Portfolio by xhensilareci

P TF LI NAME: XHENSILA REÃ&#x2021;I STUDENT

D I G I TA L CO N C E P T DEVELOPMENT

INT R DUCT I N

This portfolio is organised into three project cases that I believe best represent my work as a student of Digital Concept Development. In each chapter, the problem, design process, solution and visuals of the project have been presented. Each chapter contains a synopsis, where the design process andprofessional issues have been discussed, arguing how chosen theories or methods were used in an interdisciplinary perspective. When all is described and analyzed, a summary of thoughts will follow in the conclusion paragraph, keeping in mind the learning perspective, and that there is always room for improvement.

C NT ENTS

DOKK1 LIBRARY

CITIXPERIENCE

DANSKE BANK

W E S AV E

03 S M A RT B N B

04 C O N C L U S I O N

DESIGN-PEOPLE & DEVELCO

SUMMARY OF THOUGHTS

CASE

01 DOKK1 LIBRARY

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

CITIXPERIENCE Developing a concept that makes way-finding within DOKK1 easier. Citixperience is a series of changes in Aarhus Citizen Service experience, that is created to increase customer satisfaction of citizen service and DOKK1 as a whole. ROLE: research team management ideation copywriting concept development presentation

SOLUTION

FINDING CITIZEN SERVICE

The digital screens on DOKK1 entrance pillars, were used in a more efficient way by giving a guided description in English and Danish, from the first moment they enter the building.

FINDING CITIZEN SERVICE INFO DESK

A big visible sign will hang above the citizen service information desk (see picture on the left), to make it visible that the specialised information desk is located there. The sign is designed in the current colours and font, to match the theme of DOKK1.

ENJOYABLE WAITING TIME

It will be possible to enjoy a warm or cold drink from a new dripping machine, located next to the waiting area. This way the customer doesn't need to worry about missing out the queue, like they would, if they go to the caffeteria.

PROTOTYPE

IMPROVED CHECK-IN PROCESS

The interface of the tablets that functions as the first touchpoint of user interaction, was redesigned with bigger icons, clear and understandable text. Before the service ticket is printed there is a confirmation request, preventing the user from printing the wrong ticket. The customer is able to clearly see the chosen department from the ticket, and there is a clarification on what the QR code functions are. Right after scanning the QR code the customer can stay updated with his current position on the queue, read news or play games. While waiting, he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to worry about the time, as he gets a push notification when he is up.

Click to try the prototype

SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

This project investigated how the way finding experience in Aarhus Citizen Service, located in DOKK1, can be improved. The design challenge was to create an experience, where the customers would not need to approach the DOKK1 front information desk about Citizen Service related information.

SYN PSIS

USER RESEARCH

This project started off with a very structured work practice. The user research was planned by setting the goal, the schedule and the budget, before going out to research in the field. Desk research was followed by short sessions of behavioral diary study and personal in depth interviews with customers and employees. Having acquired data on behavioural patterns, pains and goals, the customer journey was closely studied. Customer pains were tied to the specific touchpoints of the Citizen Service experience. A value proposition canvas was performed to map out pains and goals, with value for the customer.

SYNOPSIS

IDEA GENERATION & DEVELOPMENT

In this case, a service blueprint ideation approach was followed. Pains in individual touchpoint of customers with the service, such as: uncertainties about the location, departments and waiting time, were identified. These problematic cues created the framework of the design solution. A helping tool towards the solution was the Can If - map, where the contstraint of the design question was rethought as opportunity. From there, the concept was created as a four step improved customer journey: visible guidelines on the screen, visible sign on the info desk, improved UI for the check-in tablets and enjoyable waiting time. The concept was tested by making four think aloud tests as part of explorative usability testing, to evaluate the premise of the concept. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

A very structured waterfall approach with the help of different tools, was used to manage teamwork. Google Drive was used to collaborate on the content and desk research, Messenger to communicate about meetings, Adobe XD to co-create the prototype and Photoshop for the visualisations. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Coming from a marketing education background, the design thinking methodology was very new to my work practice. Throwing away the Gantt Charts and trying to adapt an agile approach to the group work was very challenging, and resulted in me influencing the team to follow the waterfall methods, but also learning not to do so in the next projects. It took an open-minded and enthusiastic attitude to the learning process, to keep up with the multimedia educated collegues, whose focus was on graphic elements. However, there was a congruent combination of skillsets in the team, which made group work coordinated and efficient.

