MDes-HCD 1st Sem: Inter-Disciplinary Studio
Ride-sharing System at Scale
Five weeks of Inter-Disciplinary Studio had many informative and eye opener sessions. Guidance from the facilitators, high intense classroom discussions, masterclass by industry experts and discussions with them was very interesting.
Studio Sessions
Studio session started with research methodology classes. Facilitators conducted exercises and activities about generating transcripts, writing notes from transcripts, open coding, axial coding, affinity mapping, etc. Activities conducted in the studio helped us in real-world on-field design research.
Facilitators introduced us to the process of creating personas from the interviews conducted. They also introduced us to the concept of the storyboard. We illustrated the 8-panel storyboard related to our topic. Metaphor and Digital Metaphor was a new concept for me, they guided us to understand the concept by conducting an activity. We also introduced to the concept of quantitative analysis, ANOVA and ‘R’ language.
Facilitators also showed us the path of secondary research. We started reading blogs, articles, looking at research papers and watching videos, etc.
They used to send a lot of highly useful links and materials to understand the concept of Human Behaviour, Human Psychology, UX, IxD and other related topics/concepts.
Exploration
The topic given us to explore was ‘Ride-sharing System at Scale’. We started our research by interviewing Ola and Uber Drivers in unstructured and semi-structured manner. Gained an abundance of interesting information and knowledge about ride-sharing platform (information not verified with Uber/Ola). One thing was clear after the casual interviews were the ride-sharing platforms are influencing and playing psychologically with drivers. We all know that they offer incentives and bonus to the drivers this is one type of psychological influence. On the other hand, Ola has introduced Ola Prime Play. So, the driver has to pay extra Rs. 500/- per week to get the Prime Play services which include a navigation tab for driver and one for the riders to play music which will be placed backside of the front seat headrest. So, the idea is the driver will get more rides than the normal traditional mobile phone user. The system will prioritize the rides based on the Prime Play drivers available at the location, micro, and mini rides can be converted/upgraded into Prime Play. Drivers can reach incentive goal quickly and go home early.
While our group was taking a ride in one of the cabs, we saw the vehicle almost hitting another vehicle. Then we started asking our driver about Bangalore road accidents. This is where our observation and insight turned into ideation. Then we started looking at internet resources such as publications, articles, videos etc.
By secondary research we gained information about Good Samaritan Law, ambulance, how ambulance system works, the ratio between ride-sharing platform cabs and ambulances, average arrival time of ambulance (ambulance takes avg. 55 minutes to arrive) and cabs, compared the timings with each other etc. Then we personally interviewed Ambulance Pilot and Emergency Medical Technician to get the first-hand information.
After the stage of primary and secondary research, we started mind mapping, evolved the ideation and turned into concept building. We titled our project ‘Improving Access to Medical Emergency Services by Leveraging Cab Aggregator Platform’. Created personas and storyboard. We discussed within the group, other peers of the class and facilitators — received positive feedback.
Finally, we have decided to start working on the prototype. We started working on User Journey, Wireframes, Paper Prototype, low-fidelity Designs. We consulted with our facilitators for the feedback and conducted paper prototype and usability testing with other members of the class.
Converted the wireframes into the final high-fidelity design with consideration of feedback received. We added ‘Emergency Medical Services’ module to existing Uber App. Taken utmost care in usability and did a lot of brainstorming to reduce the number of questions and screens before requesting the ‘Emergency Medical Vehicle’. Solution to several scenarios pointed out. Policy changes to the existing system noted down.
Successfully presented the interactive prototype to the juries! https://xd.adobe.com/view/ebe8a548-7d5b-4245-6687-adf39b0a551e-9dd9/
Masterclass
Experts from the several industries visited us to give informative sessions. They shared their workplace journey. What will they do at their workplace? How will they do? The entire process, innovation, new ideas etc.
Mohan Seetharam’s GIS Masterclass gave me the idea of layers of mapping, how urban planning works and use of urban planning etc.
Rasagy Sharma’s Masterclass on ‘Designing with Data’ gave me an abundance of information and idea of data visualization. I was a data visualization designer at Wipro. I used to work on Photoshop which will be developed in Tableau by the data expert. At that time I did not have any idea of data visualization. The small activity conducted by him was very challenging and lead to weirdest data visualization. Though he was explaining about GIS and Mapping I was only concentrating on data visualization, I found it interesting! I also realized how artists will design the data and how data visualizer design the data!!! The combination of both can create wonderful and delightful data visualization. Types of data visualization and horrible idea of data visualization which he explained before wrapping up the session were very useful. He also explained how people/designer lie by designing the wrong type/representation of charts with an example. It leads me again to the thinking process!
Maarif from Redbus explained the whole UX journey about ‘Redbus’ and ‘Redbus plus’. We all learned the terminologies and concept of understanding the users/stakeholders, benchmarking, on-field research, converting qualitative analysis to quantitative data, card sorting, etc. We all got a fair idea of how to map workflow, how to design wireframes & prototype and how to test the same. He explained about design for scalability, it is very important in the industry. Defining the font/typeface, color palette, tabs, buttons, input fields, wizard and other visual identity systems which can be reused. This reduces the time of the designer and uniformity & usability will remain the same in the entire journey. He also explained about ‘Design to delight’ concept. How illustrations, motion graphics, message and copy influence the user in interaction design. Future of interaction designs like AI and Voice recognition technology will definitely change human behavior.
Anurag from Uber demonstrated and explained the journey of Uber’s User Experience. I never knew that they have created hotspots, where we can book the cabs by dialing a number. That made me realize why User Experience and Human Centred Design is important and should be there in all the products and service design. He explained about Uber Lite application, which made me think about usability and how we can adopt in our projects. It is a very thoughtful app. As he explained Uber App is heavy but Uber Lite has all the feature but it takes very less space and it serves the purpose, basically, it’s not design heavy. While he was explaining about interaction design, he made us clear that Experience is not equal to Screen Design. We have to sell the experience which includes everything. Only screen design doesn’t work in the industry. Uber Beacon — a color-changing logo on headrest which can be accessible by riders Uber App to find out which one is their assigned cab. Most of the Uber Cabs in the US are Black Toyota Camry, it will be easy to find out with the help of Uber Beacon. Anurag also explained Design for Scalability.
Our group had plenty of idea and the enormous amount of data/information about the single topic. We discussed with him. He suggested to narrow down the idea and concept. We tried to consider his feedback & suggestion to come up with an ‘Emergency Medical Services’ module.
Omkar from Swiggy — Head of UX research team, explained about Swiggy’s UX journey and future scope. They are researching on Hunger Meter, which uses smartphone camera and Artificial Intelligence to read palm color. Based on the palm color the app notifies the hungriness. Which is interesting and I am not sure how it will be worked. He explained about UX research process including personas.
We all did Product Semantics exercise with Omkar. He categorized the images related to our project into Futuristic, Ultra-Modern, Modern, Relevant and Not Relevant. Also discussed our project and took some suggestion to go further.
Thanks to all the facilitator for all the great support, guidance, suggestions and feedback!!
