S E L E C T E D P R O J E C T S
RESEARCHPORTFOLIO M A R I A
E C H A V A R R I A
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
JOY
01
Shifting from outdoor spaces to micro living spaces.
CUPBOOK
02
Improving productivity through social media.
SPEEDY
03
Creating brand loyalty in early ages.
OTHERS
04
Smart yoga mat for the modern Yogi.
ToC TABLE OF CONTENT
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
Projects
Table of contents/
Design research
How design research was applied in order to propose services and products in cooperation with companies
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MICRO
WHERE THE RIDE BEGINS/ 2017 Meaning of home Preliminary parent profiles
Specific Home Dynamics
Level 4 Describing the intimacy of home
Rituals at home
Level 3 Zoom in Living trends.
Relationship between home and city
Children’s space oriented necessities
City/Home Relationship
Home and City
Meaning of city
Common Living trends
Level 2. Influence of city in the home context
General City level.
Growing dense populations
Differences
Similarities
Level 1. Focus points. (Output Desk research) MACRO
J
Product final render
JOY
THE CHALLENGE
MY ROLL
RESEARCH APPROACH
To propose how to extend the portfolio line from strollers ( JOOLZ traditional product line) into the home context in metropolises such as tokyo, amsterdam and NYC.
Develop a concept starting from the Fuzzy front end as my graduation project assignment.
The research was divided into two main stages: The first phase, entitled ‘Desk research’, tackles selected similarities and differences among metropolis’ as well as a company analysis.
PHASE 1:
Desk research
Tackles from Macro (cities) to micro (families), Identifying what key aspects of how cities influence the homes through a multi source qualitative analysis combined with demographic data. The outcome are relevant focus points to be explored in depth during the generative research phase. The second research phase, entitled ‘generative research’ strive to unravel the intimacy of home and how much the home activities can vary between parent profiles.
PHASE 2:
Generative research
Aims to gain in depth knowledge of the tension points that emerged during the desk research. This is done through methods from the convivial toolbox (Sanders, EBN and Stappers, P.J, 2012).
RESEARCH TOOLS Gathering Information : Top down research method, from general to specifics.
RESEARCH TOOLS:
Analyzing and summarizing information: Personas and storytelling. Socio technical design maps. (ANT) Theory of actor network DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
Online questionnaire, interviews and workshops for home visits. The questionnaires are done to gain quantitative data (Survey monkey) and interviews ( Skype with Tokyo and home visits in Amsterdam) and workshops for qualitative data.
JOY
Indoor mobile device for babies
Research approach /
JOOLZ, NETHERLANDS
Mobile device for newborns
JOY facilitates children involvement during intimate moments at home and spares space. It is a mobile structure with interchangeable applications to position the baby. JOY celebrates the intimacy of home by bringing closer the newborns when food is being prepared, when the family sits all together in the dining room and when time is shared in the living room.
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
It is through the understanding of the world, how you get to understand who you are. Living Smaller
Services
Social Networks
Families growing in studios for 2
Bedroom
Families and private sector adapting to housing Market New York
Amsterdam
Time to do what is really important
Rowing together
Delivery of groceries
Connection to nature Cherish daily life activities
Creating Values
Creating a relationship with the world.
Passing a Lifestyle over the children
Family in sync. Respect for others
Other lifestyles, overview of what the world is
Heijmans ONE
[2014]
[1960]
Buying special hand picked ingredients
Market
Importance of experimenting
Sleeping Nagakin tower
Park
Picnic
Identity/ personality development
Arquitecture going smaller
Tokyo.
Laundry washed and folded
Creating and imagining
Carmel Place
[2016] Nourishment
Urban planning initiatives
Staying young
awareness
Intellectual heritage
Cultural values: Zen tradition + Population Growth
Cafes and restaurant
Museums and cultural events
Kitchen
J Rituals
Space
Em erging micro- li vi n g
C ity and home map
Graph made to explain how micro living has emerged with the increasing of rent prices and population growth
Mapping the connection in between home and city according to family activities
DESK RESEARCH Main insights
‘Micro living’ Micro living: a tendency of high relevance in the context of modern parenthood within metropolises because of urban development and migration trends to the core of the city which boosted rent prices.
How micro living circumstances influenced the home environment was analyzed by sneaking into the life of micro living bloggers.
“Treat the city as your dang living room” Eryn Boyle.
