Masters Application Portfolio

DESIGN PORTFOLIO

Aishwarya Rane

Curiosity Carnival

A gamified, digital student experience to teach school children the importance of sustainability. social innovation • sustainability • game design

The Project

The Curiosity Carnival is a 7 day programme which will run in tandem with the Mobile Innovation Lab. Through this program, Banao Buses (Makerspaces) go to government schools and reach 7th-10th std students. The bus, along with two specialised instructors, will introduce children to design thinking and various making tools and techniques to build innovative projects. The Carnival will be a showcase of projects, host speakers and workshops, exhibit new hands-on models and have learning zones for new technologies. The goal is to get students into the mindset to make anything they want, and equipping them with new skills, and to give them the confidence to dream big and achieve it.

The program will run for two months in each school and at the end of this time, a carnival is held to share and celebrate the creation of the students. The carnival will be a 7 day event and this complete program is set to run for 1 year, setting up the carnival in 5 different places. The first carnival will take place at the end of September in Mumbai. Before that, a pilot, an introductory carnival will be held, to initiate the participating schools to the idea of the carnival.

Aishwarya

The Team

Learning Designer Curriculum Design

Industrial Designer Exhibits and Games, (Semi-digital)

Exhibition Designer Space and Light Design

Industrial Designer Exhibits and Games, (Physical)

Nikita Sivaraman

Rane

Shubham Singh

Swati Shelar

Nitin Desai Team Lead, Mumbai

Harshali Khandekar Project Coordinator

Subbu Shastry Team Lead, Bangalore

Project Requirements

The Carnival should be:

Interactive

4 Day Event

Visitors should learn to use their rational thinking skills to solve a global problem in the form of a gamified story.

The Carnival was 4 day event from 3rd to 6th October 2019 at the nehru science Centre, Worli, Mumbai.

Student Display

Workshops

The exhibition side of he carnival should display student projects from the Banao Bus.

The Carnival should also host maker workshops and talks for the visitors to attend and learn.

STEAM+

All the exhibits should have a learning objective explaining a theoritical concept in a practical use scenario.

Secondary Support

Schematic

Scope of Work

Target Audience and Story Requirements

The target audience for the Carnival was:

Age group: 10 - 15 years

Reside in: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Schools: Government, State Board School (SSC)

Education: 7th - 10th standard

Language: Hindi / Marathi / Urdu Medium schools

Sex: Male and Female

Behavioural Analysis:

Children within the ages of 10-15 are influenced greatly by the hormonal changes that they are going through. Accompanied by sexual maturation, this enhances the capacity of abstract and critical thought and self-awareness. If utilised well, it can lead them to become a more sensitive and self aware person and think about issues greater than themselves.

CURRENT TRENDS

The internet goes through cycles of trends every once in a while. Children today have more access to content and stories from all around the world. We had to ensure that the story that we took the visitors through was novel from these concepts, but also adhered to the current trends of school child content

EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND FOLLOW

The main aim of the Carnival is to teach the children about how to go about solving real world problems. The opulence of the exhibits should not take away from the ultimate learning objective, which in this case was to teach the children about sustainability. The interactions had to presented in a way which would make the learning stick as well and not just get forgotten.

LARGER THAN LIFE PREMISE

The story should make the children feel a sense of awe and fascination so that it grips them. One way to do that is to identify a premise that is larger than life and puts them, the visitor in a position of power and strong character

The Exhibition Story

Sketches

Final Exhibits

The final exhibits created were live tested at the Curiosity Carnival. The 6 exhibits are described in detail ahead.

END EXHIBIT

After the visitors go through all the exhibits, they get the chance to interact with the final exhibit which is where they create their own new world based on educated decisions they learned in the previous exhibits. The drivers choose which kind of fuel they will use, the builders choose what materials and the farmers choose which crops, etc. Based on their choices, the application assigns a score to their new Earth based on sustainability versus eco-friendliness

The Carnival

The first Curiosity Carnival, with the final exhibit prototypes, was set up in the Nehru Science Centre Exhibition Hall, Worli, Mumbai on the 5th - 7th of October, 2019. The Carnival saw almost 400 children in one day, making a total of 1200 children by the end of the third day. The event was also attended by guests like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Amit Chandra.

The Carnival then ran for 3 more cycles and after a pause in the COVID 19 lockdown, the current team is working to make the carnival more relevant and plausible in the new normal.

Watch the entire video of the Carnival

Read complete project documentation

ResQ

Designing behavioural tools; in the form of an interactive game; for children in the Juvenile Justice System of India social innovation • behavioural tools • game design

What is ResQ?

