I-Hsin Chen Portfolio 2020

Hi, I am Alice This is my portfolio Designer, Optimist & Something rectangular

-COLIVING SLIPPERS -ACER SUMMER INTERNSHIP -COLOVE -LET'S CHAT IN THE BOOK

2020

coliving slipper project

Jun 2018-Jun 2019

I formed up a group of four with my fellow design classmates to conduct our thesis design project. Our vision was to design products concerning about lives in the urban city. Co-living house has been a growing trend for alternative choices of living, and among them, there is a type called “cross-generational coliving house�, in which young residents and elderly would become roommates.

This is an interesting situation between two generations, and we would like to figure more about this issue.

DESIGN DIRECTION

design A PRODUCT FOR the interaction between young and elder residents Our goal was to create an interactive product for residents living in the crossgenerational co-living house. This product will help them to form up a tighter relationship and warm up the living atmosphere.

coliving slipper project

my role I’m in charge of background research, user study, idea contribution and all the content designs. Due to my prior experience of staying in a design research lab at school, I am more familiar with design methods at collecting more information for us to understand more about the users. I often share a thing or two on my Facebook page about products and my design perspectives, this habit turns me into a good content writer.

Getting to know the residents We contacted with people from the co-living house company and health care centers, and they agreed to show us around the environments. Also, we conducted interview with the residents about their daily lives, relationship with the other generation and their thoughts about co-living house.

coliving slipper project

Sophie “I want to live in a place where I can stay safely until the very end.�

Age Gender Occupation Location Family

68 Female Retired Taipei, Taiwan One son.

Her husband passed away.

Most-used App(s) Computer(s) Wearables Internet usage

LINE Samsung phone Xiaomi watch 1-2 hours

Sophie is now a healthy Elderly living in the co-living house, and she wishes to stay there until the end of her life.

Sophie’s Story

Obstacles Sophie faces: • Worry that she won’t be cared and be isolated when she got ill

What Sophie cares:

Son

Crafts Health Roommates Friends

Sophie’s Situation Goals • Get along with strangers (other residents) • Won’t become trouble for the younger residents • Stay here until she’s really ill

Sophie is a cheerful energetic old lady, who welcomed us with very big smiles and warm hugs. She was a teacher in college and used to live in a big house with her husband and one son. After her son got married and her husband passed away seven years ago, she lived alone in that big house until five years ago from now she moved to the co-living house.

She has an interest of making crafts. Those crafts mean a lot to her, they represent some little spirits and they are great company to her. Besides crafting, she would still go to church and hang out with her friends twice in a week. All in all, she is still an active person with many schedules.

Inside the co-living house, she stayed in the same room with two young adults. They have formed a great relationship and made the environment inside the co-living house nice and cozy.

However, she still has some concerns: Although she looks very healthy now, she worries that she would someday become physically weaker and weaker than before and would like to stay with someone else, so she could feel more secure. Nevertheless, she doesn’t want to bother others for taking care of her, but she also doesn’t want to stay in the caring center or hospital when she is still not so weak.

coliving slipper project

May Age Gender Occupation Location Family

29 Female Secretary Taipei, Taiwan Family live in Kaohsiung

Most-used App(s) Computer(s) Wearables Internet usage

Instagram, Facebook iPhone, Mac Pro None 3-4 hours

May is working in Taipei City, and she would like to stay in the co-living house freely like she used to.

May’s Story

Obstacles May faces: • Worry that she must take care of the elderly when they get really ill

What May cares:

Rents

Her Life Work Roommates

Friends

May’s Situation Goals • Find out the best way to care for the Elderly

May is a hard-working young girl who came to Taipei for a job five years ago. It is difficult to find a comfortable and affordable apartment in Taipei City. May had been living in a tiny and old room for 3 years. One day, she read a commercial about cross generation co-living house on social media and she decided to give it a try.

It seemed affordable and okay for her. She had never tried this kind of living situation before, and she was worried at first about not getting along with other residents. She was assigned in a room with another female young adult and an Elderly, which she still lives in now. She got along really soon with other residents, and they cared for each other just like a family.

However, recently, she finds out that the Elderly’s physical condition has become a little weaker than before. She

began to worry that if the Elderly’s condition keep worsening, should she take care of her just like family members do? She wouldn’t want to hurt the Elderly’s feeling, but she also wants to have her own life, too.

coliving slipper project

INSIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW

need health care for the elder residents The biggest concern in the cross-generational co-living house is that the elder residents’ health might decline and they might not aware of their body status. Thus, it is possible that someday if they fall down or encounter some accidents, this could lead to more serious health problems. The young residents would like to help guard the elder residents’ body status, and they could become a great help to keep the elderly’s health maintained in a standard.