This quote was the starting point to unravel the new meanings of home and city. As the migration of activities from home to city has redefined the traditional meaning of both places.
PERSONAS After developing the diagrams based on activities per place, it was concluded that the city is the place in where a relationship with the world is created and home is where families practice their values and build an identity. Personas from suburban and micro living environments are created as a focus point for the next phase. After analyzing the information, the following focus points emerge as key points to be able to develop a concept and are tackled during the second research phase: When it is a priority for parents to remain in the city core. What parents profile can be found according to location suburban and urban DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
There are key activities that described the meaning of home, do these activities change in relation to the parents profiles?
JOY
Values
Desk research insights /
Core
Mobile device for newborns
Changing demographics
Dating
Learning outside the home.
Cooking together Healthy food
+ Rent prices - Housing availability
Exploring uncommon food outside routine
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THREE MAIN RITUALS AT HOME The three main activities that describe the meaning of home and were shared by all different parent profiles and were:
SLEEPING RITUALS
“ We have a family hug every time we go to bed. In the middle of a hasty life, that is the moment when you feel you are giving everything to your children” Heidi Riekerk Staying within urban space is a priority for parents aged 30 to 35 years old who in average have children from 0 to 4 years old.
Space
140 sqm
Main insights
‘Home’ The main insights of the generative research phase were answers to the focus points from the desk research through interviews and workshops addressed to young parents.
32 sqm
64 sqm
‘Full Zen’
‘The Micro Liver’
p1 Only fundamentals.
102 sqm
120 sqm
‘Green is my religion’
p2
‘Feet on both sides’
‘Urban Nostalgic’
p3
p4
p5
p6
p7
Staying put in a studio
City lovers
Traveling for work
Nature side in the city
Living in suburbia
Country side
Caroline W.
Pauline Vijge (140 sqm) Jeroen (93 -94sqm) Lieke
Merel
Heidi
Wendy Priscilla
‘Spacey’ house in the nearest suburbia
City is not a preference and will never be
Located in downtown to avoid commuting
Small and great location.
“They normally play very close to where we are” Jeroen
70 sqm ‘Nomads’
Naomi Evelyn
“ She loves to be with me while I cook, if she rearranges the carrots, i know she will eat them” Caroline Vijge
Jeroen’s house / Tokyo
‘Urban lover’
Ludovica
PLAYING/ CREATING
Not as ‘small’ but in the middle of everything
Big apartment in the middle of the city
Periferic points of the city
City
J Mobile device for newborns
GENERATIVE RESEARCH
R1’
C H I L D I N V O LV E M E N T
JOY
Filled workshop page by Wendy, a suburban mother.
Caroline’s house / Tokyo
Generative research insights /
Worksh o p
150 sqm
R2’
After identifying the different profiles, ‘critical user profiles’ were established in terms of space requirements and purchasing flexibility. These type of parents would be the most difficult segment to design for.
Suburban
Eight different types of parent profiles were established after the interviews. Left end being the ones most attached to the city and left end right to suburban life and nature-like spaces. DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
Second prototype to test size and bathing application in a suburban home
USER VALIDATION I Main insights
‘Experience’
After the concept phase, a first mock up was built in order to have an early insight of parent-baby interactions. The mock up was tested in the three places where it was
intended to be used in. The different functions for kitchen, dinning room and living room were experienced by a suburban mother.
Living room
“ It is better that they understand they are part of the world rather than the center of it” Heidi Riekerk
USER VALIDATION Ii Main insights
‘Mobility’
The purpose of the second user validation was to test the product’s final measures and applications in a micro living environment and a new possible application. DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
JOY
Dinning room
User validation i and ii /
Kitchen
J Mobile device for newborns
Testing mobility and braking system Heidi moves from kitchen to dinning room dragging the prototype with a hand and holding a plate with the other.
Testing chair application in a micro living environment with a dutch dad.
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
Consolidation session All relevant information connected on the wall.
The challenge The challenge was to provide a solution for miscommunication and delays in the development process in the R&D department
Cupbook
My roll
I conducted the research and proposed an inter phase concept as this was my bachelor project.
Company & research impact. Cupbook is a company Inter phase that smooths the development process in the R&D department.
The platform was developed for a packaging company who works as a manufacturers for the diary market in united states for clients such as Uniliver, General mills, Dannon, etc.
The communication material (all the forms that contain information and are used to share information with other departments) will be an important element within the cup book. It’s what we call in this case, the product functionality. Selecting the information that is actually needed in the inter phase is key in order to fulfills user needs.