ResQ is a behavioural toolkit in the form of a board game created during an 8 week systems design course at NID, Ahmedabad. The brief for the project was to study the Juvenile Justice System in India and identify and explore solutions to prevalent issues.

Systems thinking is a disciplined approach for examining problems more completely and accurately. It allows us to ask better questions and see a situation from various perspectives. It involves moving from observing events or data, to identifying patterns of behavior overtime, to surfacing the underlying structures that drive those events and patterns. By understanding and changing structures that are not serving us well (including our mental models and perceptions), we can expand the choices available to us and create more satisfying, longterm solutions to chronic problems.

Research Visits

Taking the project further, we obtained permission to visit and interact with children in the Observation homes. For this purpose, we were able to visit 4 observation homes:

• Observation Home, Khanpur, Ahmedabad

• Place of Safety, Mehsana, Gujarat

• David Sassoon Industrial School, Matunga,Mumbai

• Umerkhadi Children’s Home, Dongri, Mumbai

Here, for the first time, we were able to see the disparity in what was there on paper and what actually happens in reality. The information we gained from these visits helped us greatly in recognizing pain points and opportunities for interventions.

We conducted various workshops and activities so that we could have clear conversation and learn more about the children we were working with.

The System

Understanding the Juvenile Justice System in India formed a major part of our initial research period. To effectively understand how we can best address the reformation in Observation Homes we first needed to understand system that it is a part of and understand its various complexities and interdependence. During our System Mapping, various stakeholders started to arise, which were in the initial stages unheard off. As we moved ahead with the mapping it was very evident that the whole system dealt with two completely different groups of children in two different ways.

The Juvenile Justice System not only looks / administers over the children who have committed crimes but the children in need of protection, who have been rescued also come under the purview of the system. The Juvenile Justice ( JJ ) Act classifies these children into two categories –

CCL (Children in Conflict with the Law) CNCP (Children in need of Care and Protection) Children in Conflict with the Law (CCL) and Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) both have a different decision-making body.

Mapping the

Pain Points

ISOLATION

LACK OF COUNSELLORS

The current system aims to reform the juvenile delinquents by isolating them from society and separating their schooling from other children. Isolation can cause severe mental health issues, especially during the delicate reformative years of adolescence. This often leads to disconnect from the outside world once released and also a lack of social skills in reformed teens.

There is a severe lack of counsellors assigned to the observation homes in India, often with one counsellor being shared between 2-3 observation homes. This means that the counsellor is dealing with almost 20-30 young adults at a time leading to a lack of one on one time with the children.

MISUNDERSTOOD STAKEHOLDERS

Lack of interest in the present process of reformation was observed during the visits to juvenile homes. Repeated questions from guards and teachers saw signs of disinterest such as; talking back, hesitation to answering questions, sarcastic or demeaning comebacks, and unwillingness to answer. This derails counseling sessions and fails to provide preferable results in a change in the behavior of the children.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES

Children in observation homes visited were more likely to be from a lower economic background. This coupled with early experiences of violence forms a difference in opinion of right and wrong. The difference in moral compass between children from such backgrounds and the stakeholders dealing with them; who are from a different background; caused difference in opinions and tension.

Final Outcome

The game was presented and tested at the Observation homes where research visits were conducted. Guards and children reacted positively to the game and some suggestions for improvement were incorporated.

The team also wrote a research paper to support our understanding of the game which we presented and published at RSD8 Symposium, IIT Chicago and DR4C, London Design Museum. This gave us the opportunity to present our ideas to systems designers around the world and start a discussion about reformative practices in systems of justice.

Depth Wall

A gamified interaction to teach children about the creatures that inhabit the depths of the ocean. game design • ui/ux design • design for learning

About MuSo

The Museum of Solutions is an ongoing project where I am currently working. The aim is to build India’s first digital learning museum for school children in Mumbai.

At the Museum of Solutions, we believe in the uniqueness of each child and the potential of their curiosity to bring about meaningful change. MuSo will introduce children to a safe and accessible space and present them with important issues that affect their present and future, provide them with tools that will enable them as critical thinkers and problem solvers. We hope to empower them to voice their ideas and advocate for themselves, others and their future.

MuSo is empowered by UN SDGs that children resonated with in conversations. The exhibits and programmes at MuSo will be based on these SDGs.

When I joined the project, the MuSo team was at a stage where the concept for the museum had been finalised and 5 spaces in the Discovery lab floor had been conceptualised.

IMMERSIVE ZONE

Children will learn about the the wonders of the natural sources from where we get water. The aim of the Immersive Zone is to show the visitors how beautiful the natural world can be by immersing them in that world.

WATER & ME ZONE

This is a more reflective zone where the visitors can understand their position in the systems that support and drive water usage. It also shows them how they get access to water.

