Hi,

I worked on several Mobile Application User Experience projects (personal / companies I worked with) some in team and some as an individual designer. Usually clients approach either with an idea that needs to be explored or with a defined feature list .

In the earlier case, I have spent time in studying the domain, conducting user research (in few cases) , checking the technical feasibility , considering the budget constraints present them a discovery document / sales pitch document .

It contains the App feature list , description and mockup designs of the future application.

When I have a defined feature list and I worked on the User Scenarios, Interaction models and wireframes, I did the site maps, and sketched wireframes based on the mobile platform ( iPhone /ipad / android ).

Below are the roles I played across the projects. (Please excuse me for the loading time of some files)

Some of the responsibilities I shared are

1. Doing User Research ( Online survey , personal interviews )

Projects: Talent App / Medical App

Talent App : A mobile application which acts as one stop solution to explore various talent apps and manage career profile.

Medical App: A mobile application that enables doctors to read through common symptoms of patients and prescribe drugs.

2. Understanding various domains or verticals ( which I enjoy , as we get to gather more knowledge )

Projects : Social AR  / StockXchange

Social AR : A mobile application that leverages Social Media and Augmented Reality

Stock Xchange : A mobile based game that enables users to trade online.

3. Doing Market Research and making Report( knowing the placement of a particular product or service )

Projects : Blackberry Research1 and part 2

4. Making Info graphics

Projects : Nike (ver 1 ) (ver2) / Thunderbolt – Infoviz project (personal)

Nike info graphic shows the various mobile apps released by Nike and different versions released at later point of time.

Thunderbolt : Visualization of Ar Rahman’s discography which is further extended to be a mobile application  that familiarizes unheard artists. (read full paper)

5. Participating in brain storming sessions ( to get ideas about app feature list )

Projects: DealNotifier / BarScene / Social AR .. etc

6. Discussion with developers to know the feasibility aspect of mobile application ( Thanks to Shirish / Raafey for explaining me, patiently)

Projects : Social AR / Bar Scene / Deal Notifier / SeeMyRadiology

7. Preparing Discovery document ( which involves responses from various API s)

Projects : Bar Scene

8. Exploration of Interaction Models and making custom UI components

Projects : Barscene UI / UPS UI / Custom UI

9. Presenting Mock Up designs

Projects: StockXchange and others

10. Presenting Sales Pitch documents to sales managers / clients

Projects : CatchUp and others

11. As a UX designer I created Workflows, Site maps.

Projects :  UPS and others

12. Sketching Wireframes.

Projects: SeeMyRadiology /TrackGuide / Ultimate PowerSpeak

SeeMyRadiology: A mobile application that allows doctors to share X-Ray reports and study case by case.

TrackGuide: A directory of race tracks in USA

Ultimate PowerSpeak : An iPad application for sales persons to record and prepare before going for a presentation.

13. User Interface Design ( thanks to Joby my team mate, who mentors me on Pixel Perfect design )

Projects: SeeMyRadiology / DealNotifier and Others

I have taken interest to explore, Industrial design and practice conceptual sketching in free time.

Design Brief : To perform an ethnographic design research to do a comparative study and analysis of traffic , transport and infrastructure while studying people perceptions, behaviors towards traffic rules, signals and  information.

Problem : How do people perceive the traffic signals? Do they understand them effectively? How do they behave under different circumstances? How the intervention of design in presenting information, building infrastructure will make the traffic system efficient?

The project is aimed to present the opportunity areas in the field of Real Time Traffic Information and propose new concepts.

Summary : During this project I along with two other team members had an opportunity to conduct the ethnographic research in Vienna ( which is considered to have one of the best transport model). We did our field observations, user research , interviews with SMEs and visit to Transport Control centers and carried similar research in Bangalore, to compare and draw parallels to find out the differences, problems and opportunities in the domain of traffic and information. The final outcome is a mobile application which delivers real time information and service design.

