Design:
Furthering the design concept from Parcel Locker, this week I focused on making a video to capture three main physical interactions between the user and Parcel Locker.
For a quick recap, Parcel Locker is a lock box placed in front of your door where deliveries can be safely deposited and locked until you’re ready to retrieve them. For more details, the original prototyping blog can be found here.
Prototype:
The ideal environment for Parcel Locker to be used in are:
- On the porch of a house made of wood or a similar material and can be bolted down to the porch
- On the ground, next to the front door of a house without a porch (not bolted)
- On the ground/floor, next to the front door of an apartment (not bolted)
- Bolted to the side of a wooden post of a mailbox
I live in an apartment building and due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I didn’t want to be out in the common space hallway while filming this usage video because it may take an extensive amount of time so I decided to use a door inside the apartment to pose as a “front door”.
The three key usage points I chose to film:
- Delivery personnel arriving with packages and scanning their work device to unlock Parcel Locker, then deposit the packages inside, and close the lid to re-lock Parcel Locker.
- During the delivery, the motion activated camera is triggered by the delivery personnel and notifies the locker owner of motion and streams a video feed to the owner.
- User arrives home and uses the Parcel Locker app “tap to open” feature to unlock Parcel Locker and retrieve the packages.
Key points to evaluate:
- Usability — is the function intuitive, easy, and safe to use?
- Feasibility — is the function realistic given existing materials and technologies?
- Desirability — does the function solve an existing need or want for the user or make an existing solution to a need or want easier?
Again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to cast crew members from within the apartment, so the role of “delivery personnel” will be played by my cat, Bean.
Analysis:
Evaluating these usage points were not incredibly conclusive due to not being able to test on more than two human users (including myself).
Usability: Based on the two users who did test Parcel Locker, the usability of all three points seemed pretty effective. Both users were able to quickly locate where to scan their delivery barcode as if they were a delivery personnel. It also seemed effective that the opening was placed at the top of the box and I received feedback that it was intuitive that the box unlocks and opens from the top. I also received feedback that the NFC label on the top of the box for the “tap to open” function was great for making it clear where to hold your phone near when unlocking the box.
Feasibility: Feasibility was not a point I was able to test with my user because it comes down to whether or not the technology and materials to make Parcel Locker exists. In this case, I strived to keep the design simple and use existing technologies so that I could maximize feasibility. I plan to use steel for the body, existing wifi technologies to connect it to the user’s home wifi in order to send the live camera feed and notifications to the user while also tracking if it ever leaves your house perimeter. Using existing camera technologies, since the box is relatively large, it doesn’t require special or expensive camera technology to fit one on the front of the body. And lastly, using existing NFC technology for the “tap to open” feature which exists widely in the retail market already and is relatively easy and cheap to implement. All in all, highly feasible.
Desirability: Drawing back on my initial ideation sketch, I had messaged several friends and family members about the concept of Parcel Locker and received incredibly positive feedback. Since the creation of amazon.com, the world has quickly shifted to online ordering, bringing package deliveries to an all time high and as a result, a peak in package theft as well. Parcel Locker is designed to keep your packages safe by alerting you when motion is detected, sounding an alarm if it’s tampered with or removed from your house perimeter, and as it becomes more widely used, will be easily identified by potential package thieves and act as a deterrent.
Two concerns that were brought up by peers:
- What if the package is too big to fit in Parcel Locker?
- What if the delivery personnel’s hands are full and they cant scan their device to unlock the box or open he lid?
To address the first concern, another peer brought up a good counterpoint that most of the time when a package is large, it’s an expensive item and requires a signature anyway and therefore it couldn’t be deposited in Parcel Locker even if it was large enough. I thought about my own experiences with package deliveries and found this to be true. In the 6 years I’ve had Amazon Prime and order something almost every other day, I’ve only once received a package too big to fit in Parcel Locker and didn’t require a signature. This was only because I had ordered 10 items and they all came in one large box. Additionally, during my initial prototyping process, I took empty Amazon boxes and boxes from other brands to see how large Parcel Locker needed to be to fit several average sized packages.
To address the second concern, my apartment building has an Amazon Locker and I’ve often seen delivery personnel with their hands full. They either bring a trolley to wheel the packages from the truck to the locker or set the packages on the ground as they scan each respective barcode to deposit the package. Because of this observation, I don’t think this is a priority concern for Parcel Locker to address. The delivery personnel can either set the packages down o the ground in order to free up their hands to scan the barcode or the alternative would be to build a motorized hinge. Building a motorized hinge would increase the cost of Parcel Locker and add an element of risk if it breaks or if something got caught in the motorized hinge and broke. Due to these reasons, I don’t believe this issue is pressing and I think Parcel Locker is more effective without a motorized hinge.
If I were to do this again, I would like to test on more users to gain a better understanding of each of the evaluation points. It would also be helpful to get multiple human users rather than Bean since Parcel Locker is built for people. I would like to make a slightly longer video to demonstrate and test all the different features Parcel Locker has.
As for the prototype, I would like to move forward by trying different sizes and testing on users to see which sizes are the most desirable and versatile for everyday packages.
