TrEkGlance

TrekGlance is a prototype of a ubiquitous technology created in my Pervasive Interaction Design class. TrekGlance is a pair of glasses that uses augmented reality to bring information to hikers as they hike and explore trails in a national park. Using GPS and an information display, Trek Glance displays various information pertinent to the hike, such as location, a short video of the route ahead, and the difficulty of the route. TrekGlance can also suggest routes that encourages hikers to take trails that are less explored and off the beaten path. 

Process

We first created a small list of questions that helped us guide our user research. Those questions were:

• What gets you excited about hiking?
• What environmental triggers remind people of hiking?
• How do groups of hikers get together and go hiking?
• What issues do hikers face while hiking?

We used a variety of research techniques for this project, including interviews, photo diary studies, and cultural probes. 

INterviews

We interviewed 7 different people to better understand hikers, their past experiences with hiking, and their thoughts on hiking. Interviews lasted around 30 minutes. Our interview questions can be grouped into the following themes:

• Hiking preparation
• In-situ hiking
• Equipment
• Social aspects of hiking

Photo DIary Study

We conducted a photo diary study with 4 different people who were planning on going on a hike of at least one hour during the time of our study. We chose to do a photo diary study because it would allow us to understand both visually and verbally what the participants experienced on their hike. Participants were asked to take at least 10 photos in total and at least one of the following prompts:

• A picture of the equipment, if any, that you bring or use
• Any activities you do (e.g. camping, cooking, water activities, etc.)
• Anyone accompanying you on the trip (if they’re comfortable with that)
• Your surroundings. This could include:
  • Your general surroundings during your hike
  • Noteworthy accomplishments or landmarks (e.g. top of a mountain, end of your hike, waterfall, etc.)

We then asked participants to include a description of each photo and share them with us after their hike.

Cultural Probe

The cultural probe participants were the same 4 people from the photo diary study. Our cultural probe consisted of two parts. The first part was to have participants make a drawing of an imaginary device that would help them on their hike. The second part was to have participants write a postcard to someone to tell them about their hike. Participants did the cultural probe after they completed their hike. The cultural probe allowed us to better understand hikers’ thoughts, needs, and values and gain inspiration for ideas from their input.

Study Results

After interviewing all of our participants, we came together as a group and shared what we had learned from our interviews and cultural probes. We wrote down on a whiteboard themes and ideas that our participants shared.

After writing down all of the themes and ideas from our interviews, we then divided them up into three groups: problems, wants, and opportunities. Problems are issues, difficulties, and complaints that our participants had experienced during their hikes. Wants are aspects of the hike that are important to our participants, but aren’t complaints about any aspect of the trip. Opportunities are things we believed either didn’t exist yet or existing things that can be modified to improve the hiking experience.

From our interviews, we learned that getting lost was a common fear among most of our participants. Many expressed the need for better GPS technology. Along similar lines, some participants addressed the desire to know about the routes ahead of time, including the terrain and any dangers that may be present. Different fears were also expressed. Some of these included fear of darkness and heights. Scenery was also an important aspect for many of our participants. Many participants expressed interest in taking photos capturing nature scenes from their hikes. Carrying equipment was also a larger issue, particularly carrying food around. The physical activity and soreness that comes with it was also frequently brought up.

From our cultural probes, our four participants echoed the need for a more efficient way to carry supplies, GPS, knowing the route ahead of time, and dealing with the soreness during a hike.

Some of the major themes that stood out to us were:

1. Fears of getting lost/better navigation and GPS
2. Having information about the hiking trails/routes is important.
3. Hiking is extremely tasking on the body

We believed these three areas would be the best areas to explore in making a ubiquitous system that would enhance the hiking experience.

Ideation and selection

Once we had three themes we wanted to explore, we decided to come up with ideas as a group. We came up with several ideas and sketches. We came up with five criteria that we would use to narrow down to three concepts.

1. Non-intrusive: Does the concept respect a person’s privacy and not inappropriately activate in inappropriate contexts?
2. Usefulness: Does this concept fulfill our target user’s needs and provide them with benefits? 
3. Acceptability:  Will this concept be adopted by the hiking community?
4. Demonstrability: How practical is this concept for us to demo?
5. Pleasurability: Does this concept provide a meaningful, pleasurable, and/or aesthetically satisfying experience?

Once we created all of our sketches and our criteria, we individually voted on the three concepts we wanted to pursue.