The user research has two approaches : a group approach to describe trends, and an individual approach, in order to understand personal behavior. The insights gained on this section are used as a starting point to design the interphase.
RESEARCH TOOLS Context mapping, brainstorming, study case analysis, interviews and grounded theory method (GT)
DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
RESEARCH TOOLS “10 usability heuristics categories for user interface design”. By Jakob Nielsen on January 1, 1995. Contextual design methodologies: Rapid contextual design. Karen Holtzblatz ,Burns Wendell and Shelley Wood.
Cupbook
Interactive platform for project management
PHA S E 2 : G e n e rat i ve re s earc h
Research approach /
P H O E N I X G R O U P, U S A
P H A S E 1: U nde rsta ndin g t he p roce ss e s an d co m m unica t io n m a te r i al
Project management Inter phase
Mock up Visualization of two key pages of the final proposed interface which works like social media.
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KEY QUESTIONS MAP Questions to solve based on user studies.
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
C .
IDEA NAME
Changing how information is given to improve communication. A mind map was the main result of the research phase, in which the entire process was visualized in terms of information and communication material, as a conclusion of all the steps and information that was needed to have a success-
C O M M U N I C AT I O N M AT E R I A L ( P H .1 ) Case study example Development bottlenecks for a Dannon project
Main insights
‘Needed info’
All the communication material belongs to a specific stage of the process for product development. This means that there are forms, which aim is to facilitate, gather, process or deliver information.
To understand how people communicate, the entire process was divided into: Gathering information, process information and deliver information. Each of these stages were mapped and key stakeholders, key activities and key forms were highlighted.
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Communication material and stage of the process. Forms divided according to stage in the process when they are used
Flow maps for each of the parts of the process were developed (Gather, process and delivering information). With the gained insights, Study cases were built in order to understand what the main bottlenecks looked like in real development cases. For each the study cases, the different stakeholders were
interviewed to understand what caused the delay in their opinion and a deeper analysis of the process was constructed. Relevant information about stakeholders in every stage was the output of the Study cases.
DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
ful product development process. This diagram was translated into IT language afterwards through Lucid Chart.
Cupbook
‘A NEW FLOW’:
Communication material insights /
Key form in the ´gathering´phase analyzed and intervened according to user feedback.
Project management interphase
BOTTLENECK DIAGRAM During information gathering, after interviews with sales and R&D department, the important bottlenecks were identified in a flow diagram in relation to people interaction and flaws in the communication forms.
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The why seeker
WHERE THE RIDE BEGINS/ 2017
“I LIKE TO DO THINGS IN THE RIGHT WAY”
d work spot
FELICIA FERNANDEZ
Custommize
PURCHASING
Felicias working environ ment
“OUR JOB IS TO MAKE THINGS WORK” The first stage is to do the necessary researching for the product we are about to develop, After doing this research, a feasibility analysis should be done, answering the question: Is it possible ?.After this question has been answered positively, it’s time to PROOF.
To Make the trials and proof that the product works, machine time/availability is necessary.
NEW RESOURCES REQUIRE PROOFS.
ArielJunio The bussiness
His son appears in a professional cover p h o t o Email culture map. Group segmentation according to how they approach communication.
Organizational context map. INTERPRET AND MODEL
Users were analyzed in two stages: company culture (zoom out), and an individual approach (zoom in), to understand personal behavior in the company and in social media.
NETWORKER
This diagram will be our insight source in order to see how is the context culture impact and the efficiency and the communication of the company, and also in which ways it does it. If the direct way in which the context affects the culture is identified, a solution that reduces the “side effects” or “negative points” of the current organizational context can be found.
The methodologies from ´Rapid contextual design´ were chosen to identify the best way in which the users could interact with the platform and all the available data contained in it. This section is about making data accessible for the user, and to deeply understand how the users
Web page from personal businness HOW TO ENSURE ACCESSIBILITY?
After the study cases, one of the main challenges during this stage was to connect the right people by using the right information. behave. Making all the communication material available Lighting fast was used to be able to do this, for the user’s activities on daily basis hinders the possias it was key to first: define key issues within bility of having hold backs in the process due to members a user population. The process was dividinteraction. ed into three stages: Interpret and model, consolidation and visioning.