No need for more intentional interaction Before we visited the field, we thought that generation gap would be a big problem preventing them from interacting with each other. However, according to the residents, both young and the elderly, they are acting like friends and their relationships are not affected by the age difference. This is a great finding for cross-generational co-living house, that age difference is not really a big issue in this case.

Design Principles

Personal and personalize

Health data goes first

Health data is personal.

Customize the health data and provide an option for users to share only what they feel safe.

Focus and emphasize on the health data before adding interaction.

Build natural interaction

Something daily used

Interaction should avoid intrusiveness. Keep the interaction as daily and natural as possible.

Blend in with the daily life. Reduce the amount of learning and adapting to new things.

coliving slipper project

REdefine the design direction

Design aN INTERACTIVE health PRODUCT First Try We began brainstorming about the ideas that could elevate the interactiveness between the residents , and also help guard the elderly's health. First, we came up two ideas; one is building an interactive handbar.

We added tactile sensation games and music games to the handbar, making it more interactive and more usable for both the young and the elderly.

coliving slipper project

The other is building interactive slippers.

The slippers will detect one's health status and could be used on some games between residents.

User Feedbacks

We showed the residents these two ideas and asked them for feedbacks. They all gave better comments on the slippers, stating that it will fit in the house easier than the handbar and would be more comfortable for most residents.

coliving slipper project

MORE iNSIGHTS FROM THE FEEDBACK

need the product to fit in their lives easily As the residents said, co-living house might seem like an experimental place for new living mode, but for them, this is where they call home, and they would not want experimental or too bizarre designs. What they want is something that could fit in their lives without notice, just as comfortable like simple slippers, not too intrusive.

caring about each other would be the best interaction They would not need additional interaction between each other. They already have their own comfortable way of interacting with each other. Thus, caring about each other and help taking care of every residents' health are better ways to interact naturally in the house.

Second Try We then focused on the slippers after taking the feedbacks of the residents.

This time we made prototypes of the slippers and the charging board for the slippers. Also, we create an app for all the residents to record their health rates and they could also guard each other's health.

Linkit board 8051(MCS-51)

Coil

Circuit Board

Battery

Coil

Pressure Sensor

coliving slipper project

1-Main PAGE

1-1 DATES

1-2 uSER

2-1-1 USER NAME SETTING

1-3 DATAS

2-2-1 uSER COLOR PICKING

0-Welcome 2-DAILY ROUTINE

3-gAIT ANALYSIS

2-1 DATES

2-2 uSER

2-1-1 USER NAME SETTING

2-3 DATAS

2-2-1 uSER COLOR PICKING

3-1 DATES

3-2 uSER

2-1-1 USER NAME SETTING

3-3 DATAS

2-2-1 uSER COLOR PICKING

The location inside the house The time stayed in the location Weekly Statistics Accumulated time of staying at a location

Main Page

Weekly Statistics

Daily routine

coliving slipper project

Normal Normal

Abnormal

Comments about the gait pattern Percentage of the difference between the healthy gait pattern

GAIT ANALYSIS

coliving slipper project

To be continued We are now making another version of the slippers, intending to add more health sensors inside the slippers. Also, we are now developing the Android version to allow use of every user.

acer internship project

Acer Internship

summer 2018

My two-month summer internship of product design and innovation design, helping Acer come up with a new product concept that would be valuable to young-generation users.

Design Innovation Intern We are those who dig out the problems, and those who come up a way to solve it. Open-minded, creative with a little bit of nuttiness, we not only can spot the interesting side of an issue but also can brainstorm a never-before-seen solution. I spent two months working in this team.

DESIGN DIRECTION

Design a product that makes acer young again Our goal was to create a new and young image for Acer by designing a brand new product for the young generations. my role I was in charge of background research, idea contribution, design delivery and modeling. I worked with a business school student. We discussed about the background and the main concept. She went on making business analysis and I continued on creating prototypes and concept sketches.

acer internship project

ACER'S SITUATION Acer has been concerning that its original values and image could no longer be accepted by the main target users (mostly at a younger age). We did some research and interviews from three aspects below to figure out the best direction we could head to.

Product Line Products and services are very diversified; however, the target users are not clearly defined. As for the young generation market, there is not a current present main products and services designed for the young consumers.

