Hybrid Time Travel Night Club
Project: Time
by Tina Do, Sande Fleischer, Tanja Heinrich, Janine Maier, Tammanna
in the course of: Applied Design Strategies
Project: Time
Project: Time
Process Overview of creating the Concept and Strategy for the Experience
Project: Time - Bridging Generations Through Virtual Reality Nightclubs.
The entertainment industry has undergone significant evolution over time, impacting nightclubs as well. Recognizing the curiosity surrounding past nightclub experiences, Project: Time aims to transport users back in time through the use of VR technology. This innovative project not only seeks to provide insights into the past but also fosters connections among individuals globally.
Utilizing VR capabilities, Project: Time offers participants the opportunity to virtually visit and interact with popular nightclubs from different eras. Moreover, partnerships with current nightclubs shall be pursued to create a hybrid experience, allowing users to engage with the virtual world alongside physical venues. Importantly, the project prioritizes inclusivity by enabling anyone with a VR headset, including individuals with disabilities, to partake in the experience.
By offering a novel blend of historical exploration and cutting-edge technology, Project: Time seeks to bridge generational gaps and unite individuals through shared immersive experiences.
The main challenge of the project includes the “Human Touch” - aka the social aspect.
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The Double Diamond process has been utilized to thoroughly grasp our target audience and the market we aimed to enter, successfully applying this approach throughout the project.
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The understanding and definition of problems for our target audience are deemed crucial for delivering an optimal user experience. In our exploration, issues faced by individuals were not only identified but also considered within a broader societal context, with the aim of fostering human connection. Financial struggles during the pandemic, the limited affordability of VR technology, and the absence of personalized VR experiences in niche sectors were revealed through an examination of problems within the club scene. The potential consequences of club closures and the impact of technology on socialization are recognized, and our project is designed to bridge the gap between digital and analog worlds. With an emphasis on preserving the legacy of past club culture, engagement with those yearning for nostalgic experiences is aspired to, and real-life interactions are encouraged in an immersive manner.
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Throughout the process we have written and re-written the BMC extensively. In theory, the project result could be executed if budget and resources are given.
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A literature review has been conducted to find out the reason people go to nightclubs and what makes the experience of clubs so unique to implement into this project. The topics covered in the literature review are the following:
Current situation, competitors and solutions
Why people go to night clubs
“Human Touch” through music
Gamer Motivation Model
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It is a method written by Jake Knapp. The goal is to go through the whole design process, from research to prototype testing, in only five days. It is an effective method to test ideas quickly.
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By the end of the design sprint, the team came up with a solution sketch and a conclusive storyboard, which demonstrates the idea.
The Double Diamond Design Approach
Double Diamond Process. (Image by Dan Nessler (2018))
The Double Diamond Approach is a design thinking approach with two distinct phases: divergence and convergence.
We used the Double Diamond process to understand not only our customer target group but also the market we as a team were trying to penetrate and successfully implemented this process till the end.
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In this phase, we were trying to understand the scope of VR in the future and what kind of target users would be interested. In-depth research accompanied by interviews was conducted where we understood the pain points of users as well as the possibilities of implementing VR in the industry.
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In this step, we were able to define our problem statement and how do we want to implement the further steps, considering the main key pain point.
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We followed different brainstorming processes, one of which was Crazy 8's which helped us understand the context of the pain point better by ideating fast but effectively. Out of 40 ideas, through votes, we chose 5 big ideas that could be implemented and help the customer have a good experience.
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This stage was a very critical and crucial stage to decide which ideas are viable. Out of 5 ideas, 3 were selected through voting keeping in mind the users' expectations, needs, and experiences in mind. To deliver our ideas effectively, we created a storyboard to make the journey seamless.
Design Sprint
Design Sprint process by Jake Knapp (Image by Jake Knapp (2018))
This approach is 5 steps long process and is covered within 5 days a week designed by Jack Knapp. It is designed in a way that it fast-forwards into the future and helps you analyze how a customer would react before investing time and expenses to the product/service or marketing campaign, etc. This process starts with a challenge. lt’s planned in the 5 proceeding steps.
1st Day: Making a Map and Choosing Target
2nd Day: Sketch
3rd Day: Decide on the Best
4th Day: Prototyping
5th Day: Testing
Analysis conducted during the project:
SWOT-Analysis
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To tackle the market with innovative products, it is crucial to first analyse what is already on the market.
Also the business problems, which resulted from this analysis were determined.
