I did as well. However, I set my personal biases aside and went ahead to understand from the users’ perspective

This project seeks to identify, analyze, and resolve gaps that users encounter while interacting with their balcony using the Design Thinking Process

So let's get started with the first stage of the process

Empathize👥

I scheduled individual interviews with 5 of my group members who are my users for this project

Prior to conducting user interviews, I made sure to -

• keep my personal biases aside
• acknowledge that I am not the user!
• keep the questionnaire conversational in nature

Following are the questions asked👇

1. Tell me about yourself, your occupation, your hobbies, etc

2. Where is your balcony located? What’s the approx size of it?

3. What’s the average time you spend in your balcony? And for what purposes do you visit there?

4. Do you carry something with you to the balcony? if yes where do you keep them?

5. Can you elaborate more about the things you keep in your balcony? Do you have any seating arrangements there?

6. Do you have plants in your balcony? If yes do you face any challenges while taking care of them

7. Is your balcony open/covered? What's the condition of it during summers?

8. Do you dry clothes is your balcony? Where exactly do you dry them? If not is there any reason behind it?

9. What kind of flooring does your balcony have? What’s the condition of it during rain? Does your balcony have a floor drain trap?

10. Do you have any privacy concerns in your balcony?

11. Is there any specific reason that prevents you from visiting your balcony?

During the interview, I made sure not to express any approval or rejection of anything the user says and made an effort to comprehend the user’s viewpoint in greater detail.

After getting the information I kept my insights about users -

DEFINE🤓

Source- Unsplash

After compiling and organizing all the information, it was time to pinpoint the issues faced by users with respect to the insights gathered.

While defining the problems, I tried not to think about solutions and instead focus on determining the root cause of the problem.

Here are some of the difficulties my users experienced: 👇

1. Balcony getting heated up due to sun heat -Users avoid visiting their balconies during the day because it becomes very hot and humid.

2. No seating arrangement for the users to sit — 4 out of 5 users are forced to sit/ lie on the floor or bring a chair from inside as they don’t have any seating arrangement

3. Floor gets slippery during rain -Users avoid visiting their balconies during the rain because they fear an accident and being injured.

4.No designated area to keep food items, coffee cup, etc -Users are compelled to carry their coffee cup since there is nowhere secure or clean for them to keep them.

5. Forgets to water plants — Taranjit frequently forgets to water his plants, also there is no water tap in his balcony. As a result, he has to go inside to fetch water, which he finds time-consuming and exhausting.

6. Accumulation of dust and cleaning issue- Because there is a construction site near Tarajnit’s apartment, his balcony becomes dusty frequently and requires daily dusting. He considers cleaning every day to be a stressful task.

7. People peeking into the user’s balcony -Users have discomfort when visiting their balconies since they occasionally don’t want strangers to view them and peep inside

8. Plants drying due to overexposure to sunlight — Megha enjoys growing plants but is concerned when they dry out due to exposure to sunlight.

9. Shortage of space to dry large quantities of clothes — Either Users have to use their terrace or have to dry clothes at intervals in the balcony due to lack of space.

10. Birds entering the balcony, making it dirty and constructing a nest there — Pigeons mess up Vikas’ balcony, so he had to cover it with steel mesh to keep them away, Megha worries when birds build nests on her cooler since it is dangerous for birds as well.

11. Shortage of space to keep plants — Vikas loves to keep plants, but he lacks the space to do so.

12. Unable to sit in the balcony during rain- Users want to enjoy viewing the rain from their balcony, but they are unable to do so since they risk getting wet or slipping in the balcony

13. Obstruction of view due to drying of clothes — Vikas avoids using his balcony as drying clothes blocks the view

14. Probability of drying clothes falling off-Mahi worries that when the wind is strong, clothes will tumble down the house.

IDEATE🤔

After defining the problems in relation to the balcony, I moved on to the ideation stage, where I brainstormed and came up with all possible solutions to the user’s issues. I came up with solutions using the Crazy 8 technique.

