Sprint 6: From Spring Presentation to an Invitation to New York!

We are a passionate student group from Carnegie Mellon University specializing in Human-Computer Interaction. Our collaboration with InterDigital has allowed us to envision novel user experiences enabled by future technologies, while always keeping the user perspective at the forefront of our project.

The Spring Presentation: An Invaluable Milestone

Following the publication of our Medium post on Sprint 5 (link), we just finished our Spring presentation. The excitement was palpable as we shared our discoveries and highlighted the fundamental user challenges that our client, InterDigital, should address: (1) lost context and (2) the relegation of users to a secondary position. The audience’s overwhelming interest and curiosity during the presentation prompted an engaging hour-long Q&A session, leaving us immensely proud and even more motivated.

Additionally, we conducted an hour-long collaborative session with our client, which proved to be immensely valuable. During this session, we delved deeper into our prototypes, allowing them to truly experience the innovative concepts we had developed. To facilitate this, we categorized our prototypes into three distinct topics: natural interaction, communication, and context.

This approach enabled our client to engage with each prototype category individually and provide their invaluable insights and feedback. By showcasing our prototypes in more detail, we aimed to foster a deeper understanding and stimulate meaningful discussions that would further enhance our project’s outcomes.

After the all these presentation and collaborative session, we received an invitation to visit InterDigital’s New York office and present to their esteemed executives, including the CTO, Heads of wireless, video, AI, engineering operations, as well as representatives from marketing, HR, legal, and finance. Aligning Objectives for the New York Presentation Our team engaged in extensive discussions with our client to establish the objectives of the upcoming presentation. These objectives aimed to propose a new direction for InterDigital’s next business venture and emphasize the significance of a user-centric design process for their organization. Consequently, the presentation objectives evolved from our initial Spring presentation. Despite the need to continuously work without a break, even after completing our Spring semester, the prospect of the New York presentation remained exhilarating.

Presentation Structure: Unveiling Insights and Inspiring Creativity

We meticulously planned a three-hour meeting, divided into three sessions, each featuring concise presentations and engaging activities designed to captivate and empower the audience.

First Session: Tracing the Path of Revolution

By delving into the history of communication technology, we aimed to extract insights from past revolutions. Employing a reverse assumption approach, we challenged existing assumptions and reframed beliefs to stimulate new revolutionary ideas.

An interactive activity complemented this session, encouraging InterDigital to think creatively, envision long-term impacts, and prepare for their future business endeavors.

Second Session: Understanding Communication Needs and Technological Support

In this session, we shared our research process and findings from the Spring semester. Our comprehensive user-centric design process incorporated secondary research, quantitative analysis, qualitative research, and validation through low-fidelity prototypes. Key findings encompassed:

• Finding 1: Contextual relevance significantly enhances communication effectiveness, while current devices often restrict experiences to two-dimensional screens.
• Problem 1: The prevailing devices undermine the immersive nature of communication.
• Finding 2: People prioritize real-world activities over digital interactions.
• Problem 2: Current devices force users to assume a secondary position, disrupting their engagement with the physical world.

Third Session: Exploring Possible Futures

The final session examined potential trajectories by conducting competitive analyses and evaluating how industry competitors tackle similar challenges.

By showcasing that our findings resonate not only with us but also with major companies, we aimed to inspire InterDigital to recognize the urgency of progress. To conclude the session on a positive note, we organized a “Time magazine” activity, inviting all executives to share their future visions and foster alignment.

Takeaway: A Journey of Impact and Responsibility

Initially, the prospect of escaping Pittsburgh for New York filled us with excitement. However, as we delved into the preparations, we realized the immense impact we were bringing not only to our client but also to humanity as a whole. This project has enlightened us about our social responsibility as designers and reinforced the paramount importance of prioritizing the human experience.

*The work and knowledge gained from this project are only intended to be applicable to the company and context involved and there is no suggestion or indication that it may be useful or applicable to others. This project was conducted for educational purposes and is not intended to contribute to generalizable knowledge.