Grad School
Entrepreneurship & Design
Application Redesign: NPR
People are constantly on their phones.
While the information or activities they could be engaging with are endless, just about every smart phone user engages with a mobile application at one time during their day. This UX/UI project focused on redesigning an application to become more user friendly, intuitive and visually pleasing. I chose to redesign the NPR mobile application. Not only do I enjoy this app, but when speaking with peers I realized not many of them used it and I easily identified room for improvement-- and modernization possibilities. There were excessive lists, features were difficult to navigate, it was extremely text heavy (even for a news source) and the design was not intuitive.
To redesign the app, I explored the user experience by asking people ranging from 18-50 years of age to interact with the app. After observing their habits and tendencies, there were asked to rate their experience and provide feedback. One of the questions I asked was, "What are the top three applications you use on your phone?" From there, I researched how those were built. Analyzing the feedback and also taking into account NPR's brand, I created the three new redesign templates.
Shark Bait Ooh ha ha
catapult redesign
For this group project, we were tasked with making a prototype of a mass produced, fast and easy assembled catapult that used two different manufacturing processes made for a child under the age of twelve. Our group ordered white and blue plexiglass, designed the schematics and feverishly tested the product. After many modifications and trial and error, we successfully designed Shark Bait Ohh Ha Ha which one first place for distance, accuracy and design.
Because my job as a communication specialist for the College of Education and Human Development allowed me to interact with children in our target age often, I was able to interview and delve into customer discovery. We came up with the shark bait and a general shark theme after I brought in goldfish as a snack and thought how fun it would be to launch those. Below are the posters I designed for our presentation . I wanted them to have a general association with sharks and water but not have the traditional blues you see.
The Happiness Machine
Happiness Machine Brainstorming
Who is my target audience?--- Children
What “characteristics” are associated with happiness?
How could you measure success of the creation?
What resources are available?
What senses are going to be involved?
Materials:
-fleece
-buttons
-laser cut wood pieces
-pipe cleaners
-Arduino
-Fiberoptic lights
-LED lights
-LCD screen
-Potentiometer
This product is colorful, has spunk and a personality and would be perfect for children 5+. The toy’s on/of switch and function button are located in the foot and hand. This product is soft, sturdy, unique, and interactive. Like other products on the market including Tickle Me Elmo, there is an interactive feature that children enjoy. The next prototype will include sound to better capture the attention of our audience.
The Do Good Karma Box
The Do Good, Be Good Karma Box was designed for individuals looking to kick start their mornings with some positivity.
The target audience varies for this product as it can be used in a variety of settings. Perhaps an individual wants to keep it in their bedroom so it is readily available as soon as they wake up- or right before they go to bed. Perhaps a group of people who room together may want to keep it by their front door. A parent could use the Do Good, Be Good Karma Box as a tool to teach their children the importance of a positive mindset and paying it forward.
The Do Good, Be Good Karma Box comes with two separate pieces:
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A wooden box that has three lights, on/off switch and one button
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Three stacks of cards color coated to match the lights
a. Future prototype ideas include a paperless version that comes with a free app
Color Theory:
Yellow: Photo
The color yellow is associated with friendliness, happiness, warning, cheer, optimism and an inward focus of your mind. The yellow cards contain personal photographs of the individuals who purchase the product. These can be of people, places, things, etc. but are meant to resonate positive emotions and memories. The mindfulness associated with yellow will help individuals slow down and reflect before carrying on with their day.
Blue: Inspiration (quote)
The color blue is the most popular color associated with inspiration. Most individuals associated blue with trustworthiness, inviting feelings, sincerity, security and safety. This is one of the major reasons the majority of companies incorporate blue into their branding. The blue cards have inspirational and motivational quotes or sayings on them. This is a way for an individual to read a story impactful statement and begin the day boldly.
Green: Action Item
Green is associated with nature, stability, balance, prosper, wealth and is a bridge between cool and warm colors. The green cards contain action items. Some are simple are purely meant to inspire random acts of kindness like complementing a stranger, while others encourage the user to expand ones horizons and experience new things like traveling to an art museum, or doing something that makes you step away from the comfort zone.