Refined scope and concepts

Through the cultural probe, diary study, and interviews, we refined our audience to hikers who preferred going on long term hikes that lasted over one hour, but did not go overnight. These tended to be trips that people went on with friends and family where trails weren’t that difficult, but the scenery was varied and beautiful. Many hikers mentioned preferring to go to the mountains during summer or fall. We focused on minimizing issues that they faced while hiking in order to enhance the main activity; hiking.
 

Design concept #1 Preview Glasses

In this concept, Mike who is an amateur hiker, decides to explore the Great Dividing Trail in north west of Melbourne, Australia, a hiking and mountain-biking track. Despite having researched the track before the hiking, he finds himself in a situation where he must select one route among other choices. He sees mountains far away, but does not know what kind of scene will encounter after going on the top. The trees and natural topography prevent him from seeing a waterfall and a river from where he is walking. Since the hiking area is very large, it is not feasible to experience all of these attraction points in a couple of hours. That is when he has to decide. He uses his Preview Glasses to get a sense of each alternative direction. The glasses provide him with an exquisite dense preview of the highlights for each the choices. He is able to experience the most impressive moments and most breathtaking landscapes without having to be physically present at those specific locations. The Preview Glasses shows Mike a few second preview of one of the directions he is considering. He is impressed by the highlights and shadows of the hills he will see from the top of the mountain and decides to take this route.

Non-intrusive: In order to minimize the intrusivity of Preview Glasses, we have considered to integrate the product into an equipment that hikers are likely to use frequently: sunglasses. Ideally the product will be as aesthetically appealing as ordinary sunglasses.

Usefulness: The Preview Glasses certainly offers benefits to hikers who want to make the best out of the time they have dedicated to hiking. Hikers will find it useful because it enables them to have more control over their overall hiking experience, especially in places they have not visited before. Preview Glasses empowers hikers to make informed decisions.

Acceptability: We speculate that the early adopters of the Preview Glasses would include hikers who are either drawn to specific sceneries or would like to avoid certain situations. For example, in one of the interviews, one person addressed her fear of height and selecting alternative passages as a solution. The Preview Glasses is also more likely to be adopted by hikers who are new to hiking trails.

Demonstrability: The concept primarily relies on high video editing skills that can condense a multiple hour recorded hiking to a couple of seconds video. The highlights from the raw footage created by hikers who first explore the site wearing Preview Glasses will selected to create a short preview video of each route.

Pleasurability: It would be satisfying and enjoyable to be able to experience different trails without being physically present. The Preview Glasses offer a pleasant experience of exploring new sceneries by virtually walking hikers through nature.

Problems/Opportunities: The first problem identified with this concept is that some people might argue that one of the pleasures of hiking is to explore the unknown. The idea of experiencing routes in advance might conflict with the excitement and joy of discovery. The second problem of the Preview Glasses stems from the reliance of the product on a huge database created by raw footages from early users. Therefore, it might be hard to convince people to buy a product with limited coverage in different parts of the world. Third, wearing such glasses might look and feel unnatural to some people. Also since the primary function of the Preview Glasses is to help hikers with decision making regarding hiking routes, it would be hard to convince people to wear something they might only use a few times in a couple of hours.

Design Concept #2 Hiking socks

In our second concept, John is a 67-year-old man who has recently retired and have decided to spend more time outdoor. Although he is quite fit for his age, he is not very used to long hours of hiking and has noticed some difficulties when walking on uneven or steep surfaces. Before going for a hike to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Trail in Los Angeles, he decides to buy a pair of Hiking Socks. The product notify John about useful information on maintaining proper form to avoid pain or possible injuries. Each time he lands on his toes instead of heels, he is instructed on how to avoid extra pressure. Having hiked for an hour, John and his friend decide to take a break. This is a good time for John to activate the massage feature of his Hiking Socks. After taking some rest and massage, John feels refreshed and is ready to continue hiking with his friend.

Non-intrusive: Hiking socks for the most part will be hidden by shoes. The computing component of the product can land just above the ankle in form of a soft ring that feels comfortable and can be covered by another pair of socks or pants.

Usefulness: Since nature essentially offers very diverse set of challenges compared to cardio machines, it would be useful for hikers to maintain proper form in all circumstances. Uneven and sometimes steep terrains make the physical engagement more complex. Therefore this product would primarily benefit individuals who are more likely to face injuries and are more vulnerable. Providing feedback on their performance and how to put pressure on appropriate body parts would be an asset to them.

Acceptability:  This concept is highly likely to be adopted by the hiking community as many people might face exhaustion, soreness or even injuries during hiking. In our interviews, some people identified injuries as one of their concerns before going for a hike. This concept will empower hikers to maintain proper form and will be supportive by offering advanced massages for temporary relief and recovery.

