This project has two phases, an initial research phase followed by a design phase:

- Research Phase: To explore and identify opportunities.

- Design phase: Develop a preliminary set of concepts. Select one concept for further refinement.

Methods:

Design Research: Direct observation, interaction in a natural setting/context , Anthropological: Observational and experimental , Embedded design research: Embedding myself as a designer into a foreign context over the long period of time , Secondary Research: Gathering, collecting and analyzing data , Human centered design: Participatory, user interviews , Brainstorming: Creative techniques to generate ideas for inspiration and problem solving , Concept creating and prototyping: Proof of concept prototype aimed to confirm the proposed “solutions” can be designed to meet specified goals.

Talk to People:

In the research phase, I interview people in their homes and work, I visit retail spaces, restaurants, markets, showrooms, industry shows, etc. I also use my previous ethnography research results and insights as long a they are relevant and updated. I do qualitative research on 5 to 7 users with different backgrounds. I talk to experts. Interviews with 3 to 5 Designers, technologists or business developers. I also review the relevant literature and do research on emerging technologies.

Pull out stories:

I share what I’ve heard and capture interesting stories.

Insights:

I select the ideas that really stand out in the stories. Insights provide me with inspiration (not actionable yet).

Synthesis & frameworks:

The frameworks turn insights into actions. By structuring my design process they help me generate the opportunity areas. Visualize 3 - 5 concepts based on the identified opportunity areas. Concepts illustrated with sketches and low resolution renderings.

Opportunities:

Carry out 5-8 user interviews to get feedback on initial concepts. Create survey for quantitative study in form of survey. Execute Quantitative survey of opportunity areas needs on 30 to 50 users. Analyze results and compare with qualitative results. Deepen understanding of the concepts based on user feedback and research. Make a recommendation for moving one concept forward for refinement.

Refine and build:

Create direct tests for the prioritized list of assumptions for the concept Refine concept directions based on user and expert feedback Build UX experience demo and prototype

As this topic is very broad and covers a big range of the users, I decided to be very open at the beginning phase of the research and not have a specific topic. IN the second phase of the research and after evaluating the findings from the open research, I had few general areas to focus on and continue a more directed research.

This phase of the project was the most interesting and inspiring part as I had the chance to talk to many people to better understand what I am to do in the next four months. I believe that as a designer you need to be inspired by people and there is no better way to listen to their stories and learn how to pull out the stories that help you define the design solution. My focus group are mostly people who are familiar with the new technologies and not necessarily the smartphone users. Actually i g=find it more interesting to talk to people who never used a smart phone before and to hear what they think about computing on the go.

No ones knows what the future of mobile devices would be for sure! So I believe that getting insights from experts would help better understand this topic. I had the chance to talk to designers, business experts, computer engineers and developers. This has been a great source of inspiration and a great input for research.

Stories are used to better connect the user needs to the design values in the design process.

Synthesizing the research findings helps me make sense of what I learned in the research phase and

Involving users in the design process

Using expert in the design process

capturing the ideas

Validating the ideas using low-fi prototypes.

Defining the design requirements.