Businness related Profile picture
WEDDING
EVENTS
Professional and personal info
Personal pictures Business oriented pictures Traveling
Networking profile example Ariel Junio (IT member) social media behavior analysis.
DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
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Social network from key stakeholders from R&D were analyzed through collages and were categorized afterwards into business related or personal related input and active or passive role.
Cupbook
Social network categorization Mapping out relative place of analyzed members.
User understanding insights /
‘Networking’
FELICIAS HALF EMPTY CUP
The development of personas based on interviews and social media behavior gave relevant insights for the inter phase design experience. Thoughts, beliefs, behavior and emotion served as inspiration to develop an inter phase that fulfilled their wishes.
SOCIAL NETWORKING BEHAVIOR
USER UNDERSTANDING Main insights
The risk of having just one supplier is to high, because in case the supplier fails, there’s nothing you can do to keep producing the cup.
Project management interphase
The ‘email’ culture was one of the main issues to analyze, as emails meant a love-hate relationship and pointed to important inconsistencies in the human interaction dimension.
´THE WEB THEORY´
Pyramid workshop The most important aspects within an organization were hierarchized by key members. Sarah Applegate an industrial designer from R&D in this case.
Since I was in purchasing I used to request trials so we could homologate materials. By homologate materials, what I mean is to validate new raw materials that fulfill our product expectations. In order to know if the materials fit in our processes.
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Trycicle
䤀渀琀攀最爀愀琀攀搀 猀攀愀琀
D E S I G N R E S猀攀渀猀漀爀猀 E A R C H P O R T F O L I O / 2 0 1䤀渀琀攀最爀愀琀攀搀 爀攀愀爀 氀椀最栀琀 8
Bycicle
Bycicle
+ training wheels
- training wheels
䔀愀猀礀ⴀ匀琀漀瀀 䈀爀愀欀椀渀最 猀礀猀琀攀洀 ⬀ 嘀椀戀爀愀琀椀渀最 栀愀渀搀氀攀猀
It’s nice I got to do it with my friends ! I’m riding such a tall bike!
Cant wait to get started!
匀瀀攀攀搀漀洀攀琀攀爀 ⬀ 匀漀甀渀搀 猀礀猀琀攀洀
It’s almost my size!!
䬀椀挀欀ⴀ匀琀愀爀琀 氀攀瘀攀爀 瀀漀眀攀爀 最攀渀攀爀愀琀漀爀
What is this present ?
I CAN”T WAIT FOR IT! Wait for my friends to see this!
I’m pedaling like those cool kids !!
I WANT ONE!
This trycicle is not fun anymore!
This is so easy! I never thought I could do it! WHAT!! How am I supposed to ride without training wheels? I will be able to ride like the older kids!!
I can’t believe mom and dad will buy a bike for me! Those bikes are so tall!
How can they do it without them?
䔀愀猀礀ⴀ匀琀愀爀琀 ⴀ 䄀挀挀攀氀攀爀愀琀椀漀渀 猀礀猀琀攀洀
An user journey is done in order to show feeling variations during the learning process. The journey visualizes what emotions arise when children go through a classic learning process: from tricycle to bicycle with training wheels and end with a bicycle without training wheels.
OOOUCH
嘀ⴀ猀栀愀瀀攀 一攀眀 昀爀愀洀攀 搀攀猀椀最渀
Am I going to be like those kids??
Gets trycicle for christmas.
匀倀䔀䔀䐀夀 攀愀猀礀 猀琀愀爀琀
Concept final render
B’TWIN, FRANCE
Surprised: He wasn’t expecting it.
Opportunity
Create an opportunity for the brand B’twin to facilitate the pedaling learning process with parents in order to cause brand identity with children.
I was in charge of the generative research, proposing activities, executing them and analyzing them. I led the user validation with children, planned the activities and analyzed the input from children to evaluate the prototype
The generative research supported the ideas during the generation phase and guided a general vision for BTWIN, shifting the traditional product design into positive design and service design. It influenced and drove the development of the car concept for BTWIN.
RESEARCH METHODS:
let filled out by small children with two main goals: 1. Understand the relationship with parents when helping them to learn how to ride a bike a 2. The way they saw their bikes, the experience with their bikes and what their bikes meant to them.
The goal of the research was to get acquainted with how the user perceives the learning experience and how this is addressed through the bikes they own, their belongings and their personal attitude towards it. Therefore, a customer journey at the bike shop with parents and children. A book-
Opportunity
Overwhelmed: There are a lot of options to pick from.
