Amira Samiy PORTFOLIO
WORK Portfolio projects
46 Elastic Thinking
Cultivating a culture of innovation by fostering divergent thinking
16
10
22
Graphic User Interface
ICU Unit
Academic Facility
Designing a software interface for scheduling billboard advertisments
Designing a healthcare workplace to best suport caregivers
Rethinking building sustainabilty measures
PHILOSOPHY Research
secondary research competition & case studies primary research space observations interview & focus groups ambient space studies
guides
Design Thinking
ideation inspiration images scenario planning persona development stakeholder diagraming experience mapping
informs
Design Strategy
considerations recommendations scheduling execution plans
Context factors socio-cultural environmental ecomonic political
METHODS Project key
For each project, I use icons to depict what I did. To the right of these categories, I give examples of the work involved with each. Note that in group projects, I only use icons to illustrate my own contributon.
research primary research
met with stakeholders, conducted interviews, recorded physical traces, took photos
secondary research
analyzed research articles and other empirical research, watched informative videos
persona development
using data collected from research, created user profiles to better understand the ways in which a space/product is and will be used
experience mapping
identified and tracked users’ actions and decisions
design 2D rendering
produced sketches, create mockups, make elevations either by hand or using computer software
3D rendering
made perspective drawings, created 3D visualizations using CAD software
model making
used manual and/or electric tools (laser cutter, drill, saw) to produce 3D models
branding
developed a visual identity, created a logo or other graphic materials, considered methods to entice customers
logistics execution plan
produced a document that summarizes the project and includes recommendations, a schedule, and/or a budget for design implementation
duration of project
approximate duration I spent working on each project start to finish
Portal prototype
ELASTIC THINKING
Cultivating a culture of innovation by fostering divergent thinking
Context
research
Innovative work requires a different way of thinking. When companies are faced with the challenge of innovation, employees can’t be satisfied with the status quo: there’s no “tried and true” approach. We must think differently to unleash new insights that propel our work and our business.
Challenge We sought to identify how we might create an environment to generate better insights amontst Gensler employees to maximize our creative potential. From research, we discovered elastic thinking, a catchy phrase for the divergent thinking process involved in solving novel challenges and dealing with new situations.
Solution We developed a list of criteria required to design for elastic thinking as well as a list of indicators that elastic thinking had occured from primary and secondary research. The overarchingfinding is that it’s all about exposing people to new things. We prototyped two interventions, one a physical room, and the other a cultural program, to test both the effectiveness of these interventions in inciting elastic thinking as well as their usability and desirability amongst Gensler employees. Access final presentation
primary research secondary research
design prototype mockup
logistics 9 months deck of cards
key findings from research The following is a sampling of the key takeaways we amassed from primary and secondary research. This body of information was used to develop the user need and design goals framework that we used to evalute our interventions.
expert interview findings
The form of information affects the substance of that information, and how we act/react upon it. - Subliminal
Balance between (executive) top-down and bottom-up operation determines the focus and breadth of thinking
secondary research finding
Connected ecological models of learning—you learn as you grow within a cultural framework that supports learning - J.F. + A.B.
- Leonard Mlodinow, Elastic
Extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation - J.C.
Freedom, security, belonging, significance, meaning are the five primary needs.
Compasses over Maps: Set a direction, but don’t anticipate an outcome - Whiplash
The three main drivers of intrinsic motivation are autonomy, relatedness, and competency - Self-determination Theory
-Brady Wilson
Productive inefficiencies enable groups to create opportunities for play and experimentation which are the preconditions for learning
- J.F. + A.B. Learning is about accessing and filtering knowledge, not about having it - J.F. + A.B.
elastic thinking components Novelty search
+ Direction without destination
+ Opportunity to explore and observe new things
+ Variety of forms & content
Relaxed attention
+ Psychological safety
+ Separation from tasks
+ Participant are drawn to engage
Personal purpose
+ Challenge of personal growth / stretch zone
User Needs
to guage intervention effectiveness
Does the intervention induce elastic thinking?
+ Belonging
Design Goals
to guage intervention usability + desirability
Does the intervention fulfill the design goals?
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intervention design
Portal
Tangent
A physical space for an individual experience
A cultural program for a social experience (also conducted virtually during COVID outbreak)
QR codes are scanned and projected in an enclosed spaces with visual and acoustic seperation from the workplace. Participants must remain in Portal a minimum of 15 mins.
