Designing and prototyping an application using a potential future autonomous system

We were tasked into looking into the potential of improving existing human processes with autonomous technologies, as self-driving cars, public transport and delivery drones become all the more prevalent within today’s world.

This lead to research into potential systems that may be useful applications of autonomous technologies, and after research into interactions within the home, we decided to look into the possibility and design of a system that could autonomously deliver objects, to assist with the common and time consuming process of moving home.

Moving home:

In order to design a system to help people move home, we first needed to understand the entire process, and where people may object to utilising autonomous technologies within this process.

Through observation and interviews, we found that people had concerns over privacy and security when moving home, as well as highlighting the importance of maintaining a sense of comfort within the new environment as soon as possible.

We came up with three main concepts that were iterated upon and tested with low fidelity physical interface prototypes, to find the areas of interest for users, as well as any issues that may arise with communicating the purpose of the system. These concepts all utilised a mobile application to interface with the autonomous system, becoming our main focus with this project.

We utilised user evaluation on each of our concepts, and took the strong points of each idea to create a concept that would allow the users to have a seamless and intuitive experience.

This was then mapped out using user flow diagramming and wireframing, translating these into digital form using inVision to give people a prototype they can use.

During this phase, we has a strong focus on improving our interface design and user experience, by focusing on utilising design standards to ensure a consistent look and feel to the application.

What is Autonomove?

Our final concept uses this mobile app prototype to schedule and assign autonomous vehicles for the task of moving home.

After running the user through an initial sign up phase, they are able to use a smart label and inventory system or organise and pack away their items to be moved to the new location. The system also allows for garbage removal, storage of items, or even donation via different autonomous vehicles.

To demonstrate the system, we designed a high fidelity version of our digital prototypes, which can be demonstrated and used as seen below.

Autonomove was a great project to test and refine user interface skills, user interaction design, and what features matter most to people.