EARL ULGES ORTFOLIO
UX DESIGN.
GIFTINITE
AN EASY WAY OF MAKING GIFTING EASY GIFT CURATION APP
GIFTINITE During my masters year at the University of Bath, I always tried to participate in various competitions so that I get to learn new things and make the most of my year. Overall, it was such a knowledgeable experience.
APP CRUNCH The goal of this competition is to create an app that solves a particular problem. From this challenge, I brought Giftinite a little bit closer to reality. I prototype the app using Balsamiq. Furthermore, I thought of the whole business, the services and the eco-system that would be required for running the app. These limitations fulfil the app, making the whole experience a lot more fulfilling for users. Since the competition gave me the chance to develop a concept, I carried this forward into the next challenge which is the business plan challenge.
BUSINESS PLAN CHALLENGE The competition consists of 3 rounds: ideas, plan and pitch.
The concept was pitched to a panel of judges from Deloitte at their headquarters in London to gain valuable professional insights on what is good or bad about the idea. The business idea was guided and developed alongside my special mentor, Martin Bysh, a real-life entrepreneur who built so many successful platforms and services. We observed the user insights, collected primary data and critique the app features with respect to what would enhance the user experience for the customer. Thus, we still had to balance the design benefits with the business restrictions. The assumptions made are based on the primary data collected and the financial model was created to forecast the viability.
CONCEPTUALISATION
Affinity diagram has been used to organise my set of ideas into clusters. It helps focus down the main research ideas, and identify the main features and services that the app needs. This stage is really important since it defines the main concepts for the app and also really identify the idea that makes the app unique in comparison to various ones that exist in the market. This also helps define the research path.
GIFTINITE MARKET RESEARCH
According to the primary researched survey based on 500 participants in the UK few questions were answered about gifting and behavioural habit about it. This survey included all genders and all age group, therefore, it is highly reliable. The numbers from the survey are taken account onto Giftinite’s business plan to make it as real as possible.
Average price people spend on gifts: £27.91 Almost 70% would much rather be shopping online 63% find it hard to find gives for their love ones
WIREFRAMES
Main journies: Creating a gift board for the recipient, collaborating with your friends selecting presents and splitting bills when it comes to payment.
THE FINAL IDEA Algorithm-based solution for gift recommendations. This algorithm firstly based on the recipient's social media profile like Facebook and Instagram using API Personality montage of the recipient for ideas Social media timeline importing and notification Collaboration boards and payment
OPERATION PROCESS
FINANCIALS
The 3 main services that have to run behind the scene of the business: 1.fulfilment 2.standard checks 3.logistics management.
- £170,000 pounds investment is needed initially.
These elements need to be well supported so that the eco-system of the application run smoothly and the user has a flawless experience throughout the whole of their journey. Giftinite is an app that is to do with curation and personalisation of gifting, it means that it needs to seem extra special to be able to retain existing customers and acquire new ones regularly.
- Revenue comes from transaction charges, packaging fee, subscriptions, seller’s advertising charges
- The app will start profiting from after two years of operation
- Financial variables and assumptions are mainly based on customer acquisition, unit of sale rate, seasonality, operational costs and overheads.
ANZEN
THE SAFER THAI TAXI LOCAL COMMUNITY APP
ANZEN PEOPLE . Startup Weekend attendee backgrounds are roughly 50% technical (developers, coders, designers) and 50% business (marketing, finance, law). It was a great experience to meet new people from so many different backgrounds and allowing my self to use my creative knowledge to help each other to bring to life an idea in an intensive environment.
SKILLS . My team consisted of 5 people; we all have our own skill sets that can contribute values and knowledge to the team. These skills are great assets for the team to create and start up a business idea.
Startup Weekend was a 54-hour event designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations. The weekend was centred around action, innovation, and education.
DESIGN
CODING
BUSINESS
FINANCE
As a product design graduate, I was the one who leads the team regarding the design aspects. I was able to use the design thinking concept among the group to make critical decisions.
In the team, there were 2 developers in the team. They came from a very technical background full of logical mindsets. They came up with efficient and logical ideas to various problems.
A team member runs a leading security family business in Thailand. She was able to provide various ideas on how to manage and run the business.
The last team member came from a strong financial background. He provided the team with great analytical mindset, many financial and funding advice for the ideas.
The event was a Women startup weekend, and so our final idea was inspired by women.