Effectiveness • Mindset Check • Effectiveness Survey • Brainstorm Activity*
Pre
Post
1 Week Later
baseline
change
lasting effects
Intervention
intervention testing
Experts in a field tangential to architecture or interiors is invited to share their creative processes and project work through conversation with Gensler employees.
Usability + Desirability • Usability Survey
* ultimately omitted from analysis due to reliability issues
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summary findings by intervention effectiveness item
detailed survey analysis
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key research findings
proving organizational value
Following the guidelines we developed for inducing elastic thinking lead us to good results for generating an insight mindset, but more should be done to measure the quality of those insights.
OUTCOME stay relevant and competitive ACTION interventions ACTION integration
There is overwhelming interest in these types of interventions at Gensler. If Gensler invests in them to demonstrate their value, participants will be more likely to continuously engage in elastic thinking.
Portal Tangent
Organizations OUTCOME fuel innovation
In the future, interventions should be designed to help people make the leap from engagement within the experience to insightful action outside of the experience.
OUTCOME opportunities to engage in elastic thinking
Employees ACTION culture-building
ACTION insightful work
OUTCOME self-directed purpose
cards The following cards were developed to be shared with other so they have the tools to also create interventions that instigate elastic thinking. novelty search
Direction without destination
Engaging in elastic thinking is about exploration. It requires having an opportunity to learn about new ideas. Being told to be creative is counter-productive to creativity. It is therefore critical that these conditions be satisfied without imposing concrete rules of engagement to create a truly exploratory experience.
Offer loose rules of engagement without insinuating participant outcomes • Set parameters, but there should be no right or wrong approach
Opportunity to explore and observe new things
Focus on creating a sense of wonder through exposure to novelty • Gain an understanding of your audience to gauge what they are likely to be familiar with and what they are less likely to know
Variety of forms
personal purpose
& content
Present novel information in a variety of ways • Provide a variety of sources and formats • E.g., video, conversation, article, abstract visual, sketch, smell, physical interaction,...
Challenge of personal growth / stretch zone
Critical to elastic thinking is the instrinsically motivated quality of being open and free to explore and absorb information. This quality of personal purpose is drawn out when people are confronted with a challenge they feel equipped to solve, and when they feel supported by external factors.
Let participants create links between ideas that typically belong to separate lines of thinking • Demonstrate the connections between disparate concepts
Belonging
Ensure participants sense that they are permitted and welcomed to engage • Demonstrate leadership support • E.g., leaders attend, time and/ or space are dedicated to the engagement
relaxed attention As humans, we are shaped to exercise our executive function, producing logical and strategic thinking. In excess, this thinking is counter-productive to spurring novel thoughts. We must relax our minds and to achieve a balance between linear thinking (associated with executive function) and divergent thinking (all non-linear thinking) in order to engage in elastic thinking.
Psychological safety
Ensure participants feel comfortable to engage with their guard down • Ensure the atmosphere is friendly • Participant should know they cannot fail
Separation from tasks
Separate interventions from socio-spatial environments associated with task mode • Avoid visual access or auditory queues related to work, tasks, responsibilities • Create space and time to disengage from tasks and refocus on novel content
Participant are drawn to engage
Design interventions such that participants want to engage without feeling forced to • Do not incentivize attendance by touting participation benefits beyond the those directly offered by intervention itself
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USER INTERFACE
Designing a software interface for scheduling billboard advertisments
Context
research
The project was done for a technology startup based in Lisbon, Portugal. My goals for my time there as the UX/UI intern was to learn about interface design and produce a mock-up of the program which would enable companies subscribed to the software to input billboard ads to be broadcast live during sporting events.
Challenge
secondary research experience mapping
design
To learn the tenants of User Interface Design, understand the users’ specific needs, and consider which functions are necessary to each stakeholder.
2D rendering (Illustrator, Balsamic, Photoshop)
Solution My final proposal was comprise of two primary pages. The home page enables the adding, scheduling, and verifying of advertisement inputs, and the Settings page provides the users with information about the software functions available to them based on their user type (administrator or not). Working closely with the two founders of the company gave me the ability to get lots of feedback and hone in on information hierarchy, wording, and the best way to implement functions.
logistics 1 month Graphic User Interface (GUI) steps for execution
what sention does
what I did for sention
Sention uses artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically understand and modify video content. Sention focuses on changing billboard advertising in both live and past football broadcasts.
I designed the Graphic User Interface (GUI) for the software that allows Sention users to schedule the advertisements during the football broadcasts that will replace the in-stadium billboards.