CASE

02 DANSKE BANK

MOBILE APPLICATION

W E S AV E A P P Creating a digital solution to make personal banking experience better. Wesave is a mobile application that facilitates short term group savings by enhancing collective management features, using Mobile pay as the intermediary platform to make the money transfers. ROLE: research copywriting poster design concept development video shooting presentation

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

KEY EXPERIENCES

PARTICIPANT

IN-APP

COLLECTIVELLY SAVE

MANAGE

COMMUNICATION

FOR A GOAL

GOALS

ORGANIZER

In Denmark, everything revolves around Hygge - being together in a social group and feeling at ease with eachother. But it takes effort and monetary contribution to make hygge work properly. (Wiking, 2016) Whether it is a birthday party, concert, wedding or trip - it always involves people and money, collecting money and doing something together. There is always someone who organizes the event and collects the money beforehand, and someone who forgets to pay. The ten personal interviews performed, gathered behavioral patterns of frustration from these people. Currently, there is no service provided to facilitate the collective saving process and that is why we decided to use the familiar universe of mobile pay and weshare to create WeSave. The video is a showcase of the prototype in a real life situation.

PROTOTYPE AND VIDEO

CHAT WITH PARTICIPANTS HAVE AN OVERVIEW

VIEW PAYMENT HISTORY

OF ALL THE GOALS

ACCOMPLISH GOALS TOGETHER

AS ADMIN OR PARTICIPANT

Click try the prototype

SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

The design problem for Danske Bank case was to create a collective saving digital solution, disregarding which bank the users are customers of. The main ambition was to create a money saving platform that enhances collective saving for the users of Mobilepay. IDEA GENERATION & USER RESEARCH

SYN PSIS

The fuzzy front end of design in this project was very explorative because it started with brainstorming and desk research. The team members voted on the idea that assumably satisfies the market needs. Then, competitive market research and user research was performed. From ten personal interviews performed, there was indeed a pattern in collective saving problems. Taking into consideration the gained insights, provisional personas were created, representative of the primary customer segment. After conducting customer discovery, whenever the team would come with new input, it was a group rule to refer to the personas as: “ What would Emma need?” or “What would Emil think?”. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT & TESTING

The value proposition canvas helped map out the key features of the conceptual solution, which responded to the persona's specific needs. Then, storyboarding the value innovation aided the identification of the concept's key experiences. To kickstart the development, user stories were used as a basis for wireframing the user interaction design and the prototype. Moreover, assesment usability testing was performed with ten potential users who had to complete several tasks on the prototype. Their feedback was considered for further development.

SYNOPSIS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Every step of this project was planned and controlled with the timeboxing method. The group also got by with the help of project management tools, which made sure each scheduled meeting and increment was performed on time. Trello was used for assignment distribution, Slack for work related communication and Google Drive to share files and content. Adobe Indesign, XD, After Efects and Sketch were used for media elements production. The group work was going through iterative discussions, until every group member was convinced about the decision-making of each step. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

WeSave was a learning process on how to create a concept, by aligning business goals with user value.Â However, it was also a learning experience on being more explorative and having thorough dicussion with the team, before choosing the idea. Being that there were particular set of skills overpowering eachother in the team, I adjusted to this constraint and saw it as a possibility to learn hard skills, like the different design software used for the project.

SCREENSHOTS FROM THE SHOWCASE VIDEO

Click to watch the video

1ST PRICE WINNER

03 DESIGN-PEOPLE

SMART HOME EXPERIENCE

S M A RT B N B Create a smart home solution for the social profile with the use of one Develco Hardware products. Smartbnb is a smart home starter kit, connected to a new feature in the existing airbnb app, that creates an easier experience for airbnb hosts and guests. ROLE: research copywriting catalogue design scrum master concept development storyboard creation video shooting presentation

RESEARCH

CAN'T COMMUNICATE ALL THE TIME

CAN'T FIND THE KEY

Hosts haven't been happier about sharing their home and making money, while they are away, and guests love getting local value for cheap money. (Airbnb, 2017) THE GUEST

THE HOST

WANTS TO FEEL AT HOME

But what hosts don't want to share is their time, communicating with the guests during their stay. Guests, on the other hand would like to have the feeling of being home, in the sense that they can have everything they need for a comfortable stay.

USERS

IS OUT TRAVELLING

Social junkies are as the word implies - very social. They are social enough to share their homes, for sure, and that is why a service such as airbnb has become so popular.

Research shows, this is not always the case in today's airbnb experience. What if we could make this experience smarter? A smart home experience. Smartbnb! 15

SOLUTION & SHOWCASE

Smartbnb is a starter kit smart home created for airbnb hosts and guests. It is composed of Airlock, Airoom and Airlexa, all connected to the “smart home” feature in the already existing Airbnb app. Airlock is a smart lock that uses Z-Wave technology to unlock and lock the door when the person’s smartphone approaches the location of the door. Airoom uses temperature and humidity sensor to measure the atmosphere in the room and the controls these units through the app.

