nasa spark
client
team
+ 1 software engineer
+ 2 UX Researchers
+ 2 UX Designers
timeline
skills
- + Project Management
- + User Testing/Research
- + Prototyping
- + Visual Design
problem
NASA is planning to send astronauts to Mars, a 140 million mile journey that can last up to 3 years. The distance is so vast that real-time communication is impossible. As a result, astronauts only communicate in lengthy, functional email messages, which makes them feel profound emotional disconnection from friends and family. (Note: This was an MHCI student project in collaboration with the NASA Ames Research Center.)
solution
The solution is Spark, a desktop and mobile messaging platform meant to spark excitement and conversation. By allowing astronauts and their loved ones to annotate parts of messages and create conversation threads from those annotations, we make conversations feel more dynamic, bite-sized, and less burdensome.
my role
I wore multiple hats. As project manager, I ensured our team was aligned on our product vision and our tasks. As a researcher, I helped write the interview guides and conduct multiple interviews, including interviews with 3 astronauts and other NASA domain experts. And as a designer, I helped create the final high-fidelity prototypes, a component library, and led the final visual direction of the product.
the problem
NASA is planning Mars missions, but such missions are incredibly isolating. Astronauts traveling to Mars would be 140 million miles away from Earth, away from their friends and family for up to 3 years.
The distance is so vast that any text or video messages will take 20 minutes to get to Mars and 20 minutes to get back to Earth, making real-time communication impossible.
The NASA Ames Research Center gave my multidisciplinary team the following prompt:
How could we help astronauts on Mars missions maintain meaningful connection with the people they care about on Earth?
exploring the space (hah!)
To tackle this opportunity, my team and I collectively:
- Interviewed 3 astronauts, along with other NASA behavioral experts, technical experts, training specialists, and analogous domain members.
- Read dozens of research articles and books about the astronaut experience.
As the weeks progressed, our walls became plastered with affinity diagrams. This led to our key insights.
key insights
Asynchronous communication leads to two psychological barriers for astronauts.
1. Burdensome communication
First, communicating only in lengthy email messages means that astronauts face overly burdensome communications expectations. After a stressful day of completing critical mission tasks, astronauts now have to read huge chunks of text and give thoughtful responses.
2. emotional disconnection
Secondly, the inability to have real-time conversations and share small details means astronauts begin to feel profound emotional disconnection from their friends and family.
the solution
To prevent this feedback loop, we created Spark, a desktop messaging platform meant to spark excitement and conversation.
A messaging system allows users to annotate every message with comments, creating a more lively, enjoyable asynchronous conversation experience. Conversations can spin off of annotations.
video demo
See a short video version of the case study as well as a product walkthrough.