Design Strategy

Web UX & Replatform

Overview

The Conversion Pipeline

When Frasca Flight Simulation transitioned to web 2.0, I dug into the expectations and needs of stakeholders to inform the next phase of this B2B company's now-60-year legacy in the aviation training industry.

I designed solutions for streamlining the sales process by connecting the dots between flight simulator purchasers, operators, and enthusiasts, as well as in-house executives and sales staff.

Side Note: I created all the images here.

Output: Mockup for Responsive Web

Research

Tools for Discovery

Surveys, interviews, and usability testing helped me understand gaps and opportunities for connecting marketing with the sales funnel and supporting the conversion process.

Outlining stakeholder personas (and mapping their values) assisted in quantifying and prioritizing the importance of our marketing initiatives.

Iterative prototyping and validation provided feedback for designing and fine-tuning solutions.

Commercial-Grade Challenges

The Shopping Cart Issue

Flight simulators don't fit in shopping carts—the price point and customizations need a personal touch.

The wide net of click-to-contact was catching both training pros and un-qualified enthusiasts, and it took sales time to qualify and redirect enthusiasts who could still be customers of Frasca's customers.

The Bottleneck Issue

Many enthusiasts clicked through expecting consumer-level products, but the time to decipher that stream of unstructured contact caused delays.

Top-level staff was distracted from their leads by taking handoffs from staff that were busy qualifying prospects, educating enthusiasts, and making referrals to flight schools with simulators.

The CMS-less Issue

Without a Content Management System, marketing messages came out inconsistently because every instance had to be updated manually across channels. Sales staff also lost time resolving inconsistencies between marketing and contract specs.

With a CMS, pages generate on demand and each update benefits all output. I created a database business-centric value messages for each feature, option, and product platform.

The Business Plan Issue

Simulators have advantages over aircraft, so new messaging and financial tools help flight managers explore new business cases.

This gives a head start to sales reps, and it helps enthusiasts understand the nature of the equipment without discouraging their interest.

Results: Solutions

Visualize the Enterprise

Site Map & User Flows

This site map organizes the full corporate lexicon to ensure that every level of information is easily accessible.

One test of the information architecture is outlining the steps (and alternate routes) for accomplishing key tasks.

Modular Architecture

Training goals and aircraft type are the vectors for navigating platforms and customizations—the product page presents a visual narrative of the capabilities and benefits.

I created a CMS database with cross-referenced imagery and modules of business-forward messaging to automatically create pages for even obscure aircraft.

A pervasive call-to-action invites users to be paired with a sales representative.

Inquiry Form

This form requires contact info while optional fields probe usage and business goals. In-depth responses help to prioritize valuable leads and route enthusiasts to Frasca's customers.

This empowered assistant-level staff to free up sales time by handling referrals, and it reduced unqualified inquiries by 50%.

Simplified Record-Keeping

This solution filters inquiries through the CRM database, then staff can select to merge submission contents with existing accounts or create new files—saving time from manually cross-referencing records and re-typing submissions.

Interactive ROI Chart
(acts-like prototype)

This chart lets prospects see how revenue and operating costs are affected by utilization and loan terms.

I validated with selective distribution; the no-pressure flexibility facilitated sales discussions and feature up-sells.

Brick-&-Mortar / Tarmac-&-Runway

Product pages feature customers to tout past performance and to drive potential renters directly to the operators.

I also collaborated with an aggregator of rental-aircraft listings to add a "find-sims" search.

Design Strategy

Disruptive Startup

Rae: Developing Brand, Experience, & Form

Challenge

How to create a brand and product, based on the disruptive technologies of projection mapping, gesture interface, and pico projectors?

Also, pitch the product and supporting business to a VC panel.

This multidisciplinary collaboration took place at California College of the Arts.

Outcome

A 360° interactive projection system that brings the 2D digital world to 3D life.

Using market research and trend forecasting, along with some quick story prototypes and interviews, our team identified a feature set that could simultaneously displace AR/VR systems, gesture based gaming consoles, home voice assistants, and possibly even screens as we know them.