Commercial Campaign The storytelling and the contents of the commercial campaigns are plain and outdated. Young generations want something that keep up with their lives and also echoes with their values.

Brand Image Acer focuses a lot on the commercial of the company, but it needs to transfer its image from “old-fashioned” and “fair”, also try to build a more distinctive image.

understanding Gen Z

The future main customers of Acer will be the people from generation Z. All of the interns belong to the generation Z. We held a 4-hour workshop with all of the interns for us to get to know more about their lives and values.

(GEN Z: refering to "generation z", born from 1990s until now)

acer internship project

Christopher

#partyhost #extrovert #workaholic Age Gender Occupation Location

24 Male Student Taipei, Taiwan

Online Locations Computer(s) Wearables Internet usage

Work and social media iPhone and Acer PC Apple Watch 6-7 hours

Obstacles Christopher faces: • Too busy to spare time for friends and meet new friends • Can hardly maintain work-life balance

What Christopher cares:

Parties

Work Friends

Social Media

Basketball

Achievements

Christopher’s Situation Goals • Connect with more friends in an effortless way • Connect with more friends in an effortless way

Christopher’s Story

acer internship project

Joyce

#cozy #relaxed #self_time Age Gender Occupation Location

23 Female Student Taipei, Taiwan

Online Locations Computer(s) Wearables Internet usage

Work and social media iPhone and Mac Pro None 5-6 hours

Joyce loves to be alone and focus on her interests. She is trying to make herself comfortable in public.

Obstacles Joyce faces: • Often feel uncomfortable among people • Easily stressed out

Joyce’s Story Joyce is a master student of engineering department, the same department as Ian. She is friendly, kind and also out-going. Even though she has many friends, she enjoys being with herself most of the time. Contacting with

What Joyce cares:

people everyday stresses her, and she needs a huge amount of time to stay alone.

Her own time Work Friends Interests

Whenever she goes back home, she would turn off the notification of the social media, take out a novel and begin to dive into the world of stories. However, as her workload also increases, she has to stay late in the school even longer, and it is no way that she could feel comfortable in the public. She has been trying to create a small private space for herself through wearing mask or listening to music with headphones, but it just doesn’t seem to be the perfect way to release these stresses.

She hopes that she could have a way to distract her from being uncomfortable in the public.

Joyce’s Situation Goals • Relax and have her own time in public • Need something to release her stress

acer internship project

Joyce's Day 9:00 AM Transportation

12:00 PM School

Having with fri

“Rela chat a

Doing Research “Doing research alone is good, but I wish I could do it at home.”

In the crowded train “Always have to stand side by side with strangers…”

13:00 PM Lunch Time

18:00 PM School

Return Home

Have dinner

lunch iends

“Finally I have time to be on my own.”

ax time! So we can about gossip.”

Discussion with lab members “Sometimes it’s so stressed to have to face so many people”

acer internship project

INSIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW

can’t live without social media 20 out of 25 interns use 2+ kinds of social media every day, and the average usage time is 5-7 hours. They spend most of the time on contacting with their friends and updating their lives everywhere by social media like Instagram and Facebook. They like to meet new friends and hang out with them.

need more time for themselves Besides the fun of constantly using social media, too much information and social interaction going on every day tire them. They need more time to stay alone and relax.

Design Principles For social lovers Easy and effortless

Attract attentions

Connection is vital

Should shorten the time of learning for the users and it should be a less intrusive item.

Make our users popular among friends

Make our users popular among friends

For social loners Comfortable and personalize Design the item to be easy to be customized.

Also be comfortable for them to release stress.

Less learning processes Reduce the steps to use.

acer internship project

REdefine the design direction

design products for social lovers & social loners HMW

HMW

HMW

design a product for those who is always busy working to easily gain popularity among friends ?

design a product for those who constantly socialize with others to ease the stress from over social interaction ?

design a product for those who works hard to relieve stress and willing to share with others ?

HMW

HMW

HMW

design a product or those who wants to gain much attention on social media to fulfill multiple socializing needs ?

design a product for those who loves to have fun but also works hard to create work-life balance ?

design a product for those who likes to express themselves to elevate self-value and living quality ?

First Try We create six How Might We questions, and gather interns from different departments to join our brainstorming.

acer internship project

After gathering all the ideas from the workshop, we first categorized them and picked the most interesting ideas to generate into more detailed sketches.

For Social Lovers, we have

Social Bracelets There are beadings representing social medias. Just get closer with another user, and in a split second, two users will become social media friends!