Demonstrability: This concept relies on measuring pressure on different parts of the foot, analyzing these data with regard to the physical specification of the user, and providing adequate feedback to enhance stamina. The output can be in form of audio to instruct user in real time. A more comprehensive output can visualize all the information gathered during hiking such as number of heel contacts, number of steps, number of improper landings and etc. This part requires an accompanying mobile app.

Pleasurability: Not only the massaging feature would be satisfying for exhausted feet, the real-time feedback of the product will give users a sense of security and increase their level of consciousness to maintain proper form to avoid injuries and maximize endurance.

Problems/Opportunities: The most important challenge in this concept is technical feasibility. It is hard to come up with standards regarding the pressure thresholds for specific parts of the foot to ensure proper form. The massaging feature also might require more space that could be available in a comfortable shoe.

Design concept #3 Hiking Bracelet

For our third concept, Jason, Sina, Diane, and Jonathan are hiking around Mackinaw Island during Fall. Sina decides to stop and take some pictures of the mountains, but the rest of the group doesn’t notice and keeps walking without him. After 10 minutes, they realize that they are missing one member. Luckily, they decided to wear their hiking bracelets, and they notice that the signal has turned red, indicating that Sina is located 39M east. They follow the light and happily are able to reconnect with him.

Non-intrusive: As hikers already have so many items with them, we decided to go with a strap on bracelet. We wanted something that was on the body of the user, since many hikers don’t want to stop and get a tool out of their backpack.  

Useful: The ability to find a lost friend is extremely useful. This was a major concern for many different people and is a major safety concern. It also allows for larger groups to get together without the worry of getting split up. Users of different abilities can be confident that they won’t stray too far off, and if they do, it would be easy for them to find each other again.

Demonstrability: The design mainly relies on GPS and lights, which are common tools that we can prototype with. There may be some difficulty in making it into the correct form factor though since none of us a product designers.  

Acceptability: As most users we spoke with said that they were concerned with getting lost or having someone get lost during a group hike, we believe that users will be interested in the product. The main difficulty is that users may already have something on their arms and not want to use it.

Pleasurability: Many hikers did not watch to look at a screen, so a major concern would be able to design the bracelet in a way that it looks natural and felt comfortable. While many people wear devices like Fitbit while exercising, hikers value nature and tend to not want too many items that brings them out of this feel.

Problems/Opportunities: A major problem with this would be the addition of another device to the hikers toolkit. Many hiker’s valued nature, and adding too much technology can be seen as a taking away from that. However, there is an opportunity to create a device that is aesthetically pleasing while still being functional. Safety is a major concern and can impede decisions on who to hike with. By making it more safe for groups to go together, we can make trips more easy to plan and more fun to be on.

We have revised our research questions to be more specific and capture some of the tensions that we found in our designs:

• What components come together to make a hiking experience valuable?
• What types of hiking or nature artifacts do people think are meaningful to them?
• What are factors that influence people to take a certain hiking path? (eg. scenery, difficulty, time, other people)?
• Does having too much information hinder the overall hiking experience?
• What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking?
• How do people want to record and share their hiking experiences with others?
• How do people react when they are constantly having their hiking experiences recorded?
• How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires?

Participants

We recruited our participants through our personal networks. All participants are in their twenties and Master’s students. All of the participants have had various amounts of hiking experience. We conducted all our user enactments at Nichols Arboretum, an arboretum that has lots of hills and paths, to immerse our participants in an outdoors, “hiking” environment. Before we started our user enactments, we briefed them on what our project is about, what user enactments are, and how we would be conducting them. 

User Enactments

The user enactments helped us answer our refined research questions:

Research Question: How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires?

Participants are on a group hike. One participant is an avid photographer who likes to stop often to take picture of the scenery and any interesting surroundings. The rest of the participants are more focused on completing the hike without paying too much attention to their surroundings. We observe how the participants act out this situation in order to better understand group dynamics and how people would compromise.

Research Questions:  What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking? How do people want to record and share their hiking experiences with others? How do people react when they are constantly having their hiking experiences recorded?

Participants are on a group hike. One participant is wearing a pair of sunglasses that allows the user to record everything they see on their hike as videos. These captured videos can be seen by other users later to create hiking trail previews. All participants are aware that they are being recorded. We follow up by asking the sunglasses participant about how they feel on using such a device and ask the other participants how they feel about being recorded.

Research Questions: How do different people in the same hiking group compromise when they have all have different hiking desires?  What are factors that influence people to take a certain hiking path? (e.g. scenery, difficulty, time, other people)?