What if Main Street?: Persona
User-Centered Research into a local business. This group project offered an opportunity for us to delve deep into identifying a customer persona based on research, observations and analysis of the overall user experience. For this task I was partnered with Marcus and Joni and we were assigned Bloom, a small boutique on Main Street. We spent time researching the company using their website as a reference, Yelp to understand how customers reviewed their experience and in person observations. The size of the store turned out to be a bit of a challenge and did not allow us to really engage with the customers. Also, Mimi, the store’s owner was a bit difficult. At first she was warm and friendly when we came into the store, but after attempting to engage with her and ask her more about the store and their customers, she was a bit cold. I had to return to the store several times and even purchased a few items before she warmed up to me. Speaking to employees proved to be the best way to understand the inner workings of the store.
I think we came into the project thinking that our main customer persona would be a college-aged woman, which was true, but after reading the D School methods and other articles, observing first hand and taking on the role of a customer myself, we found a more intricate way to develop a persona.
Although we were not necessarily able to interact with as many customers as I had hoped, we certainly took the time to observe them and engage with the employees and owner. We prepared standard interview questions to reference, took into consideration extreme users, focused on how the owners vision translated into a customer experience and were able to build a very realistic persona.
This exercise helped us to critically think of how a company and organization appeals to its customers, how a brands values and products align with their customers’ and how different factors including inventory, employees, location and management help a company thrive or dive. By empathizing though observation, engagement and immersion I was better able to understand a typical user experience and build a very realistic customer persona.
Bad User! Bad! : Exploring Users, Problems and potential Solutions / Rapid Prototyping
Bad User! Bad! was not only a fun project, but really helped me better understand that all products and services can be improved upon. This lesson is going to be important to remember down the road when I develop a good or service- just like the learning process never ends, neither does that improvement process (whether personally, professionally, or from a business standpoint). After reading the article about the doctors office experience, I started to realize how many services and goods I interact with on a daily basis that could really be improved upon. I found that even the smallest of tweaks could prove to be beneficial and improve the overall user experience.
For this task I chose the EZPass. I interact with this product a great deal and as soon as I chose the product it took just a few moments to realize that although this small plastic square with microchip inside significantly helped improve my travel times on the east coast and subsequently cut down on pollution because my car wasn’t idling at tool booths, there were a significant amount of modifications that could improve the user experience ten fold.
The first item for improvement I identified was a visual aide to help let the user know that the product is working properly, next I wanted there to be an easier way to understand how much each trip was costing me verses just receiving quarterly statements about how much money I spent over a period of time. Next, I realized I carpooled enough to want to have a share splitting option which made me think how beneficial a phone application associated with fees, billing, travel times and overall data could be for the user. When I went online to research what customers had said about EZPass I realized that the common problems were not knowing that the product was not working and being panelized, and not understanding guidelines of the product including registering multiple license plates.
Once I identified ways to improve the product, I knew I needed to develop these ideas more. I went back to empathize with the user, better define problems that I had encountered as well as other interview other EZPass users, ideate ways to solve those problems and created a rapid prototype. That was the most fun- not worrying about functionally right away allowed me to better incorporate features such as lights, and a LCD screen that I believe if pitched to the company, would be a very real possibility (taking cost into consideration as a possible road bump). I tried to assume a beginners mindset, conduct interviews with individuals I know engaged with the product and analyzed imposed constraints. My rapid prototype featured three lights -green, yellow and red- which would let the user know if there were problems with the product, maintenance/funds needed to be taken care of or if everything was working properly. The LCD screen would allow individuals to track how much their trip cost them in tolls from start to finish and there would also be an app helping them keep track of this information and account information as well.My prototype was called EZerPass
Social Gaming
Back at it with Bloom! Amira and I teamed up to critically think how we could improve the overall customer experience at Bloom while increasing their sales and marketing the company. This is how we developed the Treasure Hunt. We realized we could take a perceived weakness of the store- its clutteredness, and very very full inventory- and make it a strength for them and fun for the customer. We realized that if we incorporated social media it could help with Bloom’s marketing and digital foot print. Tapping into the typical user- a young college-aged female, we understood that the culture was one of sharing, selfies and rewards. We identified that was a need for a social media presence- specifically a Facebook page and Instagram account. Then we developed the rules and guidelines. Each Monday- when the store is closed- an employee would post a photo of that week’s treasure. The customer would have one week to visit the store, post a selfie with the item and gain points. This would provide free marketing, an opportunity to showcase strategic merchandise and way for them to engage with their customers.
