Cole Henry Grodnitzky

Grand Park, downtown LA’s metropolitan public park space regularly hosts activations designed to promote public interest in the arts and promote visitorship. Costs, however, both for artists to present their work, and for Grand Park are incredibly high, and prohibitive, and slow. Furthermore, there are no calls-to-action for visitors to share digital stories on normal park days, when no special art exhibit/activation is present. Art installation is expensive, slow, complex, requires after-installation protection, security, and maintenance, and remains relatively static and unchanging during its stay. On top of all of this 33% of CA artists make less than 15k a year, and many don’t even recoup their costs.

Displaying Art, even at temporary galleries, can cost upwards of $3000+ for artists, but multiple local artists would be willing to contribute art to public space pro-bono. Apps exist that allow orgs to easily create AR environments using uploaded images, and Art Gallery visitors come to support the artists they have a personal connection to. Finally, material and maintenance costs for art installations can easily get out of hand.

Our final prototype uses AR galleries to share and tell Artists' stories. Additionally, it helps visitors connect with local artists in a way that engages and encourages sharing of both GP and artists' work through social media. It simply requires visitors to use their phone camera to scan a QR code, download an AR app called Hoverlay, and open a location-based AR space which the team and I had setup earlier using public domain images as a proof of concept.The app's functionality allows for text placement and link redirects, which enables the park to increase conversion of Social Media followers and Survey-takers.

One of stylists’ greatest frustrations is customers who don’t know what they want. Many times customers will go in to get a haircut with an unclear idea of the style they’re seeking, ultimately leaving it up to the stylist to guess what the person wants. No common ground in communication is really established, and the default customer response is to tell the stylist that the haircut ‘is good’ whether they love or hate what they got.

A significant number of salons and barbershops are digitally behind the times, with websites that contain poor security, poor navigation, and are missing crucial information. Current salon-based software focuses almost exclusively on the company-side of the service (scheduling, finances, etc.), with little emphasis actually placed on the service being offered - the haircut. Relatively little thought has been placed on codifying and standardizing the process of choosing a haircut.

Turnstyle is a kiosk-app prototype that presents salon and barbershop customers with cutting-edge styles (excuse the pun) while providing accurate price estimates, customer reviews, and photos of the same style performed by the in-house stylists at a particular location. It has the added ability to let users use Snapchat AR filters to test out select styles on their own heads and faces, just by scanning a qr code.

At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, mobility has undergone a paradigm shift. - Many workers don't have to commute, bus routes have been reduced, and social distancing is encouraged. Travelers are fearful of commuting due to crowds and various points of contact. Furthermore, LA Public Transport Kiosks are outdated - they're convoluted, confusing to use, and most importantly they require physical touch to operate.​​​​​​​

Using a kiosk that centers around bi-lingual Voice-Assistance, we can both eliminate the possibility of touch-based contamination and give ticketing kiosks a much needed modernization. Our research revealed to us that bilingual and on-screen voice prompts, response suggestions, the ability and affordance to ask for assistance or exit, and a step-by-step route layout would be crucial features to fit into our prototype.

Hey! Metro leverages current mainstream familiarity with Siri to create a streamlined kiosk that avoids physical contact and actively assists passengers in finding their destination. Together as a team, we went through every step of the design process, from user personas, VUI (Voice UI) interface prototypes, and everything in between. Our solution utilizes QR codes, Maps, varied route options with plan details, and finally the option for live customer support — and will serve as a much needed update to an old and hygienically-concerning kiosk system.