IDEA

The network brige of communication between these devices and the app is Amazon Echo device, with built in “Airlexa” skill - which is able to answer frequently asked questions, customisable for each guest. While customisable for an airbnb experience, all the devices can be used from the host in their everyday life as well. The in app feature is build in the guest and host’s interface of the app, changing according to the user scenario, giving the same experience every time.

SCREENSHOTS FROM THE SHOWCASE VIDEO

Click to watch the video

PROTOTYPE

AS A GUEST, THE SMART HOME BUTTON OPENS A FRAME WHERE TEMPERATURE, ACCESS AND HUMIDITY CAN BE CONTROLLED

Click to try prototype

AS A HOST , FAQ CAN BE ANSWERED IN AIRLEXA THE SAME AIRBNB APP INTERFACE, WITH ADDED SMARTBNB FEATURES

SECTION, AND ENERGY CONSUPTION CAN BE OBSERVED

INTRODUCTION

Design-people and Develco came together with the challenge of creating a smart home experience, for the social customer profile, using white label hardware from Develco. The challenge was narrowed down to a smart airbnb experience for the participating hosts and guests. USER RESEARCH

SYN PSIS

Netnography and in-depth interviews revealed some truths about the interactions inside the airbnb community, both online and offline. Netnography was used as a method of social listening, where the team tracked all the airbnb related forums, chats or articles to collect qualitative data and observe if the identified pains and goals were repetitive. Then, the extracted stories from in-depth interviews gave confirmation and insights about the user needs and motivations, which were used to create provisional personas. IDEA GENERATION

The six stages of user-centred design process were used to structure the design process. For idea generation, the innovation brainstorming techniques was very fruitful, but actually did not produce the final idea. Unusually, the idea came overnight after going through the data, personas, ideas, scenarios, back to ideas, back to scenarios and suddenly there it was. The idea that fulfills the goals of the business and users at the same time.

ANNA

the welcoming host

GATHER USER DATA

EXTRACT PAINS & GOALS

36 year old salesPERSONA manager from CREATE Copenhagen, Denmark. Shares her home through AirBnB when travelling.

TOM

the exploring guest 31 year old creative designer from CREATE PERSONA Berlin, Germany. Uses Airbnb regularly to explore places in a cheaper way.

IDEATION

SCENARIO

PROTOTYPE

USABILITY TESTING

SHOWCASE

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT & SHOWCASE

In order to showcase the concept it was decided to produce a video, since the lack of resources did not allow to make prototype for the connected home applications. However, a digital prototype of the app was created.Â First, the team created two storyboards, the combination of which showcased the key experiences and created the basis for the video script. When the video was produced, it was tested to see if it acquired the desired reaction. Finally, formative testing was made by taking the potential user through the journey of experiencing the solution, the devices and the app prototype simultanously. Users were asked to think out loud during the experience. Accordingly, the prototype and solution were improved . PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The group was structured using scrum methodology. The scrum master planned the development work and daily scrum meetings were held in every work day. Project management tools such as Trello, Slack and Google drive were used to share assignments, files and content. Adobe Premiere Pro and Invision were used for video and prototype production. It was very important that every member's opinion and thought was heard and discussed. Scrum practices during teamwork allowed to fail quick and often, then grow with stronger arguments for the ideas. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

With Smartbnb I had a taste of what a combination of great group work and user-centred design can achieve. Keeping an optimistic mindset throughout the project made it easier to kill the darlings and get to the idea that gives real value for the user and the business. Both enthusiasm and criticism were used in the right time to make sure the team stayed on track. I am now richer in the knowledge about internet of things and video production.

The work presented in this portfolio will be considered as the fundamental first steps that gave me inspiration and shaped my design thinking as a future UX designer. With hindsight, I had some key learning points during this semester. Citixperience taught me how important it is to

C N CLUS I N

research thoroughly and empathise with the users. However, not to be underestimated is the power of creative idea generation. Wherever the chosen focus is during the process, the learning is simple: a person (designer) is trying to help another person in need (user).

With WeSave I learned that designing is not just about pixel perfect, but about aligning business goals with values provided for the customer. As creatives, we always have to make sure the concept is innovative by scanning the market and hearing the customers. It took one semester, but Smartbnb taught me to trust the development team and the design process. After the two weeks of intensive iterative fuzziness, we got the light bulb moment. The best concepts are sometimes indeed created overnight, but it takes an agile approach to group work: trust, dedication and continuous communication.

While studying Digital Concept Development I have developed a design thinker’s personality. I now know that being a designer doesn’t mean opening photoshop and creating a perfect image. There is so much more to it. A designer imagines the world from multiple perspectives and has the ability to see the contradictory aspects of a problem. No matter the challenge, a designer believes that there is at least one potential solution and by continuous exploration of the constraints together with the team, the process will lead to the golden egg. That is who I want to be.

GET IN T UCH

XHENSILA REÃ&#x2021;I recixhenisla@gmail.com +45 41835511 21