JAISON MAFRA
Case Study
A VUI to help people prepare for bushfires.
Summary
NASA Space Apps is a renowned international hackathon where teams leverage NASA's vast repository of free and open data to tackle real-world challenges both on Earth and in space. Our team, named "Space Wombats," eagerly took part in this exciting event and decided to address the pressing issue of bushfires, which have devastated ecosystems globally in recent years, from Australia and California to Siberia and the Amazon rainforest. Our objective was to utilize NASA's data to assist people in preparing for and mitigating the impact of bushfires.
My Role
I actively contributed to this project during the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, collaborating with a talented group of six individuals comprising three developers and three UX designers. In our intensive two-day sprint, I was involved in various stages, including research, synthesis, ideation, and the design of a high-fidelity voice prototype using Adobe XD.
​
Hackathon Team - "Space Wombats"
Anthony Doueihi
Clara Kim
Jason Mafra
Juanny Andrade
Natasha Fatakia
Yury Talyukin
​​
Results
Our team developed a voice-based application that garnered positive feedback from users and demonstrated its usability during testing. Key advantages of our solution included:
-
Accessible Interface: The voice user interface (VUI) provided a natural interaction pattern, particularly for users who were less familiar with touch-sensitive devices like smartphones and tablets.
-
Key Bushfire Questions: The app guided users in setting up their bushfire preparedness by addressing three crucial questions: "Where will you go?", "What will you take?", and "Who will you call?".
-
Reactive and Proactive Bushfire Escape Plan: Our application integrated NASA's data to trigger both reactive and proactive bushfire escape plans, ensuring timely responses to fire risks.
-
Recognition: Our solution won the "Best Use of Voice" award in the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2019.
DESIGN PROCESS
"When the fire hits, it’s all about surviving."
To effectively address the challenges posed by bushfires, our team split into two groups: technical research and experience research. The developers delved into APIs, JSON files, and NASA satellites to understand the process to extract real-time data, while the designers explored the experiences of bushfire survivors and various approaches adopted during such events. The heart-wrenching stories of survivors and the urgency of the issue fueled our determination to make a meaningful impact.
Through interviews and studying existing bushfire plans from Australian states, we identified three distinct groups of people: those with a fire plan prepared to leave early, those without a fire plan, and those who intended to stay and defend their homes. Our project focused on the first two categories.
Article from 10 oct 2019 on The New Daily:
"Elderly couple confirmed dead in 'catastrophic' NSW bushfires"
Priorities
Requirements Gathering and Feature Prioritisation
During the project, we prioritized requirements gathering and feature selection. After careful consideration and discussions among our team, we settled on the following list, based on speed and effectiveness:
• Designing rescue paths
• Building mashups to integrate geospatial data from various sources (e.g., local weather and local traffic)
• Personalized support
• Notifying relevant individuals
• Voice assistance
• Real-time monitoring and reporting of fire status
​
This needs to be changed.
Market research
To inform our design decisions, we conducted market research on existing fire plans. While they varied slightly, the primary goal of these plans was to empower users to respond effectively during a bushfire. We observed two common elements: alert levels and fire danger ratings. However, we identified gaps in guidelines, leaving users unsure about appropriate actions and lacking clarity on good responses. We aimed to bridge these gaps and offer more efficient and accurate information to users.
There were essentially two of them:
1) Alert levels
Here you need to keep track of the following alert level so you know what you should do.
2) Fire danger ratings
The higher the fire danger rating, the more dangerous a fire is likely to be. Here’s is when the user should act.
Another thing the fireplans had in common was the amount of open questions. Guidelines around what a good answer would look like and when to act/to leave were missing or unclear. Relying on the user to get these answers would definitely bring some new information to them, but not necessarily it would be efficient/accurate enough.
After analysing 4 fireplans templates, we observed the following pattern:
Having central words around the questions made it simpler to remember. However, the user would need to remember the answer of these questions while they were panicking (or somewhat near it) around the house. There was room for improvement here.