INVESTIGATIVE ZONE

In the Investigative Zone, the visitors can choose missions which they will solve using a series of clues. All the investigations are centred around the theme of water. Varying from rescue missions to mysteries.

EMPATHY ZONE

Children will learn true stories of people who work closely with water and water conservation. All the stories are based on interviews conducted with people from and around the city to provide some local context to the visitors.

Initial Concept

The Depth wall is an exhibit on the floor in the Immersive Zone. The initial idea of the depth wall was to have a scrolling screen on which the visitors would be able to learn about the various levels of depth of the oceans and more about animals which live in the ocean.

Learning Objectives

• What are the levels of the ocean depths.

• Creatures that live in different areas.

• Information about the creatures that inhabit these zones.

With this brief, the depth wall created was as such.

A floor to ceiling touch screen showing a section of the ocean with animals found at that particular zone.

Scroll down to see more depths and the animals and fish that inhabit them

Click on one of the creatures and more information about the species will pop up.

Reimagining the Depth Wall

Although the learning objective from the exhibit was imperitive to the overall narrative of the floor, the experience of the wall itself was not something that was resonating with MuSo’s target audience. For the experience to not feel so textbookish it was important to gamify the interaction.

To do so, the team participated in a sprint which was facilitated by me. The process led us to brainstorm various narratives which would give a more interesting and fun structure to the learning. The finalised narrative was that of a diver who is assisted by a marine biologist to find certain creatures by guessing the answers to certain given nudges.

StoryMeena is a deep sea diver who is assisting Dr Neel, a marine biologist, to complete his paper on deep sea animals. Dr Neel gives Coral clues to find the next creature in the depths of the ocean.

Help Meena navigate to the animal that most fits the description and complete Dr Neel’s journal!

User Journey Mapping

Dr Neel gives a clue about the characteristic of the animal at the top of the screen.

Visitor can scroll up and down to a limit to see all the animals floating on the screen. They select an animal they think fits the prompt.

Visitor clicks on an animal they think fits the description most.

If the animal identified is incorrect, it turns red and Meena tells them a fact about that animal. This fact might help them answer later questions.

Visitor clicks on another animal they think fits the description most.

If the animal identified is correct, it turns blue and Meena tells them an additional fact about that animal.

New prompt from Dr Neel shows up on screen for visitor to identify.

Visitor completes 3 such question and answer rounds. They learn more and more about the ocean through trial and error, much like a memory game.

New prompt from Dr Neel shows up on screen for visitor to identify.

Visitor completes 3 such question and answer rounds. They learn more and more about the ocean through trial and error, much like a memory game.

Game Levels

The exhibit will have 5 levels after which it will reset to the first zone. Each zone has 10-12 interactive touchpoints in the form of animals and the visitors will guess from these touchpoints.

I worked with students of marine ecology to put together a comprehensive document of all the creatures that inhabit each level to assist the graphic design studio to create artwork for all the characters and environments. This document was also vetted by Professor Kartik Shankar, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Centre for Ecological Sciences.

This document was further provided to the MuSo graphic and digital partners to fabricate the exhibit. This is an ongoing project and the teams are currently working to create the exhibit in actuality.

Project PAL

UI/UX design for a self learning assistant for a phd research project at Fluid Interfaces, MIT Media Lab design for research • UI/UX • behavioural nudges

About PAL

PAL is a project by Mina Khan at the Fluid Interfaced lab at MIT Media Labs, under the guidance of Pattie Maes. Mina is a Ph.D. student and works on using AI for contextuallyaware wearable interventions for behaviour change. My role on the project was as a design collaborator to design the flow and final UI of the screen. This project allowed me to work on the intersection of AI and HCI and design for research rather than production.

My association with the PAL team actually started because they needed a logo designed for their products. PAL is an application that helps users take productive breaks during long work cycles so that they can relieve themselves of stress and be productive in work.

Initial brainstorming with the team helped me figure out the main keywords for the project: incorporate the letters, be fun, playful and convey the feeling of calm that we want the user to experience while using PAL. Initial logo iterations explored creating a logo with the element of fun but ensuring a feeling of calm.

Unproductive work cycles

Productive break cycles!

PAL Users

Who will use PAL? What will they use it for?