Opportunity
Playing with friends.
Happy and satisfied: he has got what he wanted
Parents encourage him to take out the training wheels.
Feeling like an adult.
Scared: He knows he must do it like the adults, but he knows that is more difficult.
Proud: he is part of the cool guy’s gang.
Eager: He wants to try doing it like a real adult.
Opportunity
Opportunity
Falls down and realizes is not easy.
Learning process.
Learned it.
Playing with friends on bikes.
Getting used to it.
Frustrated: At the beginning he falls all the time so he is very frustrated.
Neutral: when he gets used to it is not that exciting anymore.
Happy: He gets to be on his bike for more and more time. He gets happier each time.
Happy: He gets to be in control of his bike, mastering bike skills, being able to join his friends with his bike.
Opportunity
A booklet was designed to understand children’s emotions and the influence of the parents when learning to ride a bike. Analyzing the booklets allowed us to get a deeper understanding of how children experience the cycling process.
Impact
One of the main insights from the booklets was that physical features strengthen the love of children towards their bike. KEY INSIGHT
The majority of children (40%) expressed to love their bikes due to a particular physical features by making statements such as: “I love my bike because is blue”, “I love my bike because it has flames on it”.
DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
S
Opportunity BOOKLET
Speedy
My roll
Bored: He gets used to his new toy.
Excited and hopeful: Will go to the store to have a new bike.
Gets a new bike.
Research approach /
The challenge
Jelaous: There are other cooler bycicles and he only got his trycicle.
In the shop See the possibilities.
Learning to ride the bike
‘Speedy ’
Playing with Get used to Cooler kids friends in it. have a bike. trycicles.
Excited: he’s never got a toy his size, which he can actually use to move. He is also looking forward to play with his friends and it.
Learning how to pedal through experience
Providing a good first experience to ensure customer loyalty depends on how children perceive the current biking experience and where do they see value on it: family time, the bike itself, being with their friends, etc. Get to know the user, means to be able to propose something that will stimulate them positively through B’TWIN brand values
I was able to be on the bike for a while. That’s so cool!
USER JOURNEY
what the HEEEEELLLL !!!
Those kids have cooler bikes......
Re s earc h a pproac h
This is not that special anymore...
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
COM M U N I C AT I O N W I T H T EST E RS Understanding through symbols how the children felt during the experience.
.
COM M U N I C AT I O N O F ´S P E E D OM E T E R´ Testing different illustrations for the display of the new model order to see which one was preferred by children.
S
Regular bike with vibration device attachment and go-pro to record the face of the children when experiencing the ´speedy´bike.
U S E R V A L I D A T I O N S E T U P.
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USER VALIDATION Experience
‘Vibration & speedometer’
R E S U LT S F R O M U S E R V A L I D AT I O N P H A S E .
CONCLUSIONS
Key insight:
After the validation process, the team realized that both features should be included in the design as they did contribute to the intended experience. Even though further research is needed for the embodiment of the display and vibration handles, it is possible to state that through research, both features have a positive impact according to children’s answers and facial expressions.
Adding vibration was a pleasant experience for most of the kids and felt they were going faster when vibration was on.
After defining the concept, a user validation was done by adding the experience of a motorcycle to the bike. Such as a vibration device that made the children think they were going faster. DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
Speedy
User validation /
Learning to ride the bike
T EST I N G V I B R AT I O N SYST E M P ROTOT Y P E (INCREASED COGNITIVE SPEED)
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DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO/ 2018
F I N A L P ROTOT Y P E US E R VA L I DAT I O N
Breathing rhythm
.
Sh Smart yoga mat
GUIDANCE THROUGH LIGHT INSIGHT SESSION
USER VALIDATION Design research
Shakti Shakti is a smart yoga mat with OLED’s, it was a technology push made in partnership with the European research institute. The features of the design and prototype were evaluated along the
How lights should be programmed in order to enhance the rejuvenating experience of the modern yogi.
.
process in order to fit interactions which supported mindfulness and features that were consistent wit the lifestyle of the user: Yoga girl.
Shakty
Research overview /
FINAL FUNCTIONAL PROTOTYPE
Flexible Yoga mat with OLED´s
PERSONA
The behavior of technology friendly yogis was analyzed through interviews and observations of yoga bloggers. A persona was created in order to represent the adopters of this technology push.
DESIGN RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
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