Team : Divya, Vinay and myself

Guide : Dr.Bibhudutta Baral (NID faculty ), Dr.Peter Simlinger ( IIID)

Design Process :  The major activities we did during this project are Domain Study , Brainstorming ,Evolving  Relationship Models  , conducting Design Research , doing Comparative Analysis, Creating User Persona , sketching User Scenarios , exploring various Concepts , sketching Wireframes for mobile application, User journey for Service design, User reviews.

Stage#1 : Domain Study and Relationship Models.

I helped my team in thorough domain study involving Traffic and Transport in Indian scenario which covers the infrastructure , safety , speed of operation , hierarchical road system etc.  Also we studied the various facts about Metro Rail systems in different cities, Bus transport system and how these systems rely on Real time information. The different modes the real time information is disbursed to users, the technologies available are also studied.

I participated in brain storming sessions, to pool up all the key words and categorize them under key categories. We then formed a relation ship model  showing various interactions in the transport and traffic domain.

Stage#2 : Design Research and analysis in Vienna.

I helped my team perform photo ethnography, in recording observations, perform personal interviews , interact with Subject Matter Experts, prepare questionnaires, conduct surveys, and analyze the responses. The above research formed the basis for our comparative study and further to develop our concepts.

We could gather important insights in the areas of :

Bicycle commute

Parking

Signage

Pavements

Pedestrian Crossing

Behavior patterns.

I conducted personal interviews to gain more insights about the perception towards traffic rules / signals and information.

Stage#3 : Design Research and analysis in Vienna.

We performed similar ethnographic research in Bangalore to gain insights into Indian traffic , transport and information system.

Also from the personal interviews and surveys, results are analyzed .

Stage#4 : Comparative Study

I performed a comparative study based on three aspects 1. Infrastructure 2. Information and 3. People Perceptions which is based on the insights gathered from the research conducted in both the cities.

Design Brief :  To design an infotainment system on a low cost automobile for elderly driver , in Indian context.

Summary : Elderly drivers ( age > 65 years ) face many difficulties in driving due to increasing physical , cognitive and psycho motor disabilities. With the increasing travel needs and poor infrastructure, there is a greater need for effective Human Machine Interfaces in personal automobiles.

The project is aimed at following an end to end design process to come up with Infotainment System for these elderly drivers.

Team : Vinay, Divya and myself. Each one of us took a specific problem that emerged out of combined research to develop a solution.

The design Process : We followed a User Centered Design Process and focused on user activities to find the abilities and limitations of the elderly drivers . It gave clear idea of the interactions and how they can be enhanced.

It involved stages like : Domain Study , Information Structuring, Design Research , User Persona / Mental Model , Guidelines , Concepts , Mockups , User Review. I will explain them in detail below.

Stage#1 : Domain Study and Structuring Information

I helped in doing a thorough domain study by referring various resources like books, websites on Automobiles, Infotainment Systems, Human factors of Elderly drivers and current trends in Indian Automobile market. We could get a holistic view of the automobile and elderly driver domain and I helped summarize the information it into three parts : Evolution of Infotainment Systems , Understanding Indian Elders and Understanding Indian Environment.

During the next stage our team performed brain storming sessions based on our personal experiences and knowledge gathered from the domain study.
We recorded all the key words and categorized into Key groups. Then I could form relations between them to make an Affinity diagram and HMI relationship model.

Stage#2 : Design Research

We interviewed potential users using contextual inquiry, in order to understand their behaviors, feelings, complications and experiences. We did ethnographic research by observing users in their natural self while driving, parking and other activities. We also interviewed sales people, to find what the users prefer to have in their vehicles. We found out from the service engineers to find what problems do users bring to them mostly.

I helped in forming a survey questionnaire, recording the observations , taking photographs during field trips.I helped in analyzing the research results.

Stage#3 : Creating User Mental Model and identifying Problem.

I helped create a mental model of the elderly driver and found possible problems involved and design opportunities available.

The list of problems and opportunities identified are :

1. Motion perception disability – mainly at road intersections , backward motion of car when it is in neutral gear.

2. Dynamic visual acuity and depth perception at intersections.

3. Judgement problems – front and rear estimations on road and while parking.

4. Complexity of contemporary navigation systems.

5. Opportunity to make navigation system simple.

6. Design of automated adjustments inside car.

7. Simple to use entertainme

Based on these problem and opportunities I proceeded with a select few to find solutions and conceptualize them.