Age: 12-18

Age: 18-25

Age: 25 and above

Work: Most sites built for children (study and recreation) are already very colourful and dynamic. Might require a physical break from all the heavy visuals

Work: Depends on field of work. May involve copius amounts of reading and social media usage. Could be more of a distraction from work or study

Work: Depends on field of work. May involve a lot of static pages and emails. Might need a breather from screen time ro de-stress

User Journey Mapping

Final Screens

All screens are created in Figma and Sketch and prototyped in Anima. PAL is a live project and is currently undergoing testing at Media Lab

Interconnected Wall

An interactive projection that teaches children about the interconnected nature of water cycle systems in Mumbai game design • ui/ux design • design for learning

Concept & Brief

Content

The BMC water treatment plant at Mumbai provides water to nearly 26 lakh households. That is how the water from the lakes and rivers comes to your tap. But how do they make sure that the water is safe for so many people to drink? The Interconnected wall shows the visitor the steps that water goes through to become potable and how all of these activities are deeply interconnected, such that a change in one activity can affect the quality and quantity of water that makes its way to their tap.

Learning Outcome

• Water treatment processes and plants.

• Global Water Cycle

• Where does Mumbai get it’s drinking water from? • What qualities makes water potable?

Visits to the Water Treatment plant in Bhandup, Mumbai, helped the team understand how water reached the taps. The plant at Bhandup provides drinking water daily to the whole city of Mumbai.

Research Visits

Connection Map

The main underlay of the wall will be painted onto the wall itself. This shows a connection map of how water travels across the various systems.

The outer layer shows the natural water cycle and the inner layer shows the human-made systems which take water from the natural cycles and make it safe to drink, then transporting it to our taps.

The blue arrows show the direction of water. This would be animated to show drops of water making their way through the system, which forms the default projection on the wall when no visitor is interacting with it.

Interaction

Each of the touchpoints in the wall will be interactive. When a visitor touches one of the points, connections will light up showing how the system might be affected if one of the elements is tampered with.

For example, this image shows how the water cycle will be affected if the sun stops shining as hard as it does. Each of the touchpoints will ultimately affect the water that is coming out of the tap on the wall.

This is a live project currently underway at the museum. A comprehensive document was put together after the research visits and vetted by the BMC workers at the plant. This document provides the basis for the digital and graphic agencies to work with the team to fabricate the exhibit

Click here to view an interactive prototype

The Homecoming

A storyboard for an 8 minute film to be created and showcased at the Museum of Solutions storytelling • storyboarding • filmmaking

BriefThe Homecoming is a short film that will feature in the theatre at the Museum of Solutions. To brief the filmmakers about the themes that MuSo wanted to display in the film and the narrative that drives the protagonist ‘Puddles the Turtle‘ a storyboard was created.

The Homecoming tells the story of Puddles the Green Sea Turtle, who is on her way to the coast of Gujarat to lay her eggs, but a violent cyclone throws her off course and she lands up on the shores of Mumbai. While waiting for the storm to abate, she begins narrating to the viewers her journey across the seas and her experiences. The story was written in collaboration with Nameeta Premkumar, the head of content at MuSo and a prominent Mumbai filmmaker and producer. This storyboard has now been shared with the filmmakers who will take the project further.

Fin.

My Loan Web

Creating user experience and interface for a mortgage management website for a client in the financial sector at Incedo Inc.

UI/UX design • B2C applications • user journey mapping

About MyLoanWeb

My Loan Web is done for a client in the financial space. The client wanted to revamp and reimagine their existing commercial website and web application to reflect a more modern look and feel. They also wanted to make sure that their forms and processes were updated online to ensure clients affected by covid would be able to be up to date with their payments.

Along with that, we also worked on incorporating the brand colour and theme while resolving the workflows of the payments, online forms and dashboard of the application to make it easier to use.

The team conducted regular workshops with the clients like wireframing sprints and targetted users to come up with the flow to target problem areas. We targetted 3 types of user groups; ones who were current with their mortgage payments, those who distressed borrowers who were unable to make payments and multiple loan borrowers.

CONFUSING NAVIGATION

Broken links and irrational grouping of the site made it difficult for the user to navigate through the top navigation

LACK OF INFORMATION

The site showed a lack of information about the client, which leaves the users unsure of who they are dealing with and reduces trust in the organization

OUTDATED LOOK & FEEL

Pixelated images, outdated imagery and text heavy pages make the site seem old and difficult to use and understand.

Identified Problems with Previous Portal

Final Screens

With the client and part of the design team being in USA and the design and implementation team in India, we really had to ensure a smooth work process. For this purpose, I also got the opportunity to work on a library based on Material Design to ensure all elements and components of the site would align smoothly. This project helped me strengthen my knowledge of Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD amongst other UI/UX design tools.

The final screens aimed for

• Clear and easy to follow navigation.

• Helpful prominent CTAs.

• Aid for COVID affected loans.

• Step-wise digitization of paper forms to make it easy to apply and keep track of open applications.

• Helpful tool pop ups.

• Inbuilt digital payment methods.

Thank You

For more work samples please visit: www.aisharane.com