Social Earrings and Ring The same concept as the social bracelet. Two users could become social media friends without taking out the phone and go through all the process. Just an easy touch will do. Also, this is designed for those who likes to hang out in the night club, thus, it could also detect the alcohol concentration or connect with the police if others are trying to do something bad to you.

acer internship project

For Social Loners, we have

"Squeeze-it" power bank After a long and tiresome day, squeeze this cute little power bank to charge your phone and also yourself!

A Mask For you to Sing Out Loud!

Been stressed out and want to relieve it? This mask is designed for those who want to sing out loud in the public and not wanting to be heard. The special material of the mask could prevent your sound from leaking out.

acer internship project

why always missing?

Bouncing Speaker This design allows us Bouncing Speaker to create music by This isbouncing a fun instrument in different for youstrength to create music and height, by bouncing the balldetect in also it would different and ourstrength heart rate height.and Also, it would detect select music Bouncing Speaker your heart rate and play the according to it.

Could easily create music by bouncing the ball in different strength and paces. music accordingly.

It is the best company when commuting to work or school.

User Feedbacks

We held a small interview with four interns (users) to check if our design direction fits what the users want.

Social Bracelet fulfills young generation's need to meet new people with a simple step by using the different beads of social media.

"Squeeze-it" power bank fullfills young generation's need of stress relieving objects and its shape is adorable!

Our picks are the social bracelet and the “squeeze-it� power bank.

acer internship project

Second Try According to the interview, we picked two design concepts out and dived into more concise and detailed designs. This time, we made 3D models and printed out to let users try the actual products.

Add friends to your social networks simple and fun! with a simple connection with other's bracelet, the two can easily add friends. (confirmation is not included)

Display the wearers' emotions.

"I'm going to a party!"

Remind the wearer of notifications No missing texts or phone calls

acer internship project

Depending on the different levels of battery, it would have different expressions.

This app is for users to record their power generating experience. They could compete with anonymous users and purchase the face of the power bank.

1-Main PAGE

1-1 lOGO

1-2 USERNAME

0-Welcome

2-MENU

2-1 PROFILE

2-2 CHART

2-3 STORE

2-4 SET-UP

acer internship project

To be continued After our internship ended, Acer has been keen on trying to carry out the design of social bracelet. So far, in 2019, Acer has successfully launched a bracelet that could use for transportation and religious needs.

the colove project

colove

March-June 2018

DESIGN DIRECTION

design a not-so-digitalized device for family members to stay in touch In Taiwan, there are many families living in remote areas. Having few job opportunities, the grown-ups from that area often seek for jobs in far away places. Although telephone is very common everywhere, there are times when family members have different schedules and couldn’t respond to the calls at the same time. Also, without much knowledge of digital devices, this makes it more difficult for these families to stay in touch with each other.

the colove project

my role I worked along with 5 engineer students and another design student to design an easy and familiar way for those elders who are not familiar with smart phones to communicate with their children. I was in charge of background research, ideation, design delivery and prototyping. I discussed back-and-forth with the engineer students about the size and shape of some components and tested the usability after assembling.

Getting to know the elders

We invited 5 elders to share their daily life stories, including their family members, the interaction between members and life styles. There were 2 male and 3 female elders. They all live alone, and their children are currently working in another city.

the colove project

Amy “I miss my son so much but he’s always busy…”

Age Gender Occupation Location Family

70 Female Retired Tainan, Taiwan One son.

Her husband passed away

Contact Tools Computer(s)

Household Telephone and mails Samsung phone (doesn’t use it)

Obstacles Amy faces: • It’s heartbroken every time when her son sounds impatient • It’s so bad that she always can’t talk to her son for more than 10 minutes • She is not familiar with smart phones.

Amy lives alone in Tainan. Her husband passed away years ago, and her only son works now in Taipei. She misses her son every now and then, but it was too far away for her to travel every week to meet her son. In that case, she calls

her son every day to keep in touch with him. However, her son often seems irritated or impatient when answering her calls, which makes her feel bad. She

Amy’s Daily Call Involves:

Letter

Amy’s Story

20 min on avg

4 times per day

wants to talk more about her daily life with her son, but they often end the conversation in less than 10 minutes.

She understands that her son is busy with work, but she is not familiar with smart phone and the internet so she could only call him on the phone.

Amy’s Situation Goals • Every time she calls, her son will be pleased to hear from her • know when her son has time for her • Best if her son could contact her first

the colove project

Josh “I don’t want my mom to be sad but I’m annoyed every time she calls.”