STATISTICS . In Thailand, there are 3,000 reports on taxi cases in a month about reckless drivers, sexual harassment and belongings lost. According to NIDA poll, 75% of taxi users faced problems at least once. Missbehaved drivers information are not shared with the public, and the same problem keeps recycling in the society. Due to this ongoing problem, existing solutions like Uber and Grab charges high surge prices so that people can feel ‘safer’. They also have insufficient number of cars, high waiting time and it is ILLEGAL in Thailand.
PRIMARY RESEARCH . As a group, we went out in Bangkok surveying the society about the problem and their views on Thai taxi. A lot of people even the locals feel unease and paranoid when using the taxi service.
“I never take a taxi at night because it feels very insecure and unsafe.”- Suda, 22 “I always pretended like I’m speaking to someone on the phone so the driver doesn’t talk to me.”- Manee, 28
PERSONA .
Rosarin Pornpairin
Accountant at Bangkok bank, 27 years old Rosarin usually takes public transport, the BTS sky train to work every day. Often if she is working late shifts at night or go out after work with her friends, she would take Taxis to get there since she does not have a car. She usually finds that Uber is a lot more expensive due to the high charges that come with the ridiculous traffic jam in Bangkok. Therefore she prefers to use the usual local taxi to get to places. When she is in the car, usually she will always make sure that she takes a picture of the license plate in case anything happens and she always tries to avoid making conversations with the driver.
TASK GOALS
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Rosarin usually wants to get from a restaurant back home after late dinner or after she has been out drinking with her friends. She wants something or someone that she can rely on while she is travelling in the taxi especially at night. She just wants to be safe from all the possible scenarios that could happen to her.
EXPERIENCE GOALS
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She wants to feel safe while travelling in the taxi and want to feel confident using it, especially at night. She wants to use the taxi service more often when she feels like it is more reliable and safer. She wants to trust the local taxi community, but from all the cases she heard of, she still does not entirely have trusts in it.
ANZEN HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES .
Welcome screen when opening the app after the user already login and registered.
Search filtering page, type in the license plate number to filter down the number of taxis in the system.
Select the right license plate for the taxi that the user is about to get onto to check the review.
The review for the taxi will come up and see the other passenger’s past experiences and reviews.
When the user is on the journey, the user can send live locations to their chosen friends and family.
An automatically generated text will be sent to the selected person to confirm the user’s location.
SOS button is at the top of every page in case if anything happens. Help tips are also given, and there is also an option to search and call the nearest police station to the user.
The user can end the trip on the main menu page. They can also access other main features of the app.
After the ride, the user is to provide feedback on that taxi ride experience and comment on anything in particular.
The user can select an automatic location and information sharing to the chosen nominated contact as soon as the user is in the taxi.
SITE MAP .
Site map logically shows the main features, user journeys and flows of the app. Welcome screen
Login
SOS
Taxi search
Call the nearest police station?
License Plate selection
no
Read review
yes Police station help call
no Search the nearest police station
Are you on the trip? yes Send live location and auto text to selected contacts Finish your trip? no Menu
Settings
Help
Read reviews
Live location
yes
Share ride information
FINAL OUTCOME .
Anzen is a simple mobile application that is an honest based reviewing system that allows the user to distinguished good and bad taxi even before the journey starts. Anzen also includes safety features for users that are in the taxi. Users would incline to feel more secure since they are always connected to their friends and family, and they can quickly ring up the police station nearby if anything ever happens. Real customers based review system usually seems to be more reliable and relatable. Consumers’ word of mouth is seemed to be more persuasive than companies or celebrities if started a campaign or advertisements are started for it. Anzen revenue stream will come from Thailand Road Safety Fund (Department of Land Transportation), government subsidies, in-app advertisement and donations from the community. Anzen’s ultimate aim is not to generate high profit and revenue but to raise reliability and use of Thailand’s local taxi services. This is so that people can change their perception of Thai’s taxi and start to trust the service more. In the long run, it will hope to generate more income for taxi drivers, and people are less incline to spend their money on services like Uber or Grab taxi.
Anzen was awarded for judges’ favourite concept.
Account and auto sharing Journey 1 - The main user journey through the app Journey 2 - SOS emergency journey, the user will have access to the SOS feature at every stage of the app
Low fidelity wireframes
UX design and Coding
LOCAL SHOPPER
GAMIFICATION LOCAL SHOPPING APP
LOCAL SHOPPER BRIEF .