Source- Unsplash

• Foldable chair or stool that can be easily unfolded to meet the needs of the user
• Using an antislip mat on the balcony floor to prevent slips and falls during rainy weather.
• Wearing slip-resistant slippers while visiting the balcony during rain
• Hanging the planters outside attached to the railing
• Hanging planters on the ceiling of the balcony
• Keeping plants on wall-mounted shelves
• Covering the balcony with UV-protected screen/fabric, to avoid excessive sun heat
• Using cloth clips to keep clothes from falling off
• A rubber mat or artificial grass could be placed on the balcony floor to reduce the need for ongoing cleaning of the slick and dusty surface.
• Installing ‘pull and use’ stand to dry clothes
• Keeping the plants in shade or covering them with cloth
• Use of cotton string to connect the plant-soil to the water container to avoid watering every day
• Setting a reminder in the phone to water plants
• Using curtains/screens in the balcony for privacy
• Keeping a fake owl or snake to keep birds out of the balcony
• Installing sliding glass/aluminum shutters to prevent rainwater from entering the balcony
• Painting balcony walls with cool colors instead of Dark hues as they absorb more heat, causing the balcony to remain warm in the later hours of the day

After coming up with solutions, I picked up my TOP 3 IDEAS to go forward with:

💡Idea -1 Foldable chair or stool

I chose this idea because users have to either sit on the floor or go inside to fetch a chair in order to relax for a longer period of time, which they perceive to be a tedious task.

💡Idea 2- Retractable Balcony screens with UV-protected fabric

I chose this idea because it will eliminate direct sunlight in the balcony while also providing privacy to the user, preventing dust and rain-water from entering the balcony

💡Idea 3- Using an antislip mat

I chose this idea because Users had to avoid visiting their balconies when it was raining because of fear of slips and falls

PROTOTYPE👀

IDEA-2 was chosen for prototyping after generating the top 3 ideas because it has the capacity to address the majority of user problems.

Iteration 1: I came up with a solution that involved attaching a UV-protected fabric screen from the balcony’s ceiling to the balcony’s bottom floor

Later, I realized that there was no way for the user to pull up the screen or remove it for some time if they want, so I made it retractable by adding a pulling clutch to the screens so that the user can pull up and down according to their preferences.

👀Reasons why I found this solution effective-

• protects plants from direct sunlight
• user can have the privacy to visit their balcony anytime
• prevents heating up of balcony by blocking harmful UV rays from entering the house
• dust reduction and water accumulation in balcony floor during rains
• no space for the birds to enter inside the balcony
• as it is a translucent fabric users can see outside’s surrounding without opening the screens

Below is the rough prototype I made to get an idea👇

low fidelity prototype

credits- Phifer

high fidelity prototype

TESTING😈

Now it was time to actually present my prototype to the users, i scheduled a call with all my 5 users and went ahead with asking for their feedback

After presenting my solutions to the users they shared their constructive feedback

1. Divy and Mahi thinks it may flutter during strong winds
2. Mahi was unsure about the durability of the screens.
3. Vijay thinks it will not enhance the aesthetics of his apartment.
4. Megha asked about the detaching process of the balcony screens in case of transferring to a different apartment.
5. Mahi and Vijay wanted it to be automated to avoid opening and closing the screens repeatedly, as they find it a tedious task.

REVISED PROTOTYPE😋

I then came up with an idea to connect a wire from the wall ceiling to the balcony floor, which would be attached to the screen sheet end, to avoid fluttering during strong winds

Here is the prototype of it👇

revised prototype

After analyzing Divy and Mahi’s feedback, I considered providing two options: one manual balcony screen and one automated balcony screen, which users can select based on their preferences.

📌KEY LEARNINGS FROM THIS PROJECT

• This project made me understand the heart of design thinking
• UX Design is not limited to digitals products only , everything around us is designed in someway to improve the life of the user.
• I am not a user, so I should set aside my personal biases and understand the user’s perspective.
• Your solution will never be perfect in one go; there is always room for improvement; keep iterating until it is.
• Users will never say what problem they are facing it's our job to dig deeper and find the root cause of the inconvenience faced by the user

Thank you for reading throughout! if you like this let me know in the comments! All feedbacks are appreciated

Feel free to reach out to me at sakshigupta9368@gmail.com or LinkedIn

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See you until next time👋