UI flow chart
see overview view prexisting feed edit feed see report
add administrators and/or editors
rename
edit feed alerts and notifications
view group
home delete
in preexisting group create new feed in new group
login create new group
add name
delete or reorder advertisments
add name, date, start time & location
add new advertisement
update software
change notification settings
settings
changer personal information
add or remove users
renew license
add name, duration, number of repetitions & upload ad
design principles - show users system status (what they are doing, what they have just done) - use familiar metaphors and language to facilitate intuitiveness of design - aim for a minimalist aesthetic (use shapes and colors judiciously - give users control and freedom - aim to prevent user error - allow for the ability to recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors (especially through the ability to under or go back) - use descriptive terminology (avoid “yes”, “no”, and “cancel”) - make the most frequently used actions easy to do - avoid needing users to scroll a lot to find what they are looking for
mockups
This version of the UI relied on users remembering details about existing feeds to find and be able to edit them. Also, information about the user is in the forefront, but is less likely to be necessary when a user logs in.
This version only allowed for feeds to be created within preexisting groups. Also, “feeds” is ambiguous, and was changed to “events” in the following mockup.
Finally, the UI was tweaked to facilitate searching and avoiding repetitive actions. This was done by making actions that apply to entire groups more visible, adding a search component to each group, and clearly marking the number of events in groups.
steps Creating a New Event
After clicking the button, users see the screen as presented on the left. Here they add a name, date, time, and location for the new event as well as select the group to which they would like to assign the new event (the default setting is “ungrouped”). After pushing the enter button on their keyboard, they are directed to the following screen. This page (center image) is the page on which users edit the content of preferences for an event.
The top portion of this page offers options for the editors and administrators of the event. These are the people who can make changes and approve the final advertisement schedule, respectively. Below this, editors can select whether or not to receive notifications and who will receive the report after the event has been aired. After ads have been added, a summary of them will appear in the right side column. Once happy with the content, users press one of the following: . This then directs you to the “overview” page, similar to the screen on the right.
Users may also view each ad once they have uploaded it by clicking the magnifying glass icon on the top right of the ad image. This larger view will help ensure that small details in the ad are not overlooked.
Weill Cornell Radiation Oncology
ICU UNIT Designing a healthcare workplace to best suport caregivers Context For this project, I worked on a three-person team on the redesign of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Provided only with images of our existing space, we sought to research, deduce, and implement strategies to foster the ideal healthcare worker experience. Focusing on the health and wellbeing and nurses was of interest to us because these stakeholders are not typically thought of first in the design process, typically coming after physicians and patients. Supporting caregivers is crucial to shaping the experiences of the other stakeholders, and positive impacts the hospital’s bottom line.
research primary research secondary research experience mapping
design
Challenge
2D rendering (AutoCAD)
We sought to devise a list of strategies informed by corporate workplace design to implement into the design an ICU.
3D rendering (3D studio Max)
Solution In seeking to understand how we might transform the disjointed experiences of caregivers into gratifying ones, we spoke with professionals from HKS Architects and Herman Miller, and conducted extensive research of scholarly articles. Six primary areas of focus arose which we used to guide the design of an improved ICU. Access Full Report and Proposal
branding
logistics 4 months
project timeline
conducted secondary research
analyzed current situation determined areas of focus
presented findings to class
created blocking diagrams
mapped experience based on persona development
Research & Analysis
Strategy Development
Reseach and analysis of corporate and healthcare workplaces
Applying best practices to inform program of a healthcare workspace
interviewed representatives from HKS and Herman Miller
generated design strategy
ideated and sketched
developed personas
created floor plan based on areas of focus
presented to interviewees, Dean & Director of Facilities of the College of chose color Human Ecology palette
Implementation Designing the Weill Cornell ICU based on best practices
revised blocking & floor plan
rendered perspective drawings
compiled and reviewed final document
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exisiting conditions
areas of focus Communication
Control and Choice
Wayfinding
Promote communication through impromptu interactions between staff, patients, and family members with the intention of spreading practical information, ideas, or experiences.
Increase sense of individuality and choice by giving patients and families more control of their surroundings and providing work environments that adapt to caregivers fast-paced schedules, work styles.
Provide a sense of direction to patients, visitors and staff by improving signage and utilizing proper wayfinding.
No barriers Short Distances
Flexible Moveable
Landmarks Signage
Family Space
Existing 2 Work Hub, Collaborative Area This space doubles doubles as a place for informal conversation about work, and thereby increasing coworker communication
1 Indoor Garden + Plantings afford visual and auditory privacy + Indoor garden provides attention restoration
Proposed
Family Space Patient Rooms Nurse Stations Caregiver Offices and amenities
A new dedcated reception area is placed focally that encourages waiting family members to bring their concerns to this one place.