Saving time to victims act and not be surprised by the fire
Affinity mapping
Recognizing the growing popularity of voice-enabled devices, particularly those powered by Amazon's Alexa, we analyzed the market trends and noted that entertainment, translation, and news skills were dominant. Nevertheless, we discovered an opportunity to leverage voice technology to enhance bushfire preparedness, utilizing Alexa's capabilities to store information and integrate it with other applications.
To streamline the information flow, we considered both reactive and proactive behaviors. In the reactive approach, users prompt Alexa for information, while in the proactive approach, Alexa notifies users when their fire risk reaches medium or high levels. This strategy aimed to provide users with ample time to take necessary action and prevent any surprises during bushfires.
​
Affinity mapping: actions, risks and emergency list.
Synthesize findings.
The figure shows the setup and activation order.
"Where will you go?", "What will you take?" and "Who will you call?"
Our primary objective was to ensure a seamless and natural flow of information. For every response from Alexa, we meticulously crafted the dialogue to find the most authentic and conversational way to exchange that particular piece of information.
Once the user provided the necessary details, we stored them in the database and later repeated them back to the user when it was time to activate the fire plan. However, when reproducing the questions, we reversed their order. This decision was based on organizing them by importance during setup and then by ease of implementation during the activation process.
When the Fire Escape Plan was activated, it would first notify your contact list about the activation, then guide you on what items to take, and finally provide you with the optimal route to your safe location using Google Maps. By incorporating real-time data and accounting for any potential roadblocks, we aimed to offer users the best and fastest path to safety.
Another crucial consideration in the Information Architecture was accommodating human error and mistakes. We realized this several interactions later when we contemplated how to edit certain parts of the conversation. Unlike visual interfaces, voice user interfaces lack a "back" button for users to easily correct or revise information. Thus, we had to devise a way to loop the conversation back, allowing room for users to rectify errors and make necessary adjustments.
Go over the notes before you start playing.
Prototyping
Our primary focus was to establish a coherent system flow using well-defined intents and sentences. However, without the visual feedback provided by a screen interface, we lacked immediate indicators of successful user actions. Moreover, since our interaction was purely conversational, we couldn't rely on visual cues such as body language. Consequently, we had to ensure that confirmation messages were appropriately designed when it was Alexa's turn to speak.
The process felt akin to rehearsing a musical composition, meticulously going over the notes, reciting them out loud, striving to distance ourselves from the mechanical tone of a recorded customer service call.
Around 11 PM on Saturday, after making the final adjustments, we reached a point where we were ready to build our prototype.
As the last day of the hackathon approached, we faced different deadlines. The presentation was scheduled approximately 10 hours earlier than the final deadline for delivering all the required materials. Taking this into consideration, we made a strategic decision: while we focused on prototyping, we allowed the developers to work on the Alexa skills solution as much as possible. Our choice of Adobe XD for prototyping was based on its VUI prototyping feature and the fact that all team members were proficient in using Adobe CC. The translation of the user journey map into artboards proceeded smoothly. However, mastering the prototype to fulfill all our intended tasks proved to be a demanding, exhilarating, and sleep-deprived journey.
​
Despite having tested the prototype by reading it aloud to ourselves, we were unprepared for this particular phase. Alexa possessed its unique voice tone and message delivery style, factors we had not initially considered. In our medium and high-risk scenarios, we realized the significance of incorporating pauses and emphasizing certain words, as we naturally did when presenting to our teammates.
​
To ensure a seamless interaction, we devised a cheat sheet outlining the setup instructions, guaranteeing that Alexa always had the final word.
​
Once we discovered this magical formula, the prototype's execution became significantly smoother. Consequently, we expedited the setup process for the remaining tasks.
SOLUTION
.jpg)
The Fire Wombats won “Alexa Winner: Best use of Voice” at NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2019 Hackathon!
Next Steps​​
-
We are thrilled with the progress made by our team of developers in crafting the Alexa skill. While it is currently undergoing further development, we are eager to reconvene and put the finishing touches on the skill, preparing it for a successful market launch.
-
Looking ahead, we envision the development of a mobile app that will provide enhanced features to our users. This app will offer the convenience of tracking and visualizing maps, as well as the ability to record important information. To ensure a seamless and exceptional user experience, we would be excited to collaborate with talented designers and developers who share our passion.