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Based on the prior analysis, it was concluded that the suitable main target group are people between the age of 18 to 29.
Young people in particular benefit from new technologies and are interested in trying out new ones. Globalization also increased friendships made over the internet as it gets easier to stay in touch virtually and meet new people from different countries and timezones. Club behavior has also changed since Covid: People, especially younger ones pay more attention to hygiene and contacts to protect vulnerable people from diseases. Their awareness of the environment is high and they see the virtual space more as an opportunity than as a threat.
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To guarantee a constant and competitive product or service, it is not enough to analyze the market based on trends and facts. To exploit the full potential of our project, our next step was to look at possible solutions on the market that either follows the same principle or seemed very similar to our project in their basic idea. Due to the covid pandemic, some companies were forced to move further into the virtual space to ensure their survival, while the real clubs remained closed due to legal regulations. Thus, in the last years of the pandemic, new ideas emerged to still maintain the sense of festivity.
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A strategy was developed to generate a potential revenue stream.
App Downloads (8.2%)
In-App Purchases (45.9%)
Special Events (30.6%)
Renting Out (15.3%)
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To get a clear overview of the strategy we want to follow for our project as well as decipher the work which needs to be done to have a working project, we conducted a SWOT analysis. We hoped to get a clearer picture of our project, its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from the environment and the market.
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In the trend analysis, we especially looked into the potential future of VR and its dominance in various sectors. The benefits of VR were discussed in this regard too.
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A major part of the research was the User Research. In this phase, qualitative user interviews were conducted.
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Some metrics to measure the success of the project were concluded. The metrics are
adoption rate
time-to-first key action
percentage of users who performed the core action for the first time.
A strategy to improve the adaption rate and the discovery has also been laid out as well.
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While considering the user metrics, the business metrics need to be considered as well. These can be measured and indicates the success of our product.
User Research
User research is a fundamental component of the design thinking process, providing invaluable insights into the needs, behaviors, and preferences of the target audience. By engaging with users directly through interviews, observations, and surveys, designers can gain a deeper understanding of the problems they face and the context in which they arise. This qualitative data serves as a compass, guiding the creation of solutions that are truly user-centric and relevant. User research not only illuminates user pain points but also uncovers opportunities for innovation, ultimately leading to more effective and empathetic design outcomes.
How the qualitative research was conducted
Writing interview questions
Conducting qualitative interviews with people, who are part of the target audience
Analysis of key insights
Creation of personas as results of the research
“I would love to see the club, where my Dad used to be the DJ at”
The path to …
Solution Finding
The last part of the design sprint is to find solutions to the project, to develop a coherent concept, and to visualize it. As the main focus was not to develop a technologically working solution, but rather to formulate a concept, the solution finding is an extensive storyboard ready for testing.
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At the beginning of the lightning demos, we did all research about other industries or solutions of the same sector in the market. Then everyone should present their research findings shortly and while presenting, the other people wrote down possible "How might we" questions that we could answer later. These questions can help to dig deeper into the problems and to answer easier.
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After the lightning demos, we got right into the sketch session. The method we used here was the Crazy-8s, because it wouldn't afford that much time and also it is the best way to find innovative and crazy ideas that we could work on. For this method, we were meeting online via Discord and everyone used a sheet of paper and pencil for sketching.
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In the last step of the Sketch session, all the Crazy-8s-sketches were uploaded and everyone focussed on one sketch of the 8. After this task, we got on with the storyboarding.
Solution Sketches
Conclusion and Outlook
This project addresses the challenge of fostering human connections in the virtual realm by proposing a detailed concept for a hybrid time-traveling nightclub. The objective is to unite people in a virtual party experience regardless of their physical location, emphasizing inclusivity for those unable to attend traditional clubs. Through comprehensive market research, understanding user behaviors, and employing the Google Sprint method, the team identified strengths, weaknesses, and user needs. Five interviews and persona creation further informed the solution. The initial low-fidelity prototype and storyboard outline the envisioned product functionality. The next steps involve presenting and testing the storyboard with the target audience, refining features based on insights, and developing a medium-fidelity VR prototype for testing. While Project: Time holds significant potential for inclusivity, technological challenges and substantial investment requirements pose potential obstacles. Despite these hurdles, the concept envisions a future where people can virtually party together, transcending time and space.
For privacy and data protection reasons, only a brief overview and smaller insights of the process are given. If you are interested in the detailed research process and solution finding, contact me or my team members.