Project Background

This project was originally proposed by the Government Technology Agency of Singapore. My team was tasked with developing an identity verification hardware device using the OpenCert software that GovTech has developed. With 2 months of prototyping, my team achieved a hardware-software prototype that allowed users to securely store their ID information digitally as a QR code, then verify both the authenticity and the validity of the ID with blockchain hashing. In March, COVID-19 hit the US and GovTech pulled away from the project subsequently. We were then left with a working prototype without a use case and found ourselves uncertain about our next steps.

Use Case Exploration

As the user research lead of the project, I took the responsibility in leading us to find an applicable, feasible, and impactful problem space. This experience was an important turning point for both the project and my learning journey as a user researcher. As a UX researcher, I got to practice using my human-centered design toolkit in a flexible way. Previously, I was always taught to follow the design thinking process where we identify a problem and empathize with users first before anything. veriFLY took a completely different route. We had a product with no problem to solve and no target users to engage. This gave me the unique opportunity to lead my team in conducting both secondary and primary research in search for an appropriate use case. My efforts in exploratory research pivoted the project to a new direction, and allowed our technologies to solve a real problem. After ideation and evaluation, we downselected all of the use cases into 4 potential directions.

Facility Management

Among all of the use scenarios brainstormed, this was the first that our team came up with. Through Zoom, I conducted an interview with a makerspace director at the University of Washington. Since all team members had access to that makerspace, this use scenario seemed the most feasible for testing.

The Challenge

Through the interview, I learned that the director needed a way to quickly identify and block unauthorized users. In addition, he wanted this system to be connected with makerspace machineries such as 3D printers and laser cutters so that he can easily manage the usage of the space.

Current Solution

The makerspace currently uses a keycard system and it is only for facility access and not for tracking usage of each specific machinery. The director mentioned that the makerspace is prone to unauthorized use now because people can easily lend their key cards to other people. A ID verification system with biometric check can greatly prevent that.

Why We Didn’t Choose This Use Case

While this was a very valid problem to solve, we felt that it was outside of the scope of our technology. We determined that integrating with machineries can add unnecessary complexities to the project, and we would rather prove our technology concept in a less constrained environment.

Airbnb

This use case came from my own experience as an avid traveler and from many terrible airbnb experiences I’ve heard from people around me. There can easily be a lack of trust between hosts and travelers since airbnb does not usually require ID verification for travelers. After some discussion with my team and with our advisors, we realized that our technology can potentially help foster trust between host and travelers by verifying travelers' identity when they check in for their stay. Through connections and snowball sampling, I was able to talk to 2 software engineers on the ID verification team at airbnb.

The Challenge

Airbnb currently does not require US travelers to provide any form of identification when they check in at a listing. We learned through secondary research that this may cause stress for homeowners who rent out their homes to complete strangers. Homeowners need a way to easily and accurately check the legitimacy of travelers as well as if they are indeed the same people who booked the listing. Through talking to the airbnb engineers, I learned that airbnb is aware of this problem and is already pursuing ways to solve it in some capacity.

Current Solution

Currently, airbnb does not have a solution for this in the US. Everything is trust-based, and airbnb would cover the cost if any accidents happen. In other countries, however, airbnb works with a third-party hardware company who make bluetooth-enabled smart locks for hosts. To open the door, travelers have to complete a facial recognition procedure with their phone, and unlock the door via bluetooth connections. This smart lock allows hosts to verify that the traveler checking in at their place is the person who made the booking online.

Why We Didn’t Choose This Use Case

My conversation with the airbnb team allowed me to uncover an important insight: culture plays a big role in travelers’ preferences therefore drives airbnb’s policies in different countries. Compared to people of other countries, people in the US tend to be more wary of privacy concerns. Airbnb has done market research indicating that they would lose a lot of users if they ask all travelers to verify their identity. Although both our team and the airbnb engineers felt that our technology could build trust between travelers and hosts, it was simply not feasible for the US market.

Hospital

Since our technology is capable of both facial and fingerprint verification, we felt that it would be best used in a facility that requires high-level security. Hospitals fit that criteria since the pharmacy, labs, and offices are usually all restricted areas that need some form of identification. To understand this use case better, we interviewed 3 doctors and medical students who each worked at a different hospital daily. It was a very unique experience interviewing these medical workers via Zoom under a pandemic.

The Challenge

Hospitals have many restricted areas where only authorized users have access too. In addition,  learned through interviews that there are many different levels of access: from volunteers to residents to doctors. The complexity of the different authorizations often leads to chaotic internal management.

Current Solution

We discovered that there were 2 ways hospitals managed facility access: Keycards and USB keys, with both solutions requiring workers to carry a physical copy of the device. Compared to biometrics, physical devices can get easily lost or be used by unauthorized personnel. In addition, they do not provide the convenience of biometric verification.

Why We Didn’t Choose This Use Case

From the interviews, we learned that although the current keycard and USB key systems can cause confusions, they generally work ok. According to the three medical professionals we talked to, they didn’t know any case of  key cards being stolen or misused.  So we concluded that there was no urgency in solving this problem especially given the fact that all hospitals were focusing their efforts on fighting COVID-19 during this time.