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ideation sketches
areas of focus User Satisfaction
Adaptability
Positive Distraction
Increase the users’ sense of comfort and reestablish their sense of individuality by creating a space that incorporates natural elements and homey qualities.
In light of fast-paced changes in the work environment, ensure the adaptability of environments to new technologies and work ethics and geography.
Provide a sense of rest for caregivers and reduce perceptions of pain for patients and their families by creating entertainment features and social activities.
Warm Tones Natural Elements
Technology Secondary Workstations
Lounges Food
4 Family Waiting Area + Moveable furniture allows for change and customization
3 Work Hub Offers spaces that facilitate a variety of work tasks and a degree of choice of workplace
5 Food/beverage Area for Caregivers A kitchenette allows opportunity for food and beverage within an area designated as a caregiver lounge
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adjacencies diagram
floor plan
preliminary bubble diagram 5
Patient Rooms
Reception
4
Family Space
Central Nurse Workstation
Indoor Garden
Outdoor Garden
1 2
Flex Space Food/ Beverage
Patient/ caregiver confidentiality
Storage
Private Offices
3
Bathroom
Nurse Breakroom
Work Hub Caregiver Lounge
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Warren Hall, Cornell University
ACADEMIC FACILITY Rethinking building sustainability measures
research primary research
Context After researching building sustainability standards such as LEED, WELL, Living Building Challenge, and Green Building Initiative, our team of four developed a set of sustainability criteria with which we measured the success of Warren Hall, an academic building at Cornell University that houses faculty offices, classrooms, and study spaces.
secondary research
logistics 1 month
Challenge The challenge here was to determine the building’s strengths and weaknesses from a sustainability standpoint, and offer recommendations on how to improve it.
Solution Taking a critical stance, we examined the site, users’ perceptions, lighting, HVAC, acoustics, FF&E, energy usage and developed our own sustainability measure to best identify areas for improvement. We made a dozen recommendations focusing on ways to minimize required maintenance, diminish pollution and wastefulness, and offer option for creating more attractive environments thus supporting social sustainability. Access Full Report
recommendations
sustainability measures Energy Efficiency Regulated HVAC, lighting, electric, water usage Reduced environmental impact
Place Integration Accessibility Integrating site with local and regional ecosystems Safeguarding biodiversity
Aesthetics Visually pleasing material and surfaces Appealing interior/exterior design Biophilia
Interior Environment Comfort Thermal comfort Furniture configuration and type
Social Sustainability Reasons why users continue using the space Privacy, security, entertainment Outdoor seating and tables
Local & Reused Materials Materials that are locally sourced or have been reused in the renovation from the old building
spotlight on findings HVAC control and choice
Daylighting vs. artificial lighting Daylighting is maximized along building periphery, upper floor office suites and lower level classrooms rely heavily on artificial lighting. Staff prefer the privacy of partitions over natural light.
Do you have control over HVAC in that space? no
yes 17%
unsure 51%
32%
Occupants with dedicated spaces feel like they have more control over thermal conditions than others, especially students, who share spaces more.
Acoustics: liveliness vs. distraction “Lots of artificial light but they don’t feel artificial or right in your face” - Student
+ Respondents found Warren to be loud yet, on the whole, were satisfied with the noise level. - Students expressed concerns for echo in public spaces, while staff have quieter spaces and more control over the noise in their workspaces.
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key features
site plan
+ Access to Nature views of outdoors, biophilia, attention restoration +/- Covered Bike Rack few bikers + Limited Parking few parking spaces, 8% still responded that they drive + Garden/Bioswale Permeable surfaces, native species require less watering - Recent Sidewalk Renovation disrupted pedestrian traffic to Warren, fencing and coning off, redirected traffic, airborne particles + Modular Green Roof stormwater treatment, water conservation, run-off and rainwater absorption, building insulation, reduced energy use
Key
+ Lake Source Cooling cold water from Lake Cayuga used to cool building, less energy than traditional air conditioning systems
recommendations 1. Consider light shelves for more interior daylight penetration
YKK Architectural Products
2. Educate people about the ability to change lighting, temperature settings, and use trickle vents
Seton
3. Consider adding white noise to
increase ambient noise without adding distracting speech sounds
Dohm
4. Reopen Forest Home Drive
to increase access to Warren from North and Central campuses
Google Maps
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