Participants are on a group hike. They have been hiking for some time and are starting to feel fatigued. They reach a fork in the path and wear sunglasses to be able to preview the paths. One path looks rocky and difficult to climb. The other path looks flat and easy to climb. Participants decide among themselves which path they should take and whether they should go together.

Research Questions:  What components come together to make a hiking experience valuable? What types of hiking or nature artifacts do people think are meaningful to them?

Participants are on a group hike.  Along their hike, they take note of interesting artifacts (such as leaves, rocks, etc.) and asked to pick an item they would take home to help them remember their trip. We follow up by asking the participants why they would choose such artifacts.

Research Questions: oes having too much information hinder the overall hiking experience? What levels of intrusiveness from technology can people tolerate while hiking?

Participant is walking alone. They wear headphones in order to receive audio, hiking-related notifications. The moderator acts as the audio notifications by calling the participant and relaying the notifications. 

1. Participant hears a notification to take a detour - “Take a left.”
2. 1 minute later, participant hears a notification to change posture - “Improve your posture by standing up straighter”
3. 1 minute later, participant hears a notification to take a break - “You should take a minute break now.”
4. 1 minute later, participant hears a notification to drink water - “You should drink some water now to stay hydrated.”

We follow up by asking participants whether they thought these notifications were intrusive and/or helpful.

Reflection
After completing our User Enactment 1, we realized the results were predictable and did not garner many insights. Our initial prediction is that the participants would either stick with the photographer or leave them behind, which is exactly what happened in our enactment runs. This could possibly result from our enactment feeling too unnatural. Since we set up a strict scenario for our participants, they may have a hard time trying to act out the tension we were trying to set up. It also would have been nicer to get more variety in terms of our participants’ ages and gender.

By conducting user enactments, we were able to better understand and visualize how people act on hikes and interact with nature and other hikers. We were able to “test” some of our earlier potential ideas, such as the preview glasses and audio notification system, and see how users would respond to such systems and determine whether users find value in such systems. We also got a better idea of in what contexts users would want to use our proposed systems.

Initial insights:

• With the notification system, most participants said they would like having the audio notifications if they are on a hike alone because the voice would accompany them, but probably would not use it in a group setting because it would feel isolating. 
• People are comfortable and open to recording their experiences, but not being recorded by others for a public video.
• When faced with different route options, people will usually conform to what the majority wants to do.
• People are open to using technology while hiking, but it depends on the context and level of intrusiveness.
• People are interesting in collecting memories from their hike, whether it's in a physical artifact or in photo/video form.

Study results

We individually coded the data and observations from the user enactments and then came together as a group to debrief. We created an affinity wall to group our findings together and identify key insights.

Key Insights
 

Participants are not interested in splitting up. They are willing to give up what they want in order to stay together as a group.

•  In our user enactments participants stuck with the photographer and waited for them, despite them acting annoyed and telling the photographer to hurry up or to stop taking pictures. These participants were willing to compromise in order to stick together.
• One participant expressed the desire to take the harder route while the other four wanted to take the easier route. The one participant ended up comprising and going along with the rest of the participants. This participant said “Even if I really want to go on this route, if no one else goes with me, it won’t be fun. I don’t want to go by myself so I’ll compromise to whatever the majority wants to do.”

Participants were concerned with the concept of shared, public memories.

• While all our participants expressed that they would enjoy wearing the glasses to record their trip, Participants 2,4 & 5 expressed that they would not enjoy being recorded. This apprehensiveness stemmed from the fact that the videos would be shared publicly. During the enactment, the participants would actively tried to avoid being recorded by the glasses. Participants 4 and 5 also asked if audio was also being recorded in addition to video. They said if audio was being recorded, then they would not want to say anything during recording.

Participants were willing to tolerate a certain level of intrusiveness from technology

• In some of our user enactments, we equipped participants with glasses and a notification system to determine whether people would be annoyed having to wear or use technology devices while hiking. For form factor, participants were comfortable with the idea of wearing sunglasses while hiking. Participant 3 stated “I would not mind wearing the recording glasses or preview path glasses if their form is really similar to regular sunglasses.” Participant 4 also stated “It would be nice to have another technology besides my phone to rely on while on hikes because my phone tends to have bad battery and I want to preserve it.” Participants were also okay with having a notification system but it depends on how often the notifications were or if they were by themselves. Participant 1 said “I would turn on notifications if I am alone but not by myself because I feel like it might me isolate from my group.” Participant 4 said “I would use the notifications if I’m alone, but I would not like it if the notifications interrupted my music or if the notifications came often. I would not like getting a notification every minute.” Overall, participants are comfortable with using technology on their hikes as long as it is either comfortable to wear and they are not constantly bombarded with notifications or noises from the technology.