Create realistic scenarios of use and create an interactive experiential prototype that can be used to support the re-enactment of these scenarios by a target user or group of users. Use the feedback from your user(s) to identify ways to improve your concept in terms of its features, the use of game mechanics and usability.
IDEA . LOCAL HAND FREE SHOPPING SERVICE JUST OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR STEP USABILITY TESTING .
Methods that involve observing users when they interact with a product. This helps gather more informal feedback on the UX and can be used to test against formalised evaluation metrics. This helps increase customer satisfaction and can even identify opportunities to delight the consumer at the earlier stages. It resolves both unknown and known issues and also set a baseline for future testing. The emphatic researched carried out really gave useful insights.
PROTOTYPE . Prototype: https://marvelapp.com/298f93f Marvel app allows the wireframe and prototype to be designed easily. Low-fidelity was drawn out to get the idea across. This prototype was used to conduct the user testing to identify key insights from the user so that the design can be iterate and improve when it comes to designing the high-fidelity wireframes.
GAMIFICATION . By including game mechanics, it would potentially increase users satisfaction, usage and also would possibly even change the user’s behaviour in the long run. Gamification will help creates: - bonds between the local community and other users - users will feel more competitive and engage with the system
Main features:
AVATAR: creates a better virtual visual for the user making it seems more like a game rather than just another app service. COLLECTING JIGSAW: making user overcome challenges to gain discount vouchers by going out and shop more. This adds a feeling of accomplishments. COLLECTING COINS AND LEVELING UP: points for levelling up, give users new targets to overcome. It gives a competitive feeling.
USER TESTING SCENARIO 1 . CONTEXT . To fit in with her busy life, the user usually does her shopping on the weekends for the whole of her family (her two daughters and her husband), for the week. Therefore, it is not suitable for her to carry all her groceries and walking around. This is why she prefers to drive to the supermarket where everything is all ready for her. So that, her groceries shopping experience is convenient and she does not have to carry a lot around. However, this idea conflicts her comfort zone and that is why she was chosen as the tester to get some feedback. USER . 43 years old mother who likes to go out groceries shopping, usually shops at the supermarket because it is convenient but she prefers fresh, chemical-free groceries for her family
ENVIRONMENT . Local store in town and at home in the study, Songkhla, Thailand
1. Mother sitting in the study deciding what to by and checking with the app where to buy it from. 2. The app generates a list of suggested local places that she can go to and plan out her routes that she can walk to and buy her groceries. 3. Left home and walking to the shops. She kept checking the map on the app to see if she is heading in the right direction.
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4. She then arrives in front of the first shop that she wants to get some of her groceries from.
5. Selecting and shopping away in the store 6. She then goes to the counter where she pays for her goods 7. She then hands over her phone with her own QR code containing her information for deliveries to the shopkeeper so that he can print out a sticker and arrange it ready for the delivery man to pick it up and deliver it to her house. 8. She then continues to go on shopping in the other local shops along her planned route and most importantly, hand free.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE ENCOURAGEMENT . More walking, less driving, integrate excercises into daily routines, shop locally rather than supermarkets, better relationship with the local community.
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SHOPPING CONCEPT . The app allows users like housewives to go groceries shopping locally and handsfree. This allows the user to get fresh organic food and enjoy the shopping experience.
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DELIVERY PLAN . QR code is used for identifying users for correct delivery. The code is auto-generated in the app then shown at the payment stage to the shopkeeper so it is printed out, ready for collection.
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LOCAL SHOPPER USER TESTING SCENARIO 2 .
CONTEXT . Also on the weekends, it is the time where she (the mother) stop working and spends her time with her family. She enjoys going out for good food, having a good time with her family but also enjoys chilling around at home. Her daughter usually goes to school during the week so the weekend is also the time that she spends around at home with her family and also helping around with the household work.
USER . 43 years old mother who likes to go out groceries shopping, usually shops at the supermarket because it is convenient but she prefers fresh, chemical-free groceries for her family
ENVIRONMENT . Local store in town and at home in the study, Songkhla, Thailand
1. Mother and daughter checking the app and realised that they won a discount code at a local restaurant in town. So they decided to go there and use the discount code. 2. They then arrived at the restaurant and order some dessert then, using the discount code, the mother pays for the dessert. 3. They then enjoy the dessert they ordered and having a good time together.
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4. Mother really like this restaurant. So she rate it and share photos with her friends on Facebook and friends that are also using the local shopper app in the local area.