Age Gender Occupation Location Family

43 Male Accountant Taipei, Taiwan Wife and one son.

His mother lives in Tainan.

Online Locations Computer(s) Wearables Internet usage

Work and mobile Samsung phone and ASUS PC Watch 2-3 hours

Obstacles Josh faces: • It’s frustrated when he is always impatient when his mom calls • It’s annoying that he doesn’t seem to like his mother contacting him first and so many times

What Josh cares:

Josh’s Story Josh is an accountant who works from 9 to 5 in the evening.

He is often very busy with work and after work he has to take care of his children, which makes him tiresome almost every day.

His mom lives alone in Tainan, and he is worried that his mom will be lonely. He tried to contact his mother once a week, however, it seems not enough for his mother. His

His mother

Work Friends & Colleagues

Josh’s Situation Goals • Could take care of his mother from afar effortlessly • Could decide the time to contact his mom by himself

mother could call every once in a while when he is busy talking with clients or in the middle of a meeting. He doesn’t want to sound annoying, but he is tired of it, and he knows that he has hurt his mother’s feeling.

He wants to know how to keep his life the way he likes but also makes his mother happy.

the colove project

9:00 AM

10:30 AM

Meeting

12:00 PM

Talk with clients

13:00 PM

Lunch

Working

“Mom, what was it that you called?”

“Mom, I’m wo right now, I’ll at night, oka

Josh won’t pick up the phone

Prepare for lunch 10:00 AM

Lunch

Nap

Exercise Pre din

14:00 PM

15:30 PM

17:00 PM

18:00 PM

Pick up children

20:00 PM

Children Time

Dinner

orking l call back ay?”

epare nner

22:00 PM

23:00 PM

TV

Bed Time

Amy won’t pick up the phone “My dear, how is my grandson doing?”

Dinner

Bath

TV

19:00 PM

Bed Time

the colove project

INSIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW Through the interview with the elders, we have a brief understanding of their interaction with their children.

handwriting is the best way to communicate For elders in this generation, they are more familiar with speaking and handwriting to communicate and express their thoughts. Handwriting is the less digitalized version of texting, and this makes the elder feel closer with their children.

need to find the best time for both to talk When the elders call their children, sometimes their children are busy at work or are spending time on other activities. Thus, both of them would feel emotionally bad and might harm the relationship.

the colove project

REdefine the design direction

Design a smart mailing system for both to deliver their thoughts at the right time We decided to design a smart mailbox that could provide both handwriting and texting services. Thus, both the elderly and their children could use the service in their preferred ways.

the colove project

Step 01 The elder write something on the paper, and toss it into the mailbox.

Step 02 The letter will be scanned and send to their children’s email inbox. The children could respond the letter via typing.

Step 03 The mailbox would print out the respond of the children for the elder to read.

the colove project

To be continued

At the end of this project, we held a workshop and invited some elders to experience our design, also as one of our design evaluation.

Let's chat in the book project

let's chat in the book

March 2019

“LET'S CHAT IN THE BOOK!" is a public interactive visualization experiment that encourages people to read more.

Let's chat in the book project

TO BEGIN WITH...

WHAT'S no FUN WHEN WE HAVE INTERNET In the past, we often went to the library to find some resources and get information from a book or magazine. In the 2000s, people have multiple access to information on the internet.

Just with a click, we could grasp the information we want.

No need to read a whole bunch of books before getting the answers, however, people sometimes only grasp a piece of data without reading or understanding the whole of it.

DESIGN DIRECTION

design a new way to attract people to read paper books

Let's chat in the book project

meeting library-goers

I began my project at my University library. I randomly chose 20 library users and conducted a 20-minute semi interview with them individually, about borrowing books, sharing reviews and discussion with others.

INSIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW

could only know the numbers not the thoughts A date-due slip is attached to the last page of every book, indicating the number of people borrowing the book.

Borrowed number may be a rating standard of a book, however, people are more interested in the thoughts behind.

curious about the “travel” path of those books The books from the library have been read by many readers, forming an invisible “travel” path. It would be interesting to show it visibly…

Let's chat in the book project

REdefine the design direction

Design an interaction for people to chat inside the book Popular Books

Platform

Books for readers to write and chat

Read before, push the purple button Read because of the chat inside the book, push yellow button Actually borrowed it, push white button

Buttons

Animation

The experiment took part in the University Library

Let's chat in the book project

Passersby participated in the chating

Let's chat in the book project

To be continued Gained much appreciation from this first experiment, I would make a new version of this experiment, improving the animation and the physical interactions.