Concept Design and Development
Role
Product Designer and Technologist
Timeline
January 2022 - August 2022
Team
6 Members
Introduction
Background
This project was in collaboration with InterDigital, a technology and research development company that provides multimedia applications. We were provided a vision for 6G, a network projected to run in 2030 after 5G. They envisioned this network to be 1000x faster, with no latency, and able to power technology that isn’t possible today. Our team was provided knowledge about technology that may exist with 6G and the infrastructure needed to enable this new network, but there was no UX consideration.
Opportunity
Since InterDigital mainly focuses on technology research, they needed a user-centered outlook to make sure that the 6G rollout was successful and created desirable/ideal applications of new tech
Our team’s goal was to bring the human perspective into a technological vision for 6G networks and help Interdigital create safeguards to avoid negative impact when launched in the future.
Outcome
Our addition to InterDigital was to measure performance of the network, but through a user perspective. For this, we developed a high-fidelity tool to measure CX by deconstructing concepts like immersive environments, AR/VR, IoT, and interconnected devices. This tool was then used by the business to build an innovation roadmap, and identify key investment opportunities and gaps in their development process.
RESEARCH
Analyzing user interaction with future tech
To design for tech that doesn't exist, our biggest challenge was create future scenarios with what we have today, and gauge user reactions by putting them in these scenarios. We used 3 main methods to understand anticipate impact on human lifestyles.
User perception of the future
Learning: Users expectations for the future were largely based on current lifestyles
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We started with explored users' visions of the future through storyboarding, where they were shown a completed storyboard and asked to fill in a partially drawn one along the same lines. Then, we conducted semi-structured interviews to understand their expectations and desires of the future.
First reactions to new tech
Learning: User reactions to unknown and immersive environments varied drastically.
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We observed how users interact with new technology and immersive experiences, suggesting we study them in unconventional settings like the Immersive Van Gogh experience. This helped us gain insights into their reactions and behaviors in such environments.
Pushing boundaries of comfort
Learning: Extreme, simulated environments revealed significant reactions to new tech.
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Lastly, we simulated advanced environments based on storyboarding insights. I led the setup using simple tools like projectors and fake glasses. This helped us gauge user reactions to tech like smart devices, immersive video, and AR, revealing what influenced their responses.
Insights
We found commonalities that users felt during these varying experiments, which we boiled down into 4 insights
Adoption
When users seek unique experiences, their willingness to try them out is driven by trend & convenience
Content
While immersive tech helps to escape reality, content in appropriate contexts is what creates appeal
Agency
When users seek unique experiences, their willingness to try them out is driven by trend & convenience
Data Privacy
Ubiquitous data collection for personalization increases the need for perceived privacy
SYNTHESIZING RESEARCH
Prototyping towards the solution
There are many
distinct aspects
of an experience that
users care about
called
Quality of Experience
of an application.
This comes from the term 'quality of service' which currently exists to evaluate the effectiveness of a network
Quality of Experience Factors
an obvious next step for us became generating factors that could apply to any and every experience
More Experiments
While these experiments were testing our previous insights, they were also testing these in varying contexts like:
Indoor/Outdoor
Public/Private Environments
Travel Scenarios
Smart Home & Gaming
agency/control
content
perceived privacy
adoption
Challenge
Distinguish what factors applied to which scenarios/contexts and convey that to InterDigital
InterDigital aimed to operate 6G in a wide range of contexts like smart cities, immersive environments, etc.​ But they evaluated effectiveness through technology (quality of service), not through user experience.
Our job was to create that common language between designers and the network engineers at InterDigital to make sure the human perspective is maintained from the experience all the way to the network.
BUILDING THE IDEA
Ideating solutions with all our data
Initial Brainstorms
Generating ways to represent aspects of an experience and link them to Quality of Experience (QoE) factors
The team landed on building a framework that generates factors applicable to an experience, for network engineers to identify gaps in CX while developing 6G.
Building the framework
Backend logic and function
Visual Style and Tagging Mechanism
I built the logic of how factors would be generated, and how to make sure the tool doesn’t highlight factors that are not applicable. My inspiration was personality tests in which a tool generates results based on questions answered by the user. In this case, questions would be about the experience, and the result would be factors.
Evaluation
We tested the framework logic with 10 test subjects, tasked with applying our logic to varying user scenarios. We also evaluated with a set of other UX experts to make sure our logic succeeded from a UX perspective.
Feedback
01
Consider user knowledge of UX
02
Consider information overload
03
Make the process interactive
Next Steps
01
Brainstorm ways to make the identification process interactive
02
Prioritize and present information
FINAL SOLUTION
InterConnect
Bring the human context into 6G development and spark conversation
InterConnect is a physical and online tool intended to bring a human perspective to the work that network engineers already do, and spark conversation about the importance of UX for any product. This tool would help them identify Quality of Experience factors and over time encourage them to learn how to incorporate UX perspectives into any technology.
How does it work?
Experience-defining Questions
The tool starts off with questions defining the experience such as the kind of activity, the amount of movement in the activity, indoor/outdoor, etc.
Content-to-Factor Matrix
The tool operates based off a matrix we created that connects each answer to QoE factor cards. The colored tags represent answers and the white names represent factors that we identified. This process of identification is more interactive and allows a better understanding of why each factor exists.
Quality of Experience Factor Cards
Out of 24 cards total, a few factor cards are generated which explain the factor, and recommendations on how to adjust the network/experience according to this factor.
Critical Thinking Prompts
At the end, to encourage more conversation and learning, the tool includes prompts to encourage strategists to further explore why the identified QoE factors are important and understand the relationship between human reactions and changes in technology. These prompts also help connect human needs and translate them into network service requirements by answering the provided questions.
PROJECT OUTCOMES
Impact of the project and looking back
Impact
Added to a publication with InterDigital
This project's outcomes allowed the company to build a better understanding of what the arrival of 6G would require. To share these findings along with their own research, the company highlighted our team's work as part of their publication.
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Created a vision for 6G
This project created a vision for how far 6G could go, advancing technology without becoming uncomfortable for everyday users. At the same time, our research also highlighted more opportunity areas with enhanced networks.
Emphasized the need for UX in tech-driven innovation
With the framework, our team emphasized the need for UX at InterDigital, as well as in a tech-driven, innovative sector where the customer impact is often lost in the process. This was an immediate impact which encouraged the company to consider a UX department dedicated to 6G development. We were able to push a company with no outlook on user experience towards a user-centered view on networks, technology, and their future innovation.
My learnings
Imagining and designing for the unknown
This kind of future-forward designing was a new territory for me. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone to think beyond what already existed. This also helped me evolve my thinking into dealing with ambiguity as a complex challenge rather than a stop sign.
Client Communication
During the project, I was in charge of communicating with clients, relaying their ideas and finding common ground between their expectations and findings from our research, brainstorms, and ideation. I also learned to speak their language and translate that into design-friendly terms that my team could run with.
Project Management
For the duration of this project, I took a managing role on top of a designer and researcher role. I successfully managed the project, team communication, and tangible, deliverable output. This taught me a lot about how to handle a large project, the many obstacles that come with it, and work around things out of your control.
If I had more time...
Automation and dynamic content with Gen AI
With more time and resources, I would have liked to automate our tool even more, to encourage the addition of more factors and complex scenarios. I would also want to integrate Gen AI to dynamically generate suggestions, answer questions based on the content, and elevate the tool.