5. They then come home. Mom realise that its nearly delivery time because she got notiďŹ ed by the local shopper app. She then tells her daughter to get ready to go get all the groceries that she went out shopping for earlier in the day. 6. The deliveryman arrives at home at the time set on the app earlier by the user. 7. Checking with the deliveryman the goods if it the right one and if they are all delivered. She then takes collect the items. 8. She conďŹ rms with the local shopper app that she has received all the items that her mother shopped earlier in the day.
KEY INSIGHTS .
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- The user usually plans out and write down what is needed before going shopping on their phone. - Map feature is really important. This is because the user will have to keep checking the directions and where to stop. - ConďŹ rmation and security is another concern. They like to know that the items they are receiving are actually the one they selected and the delivery will be made on time as promised.
FEEDBACK AND ITERATIONS . TO IMPROVE ON . ‘’Have some sort of confirmation that the stuff you bought is the one you actually picked and not random ones.’’ ‘’It would be good to have a page summarising what has been bought and a page about who is the delivery man.’’ ‘’Shopping list page could be made clearer to use.’’ ‘’Suggested auto-generated shopping lists with prefered shop would be good and convenient.’’ ”What if some people still think supermarkets are better? Obvious encouragement and confirmation might be good to ensure the locals are better.’’
POSITIVE FEEDBACK .
Main global navigation at the bottom of the page, keeping the ios theme making it more accessible and easy. This is design to fit the iPhone 6 ios 8 themes.
‘’Love the idea of hand free shopping and being able to buy fresh and chemical free food from the local area, wouldn’t mind paying a bit more.’’
Home
User info
Shopping
Delivery
These summaries, pages will assure the users emotionally that they will definitely be receiving their shopped items at the right time.
‘’Planning the deliveries are really useful. So you know exactly what time your stuff is arriving at home.’’
The summary page make it easier for the user to check the items when it arrives. Also, having information on who is delivering and the arrival time will confirm that the delivery man is the right person.
‘’Good exercise walking around the local community and it is also a good way to know what's around your area better.’’ ‘’Unlike internet groceries shopping, you can’t pick the one wanted, the exact piece you want for dinner. But with this app, you get to choose the exact piece of meat you want but doesn’t have to carry it!’’
In case of any delays, the user can then contact the deliveryman to check up on the situation. This builds a more reliable and assuring feels to the user.
HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES .
ITERATIONS BASED FROM THE USER FEEDBACK
CONNECTED HOME SMART LIVING APP
O2
CONNECTED HOME .
Connected home, or also known as the smart home is a term that used to describe a house that contains communication network that interlinks various appliances together, allowing the user to control, monitor and access the data or appliances that is in the house remotely. The appliances are all connected together via wi-ďŹ . Connected homes are becoming more accessible and aordable. More users are shifting towards the smart solution to save money and ease out their daily lives.
According to PWC, as digital revolution advances, consumer attitudes, intention, believes progressively evolves. ÂŁ10.8bn will be spent on smart home devices in 2019 40% of device owners will upgrade the device within 2 years 20% of non-owners cite data privacy as a barrier 30% of the people are planning to purchase a smart device for their home in the next 2 years. Biggest adopters are likely to be 18-25 years old aspiring homeowners 52% of the majority consumers have no investment plans in connected homes Ref: https://www.pwc.co.uk/industries/power-utilities/insights/energy2020/connected-home.html
CURRENT PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET .
To understand a bit more about what is currently out there and the whole concept of connected home, market research was done to identify the potential gap in the market that could do with some innovative solution. A smart home is an ecosystem that each user or family personalises towards their particular needs.
THE ECOSYSTEM . Big technologies brand like LG and Samsung are developing products that fits under their smart connected ecosystem. This would encourage user to purchase the set of product and stick to one brand since all the devices are monitored under the same system. This is a great marketing strategy.
BRIEF .
The brief was set by O2 to explore an area of the connected home. Identify a gap and create an innovative mobile app to enhance a persona’s user experience with the connected home device.
IDEATION .
As a group of five, we explored the brief together, we then decide to pick the kitchen area of the connected home and explore the possible experience that could do with better user experience. Based from the research, user group age 18-25 are the most likely to adopt new technologies. Therefore, student was a target user group that we decided to explore. As a group of student, it was easy to understand and dive into the deep user insights. We then derive a persona after observing many different student living their lives in a shared kitchen.
