How to Design Easter Eggs for a Car Brand to Enhance User Experience
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Industrial design engineering (MPDES), MSc
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Saldner, Emma
Linde, Ottilia
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Since the early ‘80s, digital easter eggs have become a common phenomenon in the digital world. Today,
it’s appearing even in the automotive industry. The purpose of these easter eggs is to enhance the experience
by providing the user with something fun and surprising. Academic research about easter eggs is scarce,
even though the concept is intensively used.
This study aims to identify a framework for designing easter eggs for a car brand to enhance user experience.
A qualitative research approach was applied and followed a double diamond design process. Ten semistructured
contextual interviews about the experience of easter eggs in cars were carried out, in order to
understand the user and the context. Insights from these interviews were used to identify different
opportunities, which formed the basis of ideation. An iterative loop between evaluation and ideation was
done to refine the final concepts.
The results show that the easter egg experience is depending on three significant pillars that contribute to
the holistic easter egg experience; user, car, and context. Moreover, four stages of the easter egg experience
were identified: awareness, trigger, delivery, and longevity, which are all important phases to design for.
Furthermore, a list of guidelines for designing easter eggs was established. The four stages and guidelines
were then applied in a case study when designing the easter eggs for the Lynk & Co car. Two easter eggs
were developed, one is based on the voice assistant function and the other one is based on hidden QR
codes.
For the future, it is suggested to continue exploring the use of easter eggs and elaborate on what actual
impact such features will have on the brand and long-term user experience.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
easter egg, user experience, design, human-machine interaction, automotive