00. Problem Space
Communication between guests and employees is lacking, affecting the rating of the hotel.
Due to COVID-19, Ace Hotel Pittsburgh ended up being closed; therefore, they couldn’t answer our emails or calls. In order to get an idea of the areas of improvements at Ace Hotel, we read through various reviews from travel sites to categorize and address any glaring problems.
01. Motion Studies
Individually, we created our own interpretations of what each emotion would convey. Afterwards, we came back together to compare how we represented each emotion.
This helped us establish what movements worked best for the future CUI we create. Alongside this process, we started to ideate on form and what the CUI would look like.
02. Target User
Based on our secondary research, we are targeting both employees and hotel guests.
The virtual assistant acts as a bridge between guests and employees.
03. What is HUNTER?
Hunter’s visuals are based off of Ace Hotel Pittsburgh’s branding system - rustic, urban, & restorative.
After many discussions and iterations, we decided to shift the look of our CUI from a symbol to type spelling out ”Hunter.” We decided that working with type creates a more humanistic feel, which helped us finalize the style of the animation.
With the key words “rustic, urban, ‘hipstery,’ these words helped us determine the name “Hunter.” This helped us shift towards a more collage-like style of animation. We wanted to use parts of the images we found, but add our own touch to it—much like what Ace Hotel did to their reconstruction.
04. Storyboarding
In our concept video, we focused on 3 components:
✧ Simplify services
✧ Help employee workload
✧ Generate recommendations & tips
First, our group put together a script that goes through the journey of a typical guest and what the CUI could do to enhance their experience. With the script and storyboard in mind, the team and I collected photos of the restaurant and hotel to visualize the experiences guests and employees have in these spaces.
05. Interface
For proof of concept, with the help of the storyboard, we designed specific screens of the application for both guests and employees.
Because Ace Hotel Pittsburgh does not have an application under its name, we were not restricted to any existing interface, but we still stuck to the visual branding system.
05. Visual Style
To stick to the mood and feel of Ace Hotel Pittsburgh, the illustration style the assets to be collage-like.
After editing the photos to be duo-tone, we removed part of the image to add line art, creating a collage-like visual. With this mix of photography and line art, the concept video shows urban and hipster-like elements.
06. Final
We compiled the background images, the persona, and the transitions on After Effects.
Voice over by Stefano DiDonato, Jai Sawkar, and Sophia Kim.