Participants were most interested in exploring and touring.

• Participants were interested in exploring and learning about different paths they could take. The notification that the participants thought was most useful was the notification to take a certain direction. Participants 1 and 4 said that they think notifications that tell them which paths to go or tell them about different sights they could see on routes would be most helpful. Participant 3 believed the preview paths function would be useful because he is not good at looking up information beforehand in order to learn about where he is hiking.

ideation and selection

We started by using the insights gained from the user enactments to help us refine the specific design requirements and pain points. We ideated more ideas and refinements on our original ideas by writing our individual ideas on post-it notes and then sharing as a group and grouped these ideas into common themes.  

The biggest themes that stood out to us were:

• A concept revolved around encouraging hikers to explore the area and check out various trails and sights (UEs indicated people like to explore different paths and sights while hiking)
• A concept around revolved allowing hikers to capture, share, and remember their hiking experience (The interviews and diary studies from the previous milestone indicated that many participants like to take pictures of their hikes to share with others and remember their experience later on. UEs also indicated people were interested in using a technology that enables them to record their experience.)

Based on these concepts, we ideated again to further refine and narrow down to the following ideas:

• Glasses that allow people to capture pictures and videos
• Nature markers that allow people to see environmental information (temperature, level of activity, pollution, etc.)
• Gamified hiking environments (including amazing race style trips, mini challenge swithin trips, or collecting different information about flora/fauna)

From our user enactments, we found that people greatly valued the following design values - usefulness, demonstrability, and sociability. While examining the different ideas, we discussed how to balance the different aspects to ensure that we were able to address each value without endangering the main function. Glasses scored well on demonstrability, but mediocre on sociability and usefulness. Nature markers scored high on usefulness and demonstrability, but low on sociability. Gamified hiking environments scored high on sociability but low on sociability and usefulness.

We struggled with finding a design that worked well, but during this process, we realized that separating how people access, capture, and display information are three functions where we could add value. Similarly, we realized that we could split our idea based on form, and function. This resulted in our new idea - glasses that allow you to access information from nature markers, which displayed information regarding the hiking trail.

System proposal

We are proposing Hiking Glasses, which will allow people to navigate hiking locations, access information regarding the local environment, and discover new trails. The hiking glasses would have a scanner in front that allows people to scan their environment, while the lens would be an augmented reality camera that would display information.

For our storyboard, Ben and his two friends are hiking around Banff National Park. Ben was in a hurry to plan the trip, so he had a general idea of where to go, but wasn’t too sure on what the actual trails were like.  The whole group decides to put on their Hiking Glasses to help them better understand the local environment and where to go.  The system is based on augmented reality and QR codes. After wearing the glasses, they are able to access the display markers (QR codes) left by the state park which shows what the paths will look like. While looking around they see a tree with a code, and they are able to get information regarding the local plants and learn more about the different seasonal vegetation. An hour in the hike, they were able to find a marker that showed new potential paths that would interest them. Ben and his friends feel safe in navigating the different trails and leave feeling that they explored all the different areas.

System concept

TrekGlance employs Augmented Reality in bringing users information at a glance. In a National Park or National Forest setting, TrekGlance utilizes location services and displays information about various paths in the park or forest. TrekGlance glasses have GPS and can detect the direction a user is facing. The motivation behind the system is in creating a way for users to remain immersed in the environment, while being able to access information. Similar to how the mobile phone allowed users to access information on the go, TrekGlance aims to allow users to access information while remaining engaged in their activity.  

TrekGlance makes use of the following three elements to form the informational layer of our system:

• Preview database - stores the pictures and videos that pop up when users want to preview an upcoming path
• Location service -  A location service (such as GPS) allows the system to detect the user’s location in the area and display information based on that location
• Orientation detector - detects the movement of the user and triggers certain information based on the movement

prototyping process

After sketching our prototype idea, we first began by constructing our glasses out of wood using a laser cutting tool. We created a box to hold the camera and attach it to the glasses. We also attached the LED screen to the right side of the glasses.

We then built a prism that houses the LED display and attached it the glasses. This was used to project the image from the LED display to the user.

We worked on the Particle code to display information on the LED screen to be shown to the user.

We used Processing to demonstrate augmented reality. We created special AR markers and made videos that display whenever the camera hovers on the AR markers.