(Sponsored by Marriott Hotels. You can read more about Marriott’s partnership with the MIT Mobile Experience Lab in The Boston Globe)

Team: Jason Lipshin, Victoria Li, Moe Amaya, Lingyuxiu Zhong, Elina Hu

Advisors: Federico Casalegno (Director, MIT Mobile Experience Lab); Catherine Winfield (Creative Director, MIT Mobile Experience Lab). This project was produced as part of CMS.834 – Designing Interactions, Spring 2013 at MIT.

Short Description: Slate is the concept for a high tech, transformable table built for the lobby of Marriott Hotels. Given the different uses for a hotel lobby throughout the course of a day and the limitations in furniture space, Slate is able to change its shape and functionality, with the simple press of a button changing from a coffee table to a work table to a bar table. At each state, the user is able to perform functions (i.e. ordering a drink or checking email) which are specific to the table’s particular state. A video demonstrating a prototype of the physical concept is forthcoming.

My Role: Electronics (to make the table dynamically change its width and height), ethnography (with visitors in hotel lobby), user experience flow (storyboards + journey maps).

*Note: The user experience research report for this project is available upon request (currently under NDA).