O2 PERSONA . Brett Jr
Second year Civil engineering student at Loughborough University, From Glasgow, Scotland, 21 years old
Brett lives in a 6 person student house with a mix of coursemates and friends from his American Football team. He considers himself pretty organised, managing his time between studying, cooking and going to the gym. To relax, he likes to watch TiVo’d recordings of Match of the Day and Sky Sports on TV, stream sports on his laptop and loves a good night out after a big game.
KITCHEN USE
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TECHNOLOGY USE
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EXPERIENCE GOALS
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• ‘Organised chaos’, lots of washing up to do, the fridge freezers are quite small and the microwave is old and unreliable.
• Uses his laptop (windows) for studying, chatting with his mates on facebook, emails and watching sports online.
• Short meal preparation time
• He eats a lot of protein to fuel his workout sessions, eat quick and easy meals to avoid spending too much time in the messy kitchen.
• Owns an Apple iPhone 4 and checks it constantly throughout the day. Similar to his laptop he uses it for checking emails and social networking but also uses a workout app for when he’s at the gym and Tinder.
• Make shopping a quick, painless experience
• Checks his notifications regularly.
• Provide him with recipe’s for creating great tasting yet healthy meals
• He orders his basics in large orders monthly and does a small shopping trip once a week for fresh items. • He leaves frozen food out to defrost while he’s at lectures for the day.
• Open to using new apps for his iPhone.
PRODUCT CONCEPT . ‘Live Feed’ enhances the eating and shopping experience for students whilst simultaneously improving nutrition and reducing waste.
RATIONALE . The persona goals for the target market highlighted a want for freedom from parental pressures and to live life by their own decisions. This can be hindered by a lack of skills/knowledge, limited time/funds or poor organisation skills. University can be very busy and stressful for the target user group, such that healthy eating habits are sometimes forgone due to the perceived pain points.Enabling the persona to shop and cook effectively, through the use of an app on their smartphone, would allow him to achieve his task goals of eating healthily while achieving the experience goals of increased freedom.
• Create as little washing up as possible
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TASK GOALS • A convenient way to plan meals on the go
• Incorporate muscle foods to fuel his active lifestyle
HOW IT WORKS . • It manages your shopping lists and coupons which are automatically pushed to the front when entering supermarket. • The app supplies recipes to users in step by step, with pictures, text and videos. • Timers and reminders are intergrated to help the preparation. Goals can be set for positive feedback incentive. • Internet of things can be included to control and monitor appliances as well as track kitchen use.
STORYBOARD
Brett checks his fridge and realises that there is nothing left in it.
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Then, Live feed app remind him to go shopping.
He checks the auto-generated shopping list to see what to buy.
Whilst paying for his groceries, he uses the promo code from the app.
He uses his phone to pay for his shopping with the NFC function.
Brett comes home hungry. He takes his phone and uses The app reminds him to He wants something to the Live feed app to pick a defrost some meat before eat. menu he wants to eat. he starts cooking.
He then cooks the meal by following and checking the recipe on his phone.
Whilst eating, he shared this He can leave the meal cooking until the app alert recipe onto social media and favourite it on his list. him that it’s ready.
PROTOTYPES .
He scans the receipt onto his phone so his groceries list is sent to his fridge.
Prototype: http://vt9bl6.axshare.com
From low to high fidelity wireframes. Iterations were made accordingly to user testing and validation. The UI was designed based around target user age group, function and usability of the app. Eg. A colour block dedicated to a specific food item.
SIAM COMMERCIAL BANK SCB EASY & STARTBIZ
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IT’S ME PEARL PULGES
P FOR
EXPERIENCE .
LET'S TALK asama.pulges@gmail.com
Please e-mail for more detailed experiences and achievements on my CV. 2019 - present
UX Designer Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand
#2
2017 - 2018
MSc Entrepreneurship and managment University of Bath, UK
#1
2013 - 2017
BSc (Hons) Product design and technology 2:1 Loughborough University, UK
2015 - 2016
Product development intern The Walt Disney company, UK
LANGUAGES . ENGLISH
THAI
FRENCH
SKILLS . Photoshop
Axure
Illustrator
Balsamiq
InDesign
Sketch
Microsoft suites
Invision
Creo
Overflow
Keyshot Arduino
LOVE . PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIALISING TRAVELLING COOKING DRAWING UKULELE AIKIDO
JAPANESE