Design Vignette — Prototyping
Building a turnstile equipped with “facial recognition”
It has been said that the greatest challenge is not coming up with a good idea — there are plenty of those — but rather, making it a reality. Prototyping is the translation of ideas into a rough, but believable reality. It is only then that an idea can speak the language of its audience, helping them understand the creator’s intentions and allowing its creator to gain beneficial feedback. Whether it is a piece of writing, a sketch, a coded app, or a foam model, a prototype is an invaluable first step in the process of creating arguably anything.
A relatively simple example of this is one recent project at Intersection which explored replacing ID badges with facial recognition to enter through a lobby turnstile in an office building. The benefits to this intervention seemed clear: tenants no longer have to rifle through bags or pockets for ID badges, security can better identify who is entering the building, and employees no longer assign temporary badges to tenants who have forgotten theirs. While this all sounds great in concept, it assumes a lot about the interactions between the tenants and the technology; most prominently that tenants would feel comfortable navigating and using the new system in the first place. This was a scenario where a prototype was a quick way to get feedback and answers without buying a functional turnstile, having an engineer build facial recognition software, or sending out a questionnaire that risks missing what a user’s actual behavior would be in a live scenario.
Goal: Test user comfort level and behavior when using an entry system equipped with facial recognition.
Approach: Create a prototype that mimics the interaction of a turnstile equipped with facial recognition.
Duration of project: Two days.
Tools: Foam, an Arduino, a proximity sensor, a servo motor, a few LEDs, plenty of hot glue, and a bit of code.
How it worked (the smoke and mirrors): The proximity sensor would detect when a test participant approached the turnstile, and trigger a green LED to open, or display a red LED to stay closed. In a waiting state it displayed a white LED. Within this system we could fine-tune timing and frequency.
User Testing: We gave test participants a short introduction to the concept, asking them to pretend that the prototype was equipped with facial recognition, and then having them walk through the turnstile a few times, randomizing when it would flash a green light and open, or when it would flash red and stay closed.
Results: Despite its appearance (a foam box in a hallway), participants behaved as if they were interacting with a turnstile that was actually equipped with facial recognition. We studied where they directed their gaze when attempting to be “recognized,” the speed at which they walked through the turnstile, and how sensitive they were to external indicators and cues. Overall, we learned that tenants believed it would be an upgrade to their current ID badge experience and exposed new areas for us to explore.
Ideas tend to linger in our minds until we forget them or reason our way out of making them. Sometimes they go up and down a chain of command waiting for approval to start building. Even though prototyping can feel scrappy and unfinished, it is an invaluable way to make ideas tangible and provide next steps quickly and on low budget. It can prove an idea’s worth or even show that it should be abandoned all together. Best case, it brings us one step closer to creating something valuable for customers. Worst case, we move onto the next big idea.