Stage#4 : Conceptualization and Guidelines.

I have learned from my guide that while designing Human machine Interfaces for Elders (in particular) , we need to follow certain guidelines based on the industry practices. These is very important as they form constraints while designing our solutions. The guidelines are categorized into Vision related guidelines ,  Auditory related guidelines , Cognition related guidelines  and Motor capability guidelines .
For example, vision related guidelines deal with certain parameters like depth perception , sensitivity to glare , night time visual activity etc of the elderly drivers. Similarly others.

During conceptualization, I took each problem and explored different solutions.

Stage#5 : User Scenarios and Detailed Designs

I sketched user scenarios and made detailed design based on the concept explorations. Here I presented the problems I intend to address , the details of the design and the various uses of the proposed design.

I carefully considered certain principles like Poke-Yoke where the user cannot perform certain actions in any other way other than the prescribed (correct) way which enhance the usability and usefulness of the design.

Stage#6 : User Reviews and Outcome

I have shared the detailed design with a select user group, for user review. Most of the feedback was based on the ergonomics and usability. I have recorded the feedback and considered them for revision.

The project was submitted as design document and submitted as a poster for the International Institute of Information Design ( IIID ) 2010 Expert Forum on Traffic and Transport in Vienna. I considered the feedback from experts to incorporate into my design.

Download the poster

Complete project document

Tools I used :  Photographic Cameras – Field Notes – Survey Forms – Sketching – Adobe Photoshop – Illustrator – Indesign

Where did I fail and What I learned : I presented concepts to the Bosch HMI team, which were very much out of the line for implementation And the lack of detail in Design document. So I came up with different explorations that are technically feasible and viable. I also had to re-do the complete document with good detail and showing continuous process.

Like most of my thoughts start from the washroom, the thought about human limitations emerged as well . Well, we believe nothing is impossible, rather Impossible is nothing. But there are things we cannot acheive. So, I zoomed out to see, how can I catergorize the things we do currently.They are based on our physical and cognitive abilities.

Like, seeing,hearing,tasting,smelling..etc, and the limitations are ofcourse to an extent where we cannot see beyond a point, cannot hear which are not in frequency range, cannot taste or smell beyond a number so on.But the highly ambitious humans sometimes aped from our fellow beings on the planet  to achieve the unachievable using tools.These tools give us the magical power to see beyond the stars, deep into cells and now we have power to push the limits.

Our senses are extended.

I asked my dear friend eager to know her version. She replied in one word ” memory “.I had to ask her again and again, whether forgetting is our limitation or remembering more is our limitation.Yes, this is a tricky question, especially if you have a girl friend ! But it evolved into a series of thoughts answering the question

” What is the limit of human memory ? ”

Everything resides in our memory calmly as if nothing exits , until we try to recall.Like loads and loads of pages in a book, with each topic tagged.How many pages can our brain hold? What if the index or metadata is lost ?Do we still hold the pages ? If yes, how many pages can we hold ?

For sometime let us compare our human brain with a computer.

If the disks are full, there is load on the performance. If the data is not organized, or we donot know the use of the data available.If the data is not used since ages ?Then, all the information is mere Waste ! Is it the same in case of our brain ?

If we can delete the tags , free the memory ? Would our performance be better?I just read according to the Interference Theory , the new information gets preference over the old ones due to competition.What if we have choice to eliminate the competition ?

Lets bring a HMI – human memory interface to highlight and erase the data, to make more space for the new.Inversely if you want to be connected with the past, and remember a lot. Take a print of tags /meta data to revise and remember the data otherwise you might forget.

A mobile application to do all the above things ! How about it?Imagine the list of things possible.You can scan and tell your girlfriend, the dress she was wearing during your first meeting.All the firsts, All the bests precisely.

You can delete all the information related to the worst movie you ever saw!Well, we can still have a ” CONFIRM DELETE ” no worries 🙂

It is an interactive information visualization project as part of my course study at National Institute of Design, India.