We created a points system and acknowledged there should be a way for the customer to gain bonus points and incentives periodically to keep them coming back, not just at the end. By providing a cash prize with the hopes that they would spend it at the shop, it would give the customers a flexible reward giving them the power of choice. We identified that the employees- who themselves are the same demographic as the typical user, would also have fun choosing and placing the designated treasure items. The simple concept of spot- snap-save would require minimal work while having sizable rewards
including repeat customers, free marketing, engagement and hopefully increased sales. Creating the icon for the game was absolutely thrilling. I took my bitmoji and modified it to make it look like the character was popping out of a treasure chest taking a selfie. The customers would certainly be able to identify the type of graphic and also it was a true representation of the game. We toyed around with a few names but ultimately realized they needed to hunt for treasure among the plethora of items in the store hence the name Treasure Hunt. View the presentation here.—> further developed and modified presentation.
Changes include:
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Instead of the game lasting throughout the year, there will be two occasions where the game will run- once in the spring/right before summer, and once during the holiday season. Both of these will last for a total of two months.
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Grand prize is now $45 or 45% off one item in the store. That way money can go back into the store and hopefully the winner will have already invested money in the store throughout the competition.
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“Treasures” will be posted on social media on Monday and will be tagged with the icon in their respective location in the store. However, employees will be prompted with three clues that they can give customers who inquire about where the object is. This makes it an interactive game between both the customer and employees.
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People who purchase the treasure of the week will also receive 10% off. If we are being honest, that is not that much money and technically the item can be marked up in advance to make up for the discount if necessary.
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Winners will be profiled at the end of the competition preferably wearing or showing off a treasure item that they purchased throughout the competition.
Super Glue Workshop: Brainstorming and Ideation techniques / Storyboarding
This workshop proved to be one of my favorite classes of all time and helped me generate ideas freely. I now find myself using this type of brainstorming method for not only other class projects but in my professional life as well. I came a bit late to class because I was stuck in a meeting and was worried that I would be stuck in a rut for class. That was not the case at all. Once I was able to identify a group I could relate to- nixing the groups focused on their children and significant others- it was thrilling. Like all things, the more time that went by the more creative my ideas became. I was able to stop squelching myself and stop getting caught up on practical answers. It was funny to see how many answers were duplicated during the rapid idea generating stage. We tend to think we are so creative, when in reality we find our ideas are pretty basic. It was so interesting working with my group members because we all think in completely different ways. It was exciting to see a bunch of Post-It notes develop into small story lines that were then illustrated and developed further. I have used storyboarding before, but this exercise helped me understand how to better test the limits of my imagination and practicality of radical ideas.
Repurposing Objects:
Mind-Mapping/Storyboarding/POV methods
The potential of a penny. This was a ton of fun! I was surprised how creative I was able to be when I started the intricate stages of mind mapping because the superglue exercise helped me think divergently. I chose to use a penny as my object because I find them everywhere. After creating a mind map I chose the words lost, face and luck and then developed those further to ultimately chose translation, watch and love. My first storyboarding attempt was wrong. I created this crazy detailed story about a penny that was lost and Bobbi pins. It proved to be a great warm up, but I realized I missed the objective. Then I went back and developed ideas for the watch face, a chance love encounter and being lost in translation. In all honesty, the exercise took me much longer than I thought. Once I was able to get over my own mental constraints, the free flowing ideas began to be developed. I think I was too worried about doing this project the right way, instead of exploring the fun aspects of madlib, analogies and want ads. I did realize that using a marker made it more fun verses using a pen or pencil. I suppose that is my own personal quirk but nonetheless an important detail to notice about myself and my creative process. Taking the whats, hows and whys into consideration as outlined in the DSchool resources helped me to come up with more creative ideas and ultimately better story ideas. It was also a lot of fun to present my stories in class.
The Dish Dance: Creating a game out of a mundane task.
Gamification is really wonderful. I loath emptying the dishwasher. For some reason just the thought of it triggers a part of my brain that compares the experience to walking 6 miles uphill to work in a blizzard with flip-flops. Okay, maybe I am a bit dramatic but I have hated emptying the dishwasher since I was a little girl. In reality, it is not a hard task at all, it is just mundane and tedious. I realized that song and dance really make things more enjoyable for me. That is why I developed the dish dance and it has made all the difference. I did it to myself- which was a bit difficult to document- and decided to put my mother up to it. Creating that video was glorious because it really did make the experience that much more fun and I was able to share it with all of you.
The face of a happy woman who successfully emptied the dishwasher AND managed to have fun doing it! #DishDance