Roles
UI/UX Design
Product Design
Design Research
Tools
Sketch
inVision
Adobe Illustrator
Timeframe
Aug - Dec 2019
Product Studio @ Cornell Tech
Company Advisor: Microsoft
00
OBJECTIVE
Our product studio team at Cornell Tech focused on creating a product that maximizes social interactions at conferences. The primary users of the product are conference attendees.
01
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we use technology to build inclusive behaviors amongst organizations?
02
THE SOLUTION
Introducing Auto…
Our solution looks at maximizing social interactions at conferences with a product aptly called Auto that allows conference attendees to meet others outside their professional orbit.
Auto’s value proposition has 3 dimensions:
03
MY RESPONSIBILITY
Our team consists of MBA students, engineering students and design students. While we all worked together on the research, ideation and visual design phases. As the UX Designer on the team, I was mainly responsible for designing and creating the wireframes as well as the high-fidelity prototype of the product.
Research Phase
Rich picture, stakeholder interviews, secondary research, competitive analysis, user persona, value creation analysis, help with research synthesis and list constraints and opportunities for product’s roadmap.
Ideation Phase
Summarize needs statement, prioritization grids, prioritizing important features and prepare user scenarios.
Prototyping Phase
Build wireframes, create user flows for different features, user test the flows and iterate from feedback and design final prototypes. Creating a visual design guideline to ensure the design system is cohesive throughout the platform.
Motion Design
Design micro-interactions for final presentation.
04
RESEARCH
Secondary Research
Existing Diversity & Inclusive programs at large corporations
Conference data (how many, where, when, conference attendees status quo)
Competitive analysis of existing services
Value creation analysis
Semi-structured Interview & Surveys
05
FINDINGS
“I attend a lot of conferences. And I find it difficult and overwhelming to connect with people at conferences.”
Users struggle with:
lack of opportunities to connect with conference attendees
taking initiatives in conference networking events
high transportation cost when attending conferences
“I am not really out-going person, and sometimes I don’t know how to start a new conversation with other people.”
Users want to:
connect with people outside their professional orbit such as other conference attendees
network with conference attendees in a low stress environment
save money and time on transportation
06
EXPERIMENTS
07
VISUAL GUIDANCE
Auto combines its own matching algorithm with Uber’s Riders API. Therefore, its visual guidance follows Uber’s brand black to build a consistent experience for users.
08
FINAL DESIGN
Before the ride - Matching Ridesharing Buddy
Before the ride, Auto uses its matching algorithm to match conference attendees up based on their profile information such as role and company.
After the ride - Exchange Business Card
After the ride, users have the option to exchange business card with their ride sharing buddy.
Before the conference - Plan
Before the conference, users can plan conference itinerary including registering for conference and booking hotel & flight.
Beyond the conference - Connect
Beyond the conference, Auto stores all the contacts so that users can maintain their connections with others.
09
CONSTRAINTS
10
REFLECTION
Include engineers as early as possible
By working in a cross functional team with engineers, product managers and designers, I learnt that including engineers early in the design process provides a fresh perspective to the problem, helps the team understand all the technical constraints, and leads to an efficient design process. The engineer on our team really helped me understand the technical constraints, so that I could make well-informed design decisions.
Be open to show incomplete work
I was afraid to show incomplete work to others before, but I realized it really helps to share my design and get feedback early and often. I should focus on design decision rather than if the work is complete or not.