AR Rahman is a music composer/singer/musician from south India. His work is mostly film and is a double OSCAR winner. He has a diverse collection of albums spreading over genres. He is one of the few directors who brought technology into music and has done lot of experimentation.

Also music as a subject is very old, unique which allows scope to imagine and visualize very different  interpretations and at the same time there is a lot of scope to experiment.

I’m  personally a very big fan of Ar Rahman and it’s been a very old desire to showcase my view and interpretation of his work.

Process  :

Before attempting at any information visualization It is very important to understand the Context in which the information is used, the target audience and the degree or levels of information we would like to present.

The basic steps involved in information visualization are

–  gathering the data from data sets or collective data over a period of time.

–  observe the pattern from the data.

–  then try to make a sense out of the collected data by considering some parameters (e.g. time, number of items etc)

–  attempt to show something new or a different view of the data which otherwise is not evidently seen.

–  by the use of graphic design and other graphic elements we can add more meaning or simplify the comprehensibility of the information.

–  by iterating on the design and trying out various ways of representation we try to refine the info visualization.

–  we can make an info visualization interactive so that the users can dig through the levels of information.

Context and Target Audience:

The context for which I would like to visualize this information is for a platform where the information about the artist is studied, the work is observed, where the songs can be loaded and listened to interactively.

The target audience would be internet users, who would like to know about the artist ( Ar Rahman ), listen and know more about his work while getting a bigger picture of his discography.

Iteration 1:

Initially I just collected the data about the albums composed by AR Rahman, from the start of his career to the latest album. I have also considered the number of songs, composed, year of release, album name. I represented the above information as a basic histogram.

It gives the first level of information. The size of each dot varies with the no.of songs in the album.

I have arranged the albums according to the date of release which shows, the no.of albums released per year.

By representing the information as a basic histogram, the first level information becomes very evident and easy to grasp.

Iteration 2:

Here I have introduced the color to add a level more to the information. Each colour represents the language in which the album is originally composed. With this we can at a glance grasp the information that the more of number of albums composed are in Tamil etc. Also I have tried breaking away from the linear representation of time line and introduced, weight and size in the year number to visually represent most number of albums produced.

Iteration 3:

I have considered a Vinyl record as background to show the music aspect of the design and the spiral alignment of the albums to show the evolution of the artist through the time period. Clear representation of the legend helps the user to comprehend.

Interactive Info Visualization :

By making the info visualization interactive, the user can dig in more levels of information or have a big picture view of it. Also, I wanted to include the media player functionality at the same time providing information to the user.

A very minimalistic player interface is provided whenever the user hovers the mouse on any album.

The interface consists of a play / pause button, next track button and play list icon. There is also an elliptical seek bar which also shows the progress of the song played.

Whenever the play list icon is clicked , a new frame opens to show the list of songs, with the genre specification including with assigned colour, time length of each song, the player interface and a wave type representation of all the songs overlapped.

Explorations:

I have explored various representations of the information in which I wanted to show the albums and songs connected according to their genre or the feel they give to the listener. With this connectivity I can give the user a chance to choose the genre and play the songs connected.

I have tried various other explorations apart from the spiral structure of albums.

Wave type representation:

The purpose of representing a song as a wave loop is to show the characteristics of the song, whether it is a soft number, or a heavy musical number. The user can get a feel of song visually. The color of the wave is taken from the genre of the song. So the user can get the information about the song at a glance. When all the waves are overlapped the user can get the feel of album at a glance.

The waves for each songs are obtained by extracting the original composition of the song into a waveform (here, done using a software ) and drawing an outline of the waveform to get a simplified one.

Shuffle:

Shuffle can be used in a different way to make the design more interactive. A drawing area can be provided where the user can scribble any curve and the curve sits on the spiral connecting the songs randomly from the albums and plays them.

This is a user generated random shuffle playlist.

Future Work:

In future I would like to reiterate the final design , include more data like the 1. popularity of tracks 2. awards won by Ar Rahman etc. while making the player more interactive.