Airport Security

This is the use case we ended up going with, and there are a few reasons behind this. First off, this was clearly an impactful problem to tackle given the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on traveling. Secondly, this problem space felt close to all team members’ hearts because we were all avid globetrotters before the pandemic and have many personal experiences with air traveling. Last but not least, the human interactions and emotions of traveling under a pandemic really excited the team. I especially felt fascinated by all the nuances and wanted to get my hands dirty by recruiting and interviewing travelers. After many discussions within the team and with our advisors, we decided to scope the project as follows.

User Research

We used a mix of primary and secondary research methodologies and included methods providing both qualitative and quantitative data. Our research was targeted towards air travelers, including both novice and frequent flyers, with a focus on people who have traveled in the past 2 months during COVID-19. 

We chose online research, diary studies, interviews, and surveys as our main methodologies. As the research lead, I determined our sample size for each method based on budget, time, as well as population and confidence level. Affinity diagram was used to organize our insights, and I created personas to visually represent our research findings.

Research Questions

How do people feel about their travel experience at the airport, from check-in to boarding? 

How has COVID-19 impacted people’s airport experience?

How do people feel about the TSA experience, from ID check to security screening, under COVID-19?

How is the airport ID check experience under COVID-19 different or similar to that of before?

Interviews

8

interviews

1-5 times

of traveling since March 2020

My role:

I led drafting interview questions. I also recruited for and conducted 7 out of 8 interviews and translated all raw notes into insights then into design requirements.

Some quotes from interviews:

“I wish they didn’t have to touch my ID at the TSA.”

“An automated process that doesn’t require physical contact would be great even after COVID. It’d be so much more efficient and would require less staff.”

“Using machines can make the process faster, easier, and probably friendlier too.”

Personas

Based on secondary and primary research findings, I created these 2 personas representing both a novice and a experienced flyer. The personas highlight users’ need for sanitation and efficiency, and emphasize pain points that we identified through in-depth research. We used these personas as our guide throughout prototyping.

Prototyping

Based on our research findings, we concluded 3 design requirements to fulfill in our final design: convenience, efficiency, and sanitariness. With those design requirements in mind, we prototyped from sketches to low-and-medium-fidelity then to high fidelity. We focused mostly on hardware and packaging iterations here since our software technologies were already created and tested before use case exploration. For that, we explored different materials and forms as shown below.

We conducted usability testing using our low and medium fidelity prototypes, and discovered the following key findings:

1. People prefer buttons to be facing up compared to facing forward. The interaction was more ergonomic and less error-prone when people can easily press a button down rather than forward.

2. Different lightings had impact on the device recognizing QR code and faces. In our final product, we included a screen that reminds users to adjust environment lighting accordingly.

3. People prefered a touchscreen for the device. In the end, we decided to not include one in our final design because of technical, time, and budget constraints. (Although this can certainly be included in a future iteration!)

Final Design

Our final design entails an OLED screen with user interface, 4 buttons with light and sound feedback, and a fingerprint scanner and camera connected to the device. Everything is enclosed within the case, and the device is fully functional and ready to be deployed. We also spray painted the exterior of the device matte black to create a more polished look. We tested this final iteration with users by giving them the task of verifying their identity using our device. All participants completed the task successfully and enjoyed the overall experience.

Please note that this project is meant to be a proof of concept. Our team know that for our device to be deployed at an airport, it would require a lot more testing and studies of regulations. However, we’d like to think that our progress so far would at least open some discussions for the use of autonomous ID verification system in an airport setting.

My Takeaways

User research can drive product directions, and it should be done early and often

User research has always been emphasized in all of my projects and in my studies of the human-centered design process. This project, however, showed me what a pivotal role it can play. Months into the project, a pandemic hit and we had to adapt quickly. It was weeks of user research that helped us find our next steps and ultimately led to the success of the project. One thing I’d like to improve on for future projects is to start user research early. Designing a product without target users is never ideal, even though what led that to happen in this project was an unprecedented pandemic. To make up for the lack of early research, my team and I adapted quickly and conducted user research consistently throughout the rest of the project.

The human-centered design process is flexible and should always be adapted to the project’s needs and constraint

While user research should be done early in the product development process, the design process is not a one-size-fits-all template. Through this project, I learned to be flexible with the design process and apply the right tools to the right problem. For example, my role as a user researcher only started to be impactful months into the project. I did not have unlimited time and resources to conduct exploratory research. Instead, I had to work within the time and technology constraints and make decisions based on data gathered to the best of my ability.

Remote user research has its own advantages

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all user research of this project was done remotely. Being in charge of interview participant recruitment, I was able to contact participants from all over the world and many times not in my immediate personal network. In the past, I would limit my participant pool to locals only because it was conventional to conduct research in-person. Now that everything is online and people are more used to having virtual meetings, I felt that I was opened to a bigger pool of people and that they were also more receptive of helping me with research virtually. I also enjoyed distributing surveys virtually because of the large reach.

With all the uncertainty remains with the pandemic, I am sure that user research, like many other work, will be done more and more virtually. With practice from this and my Roommate Matching project, I am confident that I can effectively conduct research in the new era of remote working.