NASA SUITS
AR tools to aid astronauts with lunar critical missions
NASA SUITS, which stands for Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students (SUITS), is a AR design challenge held by NASA where college students from across the country develop user interface solutions for future spaceflight needs.
In September 2022, I took on the role of co-president for the NASA SUITS club at RISD. Leading a team of over 20 students from Brown, JHU, and RISD, I was responsible for project management, organizing workshops, creating timelines, meeting with mentors, and providing high-level UX direction.
Time
Sep 2022 - May 2023
Team
RISD NASA SUITS Design
Tools
Figma
VR
Microsoft holo lens
My role
Lead UX Designer
Leadership
Project Manager
Design system
Background
Since 1969’s first landing on moon, humanity have been exploring lunar’s mysterious frontier.
However, alongside these discoveries, our astronauts face countless dangers every quest.
In 2022-2023, I participated in NASA SUITS competition to design a AR experience that helps astronauts accomplish lunar missions safer and more efficient.
Problem
How might we make the experience of completing critical mission tasks frictionless under harsh environmental and physical constraints?
During their every quest, the astronauts need to complete these 4 following tasks under dangerous lunar environment:
Solution
Creating AR experience that reduce cognitive load to assist the completion of lunar missions
The solution for the project is to leverage Augmented Reality provided by Microsoft HoloLens to offer alerts, provide task instructions, and alleviate burdensome tasks for astronauts as they complete lunar missions.
01/
AR guided navigation
In navigation mode, a guided path appears to lead users to their selected destination. Additionally, mini-maps with estimated time and distance are provided to keep users informed of their remaining journey.
02/
Tasks lists with progress
We provide users with a progress bar and task list to reduce cognitive load and ensure they complete basic settings before heading out.
03/
Hands free documentation
In high-stress environments, precise operations are not practical. Therefore, users can easily record their voice or take pictures at any time via the accessible menu bar.
My role
Design lead, PM, and Head of club
During the course of the project, I have been playing multiple roles.
Dicover and define
Understand our users' painpoints
I led my team in organizing interviews with three major subgroups: astronauts, field geologists, and augmented reality specialists. From our findings, we identified common themes and pinpointed the following four pain points. This helps us inform how we should approach our designs later.
Design tenents and goals
From our findings, I have identified common themes and pinpointed the following design tenants that will guide our designs.
Design
User flow charts
I created user flowcharts to guide the team’s design process and divided them into three groups: egress, navigation & rover, and geo-sampling. This approach clarified how astronauts would complete tasks and the necessary features to support them.
Low-fi sketches and ideas
After identifying key pain points and user flows, the teams conducted a lightning brainstorming session. I created concept sketches for each pain point.
Conflict
Not enough time for developers to build all the features
However, after completing the brainstorming session, we learned that developing all the features within the given timeframe was not feasible due to the developers' tight schedules and unfamiliarity with Unity (they are still sophomores and need to learn!) —we need to make cuts.
solving Conflict
Prioritizing key features for development
Hence, I set up workshop for feature prioritize matrix with the team and ask them to place the features we have brainstormed. Based on the chart, we will be focusing on features that are easy wins and big bets so it make sure we capture pain points with minimal efforts.
Testing and iterate
Low-fi design sprints and iterative designs on a tight schedule
Given the time constraints, I also organized a one-week design sprint to create low-fi mockups and conduct usability testing with five participants. This process helped identify features to iterate at fast-pace while not diving too deep into the designs. Key insights from the usability tests and iterated designs included the following:
Map before and after
Navigation before and after
egress before and after
Design system
Building a robust design system
Since we have a tight schedule, we were only able to complete the prototypes with provided Microsoft design system. After the competition at NASA, I used my spare time to created a comprehensive design system that goes beyond what is used in the final design. I built this following WCAG AA accessibility guidelines
Final design
Hi-fi designs and flows
In addition, after establishing the design system, I have implemented into the designs and make them in to high-fidelity prototypes with feedbacks from the NASA head quarter.
Default home
Map
Navigation mode
Impact
NASA SUITS competition concludes
Although our team has not been able to implement my extended design system, we were selected as the finalists (1/10 globally) to NASA headquarter and testing onsite. Here are some achievements and pictures documenting the testing.
Retrospective
My key learnings
01/
Less is more
During the feature creation process, our team's initial goal was to have more features. However, sometimes minimal features can accomplish things more than imagine.
02/
Sync with developers earlier
Onboarding the development team earlier in the process would provide more time to refine our assets and design, as engaging with engineers and developers early on helps ensure feature feasibility.
03/
Lead with adaptability
Since this was a student club, there were times when people were busy with school. As a leader, I learned to plan with flexibility around the project schedule, accepting things could go wrong.