Jenel Jyl Braza | Graphic & UI/UX Designer

VOLT

Las Vegas Autonomous Vehicle Public Transportation

Team

Sang-Duck Seo, Ph. D
Jenel Jyl Braza
Marco Cater
Daniel Lee
Shanel Steliga

My Role

UX Research, Flowchart, Persona Drafts, Ideation
UX Designer, Lead Illustrator for Vehicle Interior
Presentation Designer

Tools

Figma
Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
Canva
Google Slides & Docs
Clip Studio Paint

Duration

August 2023 - May 2024 (10 Months)

Project Brief

Summary

Designed a conceptual autonomous vehicle, VOLT, for Las Vegas, if it were to evolve into a smart city and public transportation had vehicles utilizing AVs. VOLT is designed to target user experience issues revolving around safety, efficiency, and convenience.

Research Accomplishments

18th Annual Internation Conference on Design Principles & Practices (Conference Proceedings Presentation)

UNLV Spring 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium (Research Presentation)

Final Designs - AV Interior

All designs are made based on our research to ensure that tourists have the most optimal experience. My main goals with designing the interior was (1) convenience in finding seat and having luggage compartments, (2) safety with the built and use of AI sensors/cameras, and (3) enjoyability with seat screens.

Finalized User Personas

We have a total of 4 user personas for this case study. Each focuses on different types of Las Vegas tourists. These were designed by Daniel Lee.

User Persona #1

User Persona #2

User Persona #3

User Persona #4

Finalized User Flowchart

User flowchart is designed by Marco Cater.

UX Problems

• Long waiting times
• Troubles location vehicle
• Uncomfortable seats
• Lack of Amenities
• Lack of Personal Space

• Stress of finding a seat & holding luggage
• Some seats have a good viewing experience, while others don't
• Poor air conditioning
• Safety concerns
• Accessibility concerns

Ideation, Sketches, & Drafts

During the first 6 months of the project, my team compiled all of our research, ideation, sketches, and designs in a Google Slides "workbook" set up by our mentor/advisor. Each slide has an indicator of who worked on what. Click here to view all of our work!

These ideation/sketches/drafts are what I contributed to the team, but again, please take a look at the team workbook to see what everyone else contributed when you have the chance!

UX Luggage Compartment, Window, Air Conditioning

Mindmap

Ideation

Chair with Overhead Screen Drafts

Brainstorming Mindmap for Chair

AV Interior (Worm's Eye Perspective)

AV Layout, Amenities, Luggage Compartment

Luggage Compartment, Window Tint Visualization

Chair Sketches, Overall Interior Sketches, Overhead Luggage Compartment

Ideation

Collapsible Chair Concept

Accessibility Ideation (Wheelchair Placement, Pole Handles)

Interior Finalization Draft #1

Interior Finalization Draft #2

Interior Finalization 2 Draft #1

Interior Finalization 3 Draft #1

Interior Finalization 3 Draft #2

Chair for AV Draft #1

Chair for AV Draft #2

UX Solutions

* Currently gathering all designs & images from my team members.
This page will be updated soon. Thank you for your patience!

Conference Presentations

Slides

Eighteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

I organized and designed the presentation for the conference event. Each of my team members put all of the text information and imagery on the slides I designated for them. I adjusted everything (i.e. text size, transitions, colors, image size) to be consistent and look professionally presentable. We ran into a couple of issues that delayed the presentation slides being started, so I filled in and had to finish within a time constraint of 3 consecutive days.

Recording

Eighteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

My group for SEO UX Design Research Lab submitted our case study to the Eighteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices on March 3, 2024. The event was hosted from March 10, 2024 to March 13, 2024. The video was edited by Daniel Lee.

Poster

UNLV Spring 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium

Poster was designed by Shanel Steliga. My team presented at UNLV's Research Symposium of Spring 2024. We were given a total of 10 minutes to present our research, findings, and UX solution proposals, then had 6 minutes of Q&A from the judges.

[ My team presenting our research poster to the judges ]

Us!!! [Left to Right: Daniel Lee, Marco Cater, Shanel Steliga, Jenel Jyl Braza, Dr. Sang-Duck Seo]

Challenges

• It was difficult to find scholarly research articles that were about AV + public transportation or public transportation + Las Vegas.

• None of us had prior knowledge about the interior and exterior of AVs, so a lot of research and examining current AVs had to be done.

Learning Outcomes

• Improved project management, planning, UX research, and UX design in a team setting.

• Applied UX design principles to product design, rather than what we have previously learned (website/mobile app UI).

• Better understanding of UX research and how to design UX solutions based on that research.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed working with my team members and this was an amazing learning experience of almost 10 months! I got to learn all of the research that goes into a UX project before coming up with design solutions, while also gaining experience working with a team.

During Spring 2024, we expanded our research & design solutions and we plan on submitting to design & research journals, like UNLV's Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal. The possibilities of VOLT are endless and we hope that the UX of VOLT can help transform the experience of tourists visiting Las Vegas. The concept of VOLT could be applied to other public transportation already used in Las Vegas, like bus, shuttle, and more.

It's interesting to see how different my expectations were when joining the SEO UX Design Research Lab to the results of this project. I expected to do UX research and UX design for an app or website UI. Instead, we ended up designing a futuristic product (vehicle) for Las Vegas' public transportation. This experience taught me that I am capable of learning anything if I am motivated to handle the responsibilities.

The SEO UX Design Research Lab (Fall 23 - Spring 24) has a total of 3 teams, mine is just 1 of the 3. Each team covers different design projects for VOLT: Mobile App Group & Smart City Group.

Thank you so much for exploring this project!
- Jenel Jyl Braza