Think Siri and Alexa play with XBox Kinect and Snapchat filters, in an IMAX theater, in your home.

Hybrid voice/gesture interface with projection mapping technology can put interactive content on any surface in the room (even people!) and connect us with far-away people, places, and services—the ultimate in gaming, education, home telepresence, cinema, commerce, and more.

Background: The Team

Five people designing a startup business around disruptive technology.

My responsibilities included ethnographic and tech research, UX design, and co-leading discussions for developing brand and product. I was a co-lead on form development, and I produced our rendered product animation. When we concluded the project by pitching to a panel of VC's, I handled our Q&A for strategy and technology.

Background: Technology

Responsive Projection Mapping

Improved projector technology combines with real-time image processing and smarthome breakthroughs to offer exciting new experiences. Users can now have shared AR/VR experiences without separate glasses.

With knowledge of the technical possibilities, we set out to list as many uses as we could.

Prototype Experiences

Story Sketches

Storyboards and picture prototypes helped us quickly generate feedback about the experiences we were considering, such as transforming faces and tables for gameplay.

In another story, the user browsed home home decor right on the wall where it would live, then ordered from the app.

Projected Interactions

We made some content and learned how potential users felt about larger projected information, decorations, and scenery; we also explored how they might interact with large projected interfaces and telepresence.

Soon, we realized that the vast possibilities of this hardware platform begged for an open app ecosystem, leading to our strategy of "simple, appable, hackable."

Our open strategy would include subsidizing developer kits to incentivize hacking and creation of new experiences to prime the ecosystem.

Assistance

Telepresence

Notifications

Gesture UI

Process: Overview Wall

All of our work was shared digitally, but physically displaying our inspiration and progress helped us stay in touch with the big picture.

Process: Personas

Defining Our Audience

Part of planning our market strategy was identifying some key representative customers that we were trying to reach, and building up profiles that helped us understand their perspectives.

One of our primary personas was Sophisticated Samantha, an affluent, style-conscious social media influencer. There was also Early Adopter Dan and Conscious Hacker Christina. This trio would use and promote our product in different, complimentary ways.

Process: Brand Brainstorm

Target Traits

We generated a word cloud of brand attributes that would be meaningful to our target personas, then we organized them into a higherarchy that would define our brand.

Market Position

For tech-forward trend-setters, rae is an elegant companion that creates surreal interactive experiences in the home.

Mapping competitive relationships helped us clarify our brand and locate our price point.

Results: Customer Journey

Touchpoint Stages

As you can seeby the graph, we planned for sustained growth of excitement.

This plan, along with our brand attributes, informed the stage-to-stage prioritization of touchpoints as well as our financial schedule.

Process: Form Development

Technology Meets Brand

Our brand attributes and visual identity guided the object's styling, while the feature set influenced the form factor.

Feedback on 2D sketches and 3D renders helped us quickly work through formal options and refinement.

Despite the functional advantages of spherical lenses for 360° projection, prospective users mentioned kitsch-ey associations, and we moved to explore less-usual possibilities.

The technologies to compensate for an angular 360° cover include nano lens material and a pico laser RGB source with projection mapping.

Results: Final Form

The final rae form is an elegant monolith with minimalist finishing and a twisted angularity that suggests its perception-bending capabilities.

Overt rectilinear language echoes the architecture around us, starting a conversation between rae's warped surfaces and the walls that will be augmented with projection.

Results: Video Prototype

Ambient scenery transforms to reveal a connected notification; as the user leaves the room, the system responds.

For our final pitch, I produced an animation of the form that tied the product to the video prototype and technology demo reel (at top).

These video simulations helped our pitch audience visualize some of the potential for smart projection systems in the home. Such assets would also be good interview prompts for further development.

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Nic Hansen
Design

About Nic
UX Research
- usability research
- user experience research
Product Strategy
- web replatform
- disruptive design
Interaction Design
Industrial Design

You can reach me at nichansen care-of gmail.

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