Problem

The experience of visiting the potential campus that you or your child will attend is a confusing and sometimes overwhelming process that doesn't take into account the changing environmental factors for students and their families. Information is lost in translation throughout the process and can lead to misinformed choices.

Exploration

Through extensive surveys and research collections, I was able to form key design insights. The following was observed:

• Nearly 70% of student visitors were registered by their parents. This concept of "Helicopter Parents" needs to inform the final design.
• Prospective students and their families need to be provided timely, accurate, and relevant informatoin throughout the registration process, the visit, and the followup.
• Choosing a university to study at is an ever-increasing social event. Integration with social networking channels can help a student share their experiences with important friends and families.
• Prospective students would benefit from a more personalized experience throughout the entire process. This not only benefits the students and their families, but also will help the university implementing these ideas.

Solution

Informed by reseach and insights, a three-part concept system was formed.

• Contextual Registraiton System
  • Caters to parents and students
  • Reduces error and increases value to all stakeholders
  • Alleviates pain points with traditional registration systems
  • Provides timely information and reminders by connecting to mobile app
• Mobile Visit Assistant
• Increases information available during visit
• Captures experiences of visit through media
• Connects with the prospective students' technological and social networking experiences
• Data loads to custom website to help relive the experience of the visit
• "Reliving the Experience" Web Portal
• Relive your visit and the most important memories
• Share your visit with friends and family
• Provide a way to compare with other schools and make an informed decision based on your experiences
• Properly inform visitors of the next steps

For all of the details, check out the link to the full report below.

Downloads
Strategic Design
Plan PDF
Poster PDF

Problem

Scientific evidence suggests that electricity production is a major contributor to global climate change. Electricity production emits carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere, depletes limited natural resources, and negatively impacts the lives of those who live near power plants.

If we can inform users of their usage trends, perhaps we can begin to educate consumers about their energy usage and how to live in a more sustainable way. If we can reduce energy consumption in Indiana by a meager 10%, we would see an annual savings of approximately $2.6 billion, or $100 per household.

Exploration

We started by searching for and exploring a handful of exemplars. While the systems we found were purpose-driven and generally designed with good-intent, they were all lacking something that we deemed important: a visually-compelling interface that easily communicates usage and helps educate the homeowner.

Solution

We generated a large number of conceptual designs. From these concepts, we selected a mobile-based platform that could be used on any mobile device with a modern web browser. When you load up the website, you see your household energy usage broken down by circuit. The circuits with the biggest electrical draw are displayed on the top of the application. The color scheme is based on a palette of colors that many can relate to (red= bad, green= good!).

CHI2009 Student Design Competition Finalist
WattFinder was designed in response to the CHI2009 Student Design competition. Our solution was accepted to the semi-finals and we were tasked with creating a professional poster to communicate our design. After presenting the poster, we advanced to the final round and presented our solution to the CHI2009 audience, receiving 4th place overall. Check out the paper and the poster in the downloads section below.

Downloads
CHI2009 Paper PDF Archive at ACM
CHI2009 Poster PDF

Problem

There is a need to foster greater collaboration among home bound elderly patients and their care-giving community. When our team analyzed this need, we came up with a series of research questions to help direct our design.

• How can we use technology to increase the feeling of connection and social awareness among the home bound elderly?
• How can we use technology to address a home bound elderly person's medical needs while sustaining their independence?
• How can we use technology to encourage collaboration among the home bound elderly, their medical professionals, and their primary caregivers regarding the home bound elderly person's medical care?

Why is this important?

• Due to unexpected circumstances, some caregivers undertake caring for loved ones without a great deal of knowledge regarding the task.
• There is a general lack of institutional assistance to support the home bound and their caregivers.
• As the Baby Boomers, who represent one of the largest generations to retire, continue to age, the topic of care-giving will become evermore prolific.

Exploration

We started with an extensive literature review to help inform our research agenda. We then conducted interviews with relevant professionals in the community. Finally, we conducted an on-site contextual inquiry with the Area 10 Agency on Aging in Elletsville, Indiana. From this exploration, we gained a few key insights:

• The elderly home bound want to stay in their homes, rather than live in a care facility.
• For a technological solution to be accepted by the elderly home bound, it should be something they need and want to use, and it should be simple.
• Feeling secure, connected, and involved are pressing needs for the elderly home bound.
• Awareness of the elderly home bounds' current condition is a pressing need for non-collocated caregivers (both primary caregivers and medical staff).

Solution

CareNote is a system designed for a tablet-style device that encourages collaboration among an elderly home bound patient, his or her primary caregiver, and his or her health care providers through communication, knowledge sharing, and data transmission. Medical monitoring devices, such as blood-pressure cuffs and glucometers that use infrared transmitters, will transmit data to the members of the home bound elderly's care giving network.

Downloads
Poster Abstract PDF
Poster PDF

Downloads
Video Link: Vimeo

Challenge

Our team was paired up with the Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District (BEAD) as a service-learning partner. We were tasked with creating new concepts related to wayfinding and culture in Bloomington, Indiana. As a city, Bloomington has a vast amount of cultural resources. It is also well know that Indiana University injects a large portion of the present cultural diversity into the city. We chose to focus our conceptual designs on what Indiana University has to offer.

Exploration

We began by cataloging the different cultural resources on Indiana University's campus. From this list, we had multiple rapid-concept generation sessions and came up with a large list of potential ideas to explore. We created high-fidelity appearance prototypes to help disseminate our concepts to our target audience. I invite you to flip through our presentation materials below and check out what we came up with.

Solution

We presented this slide deck to our professor, colleagues, and BEAD officials:

Downloads
Slide Deck SlideShare

Challenge

Our team was tasked with creating an enjoyable and useful iPhone application that would help Weight Watchers patrons stick to their diet plans.

Exploration

Nobody on our team was familiar with the Weight Watchers program, so we set out to explore some of the culture and details of the company and the user-base. We did the following:

• Ethnographic Observation - We attended a Weight Watchers meeting and took meticulous notes
• Exemplar Review - We checked out multiple resource that already exist for Weight Watchers users
• Secondary Research - We found many cases pointing to increased fast-food consumption in the United States over the last 25 years

Solution

Our exploration kept pointing us back in the same direction: fast-food. How can we conceptualize an application that helps Weight Watchers users make intelligent decisions when ordering fast-food? After some personae analysis, we held a few sessions for rapid concept generalization and settled on a concept that would help users compare and track their Weight Watchers points when ordering from a large pool of fast-food restaurants.

We created a low-fidelity paper prototype that we eventually used for usability testing. From our results, we created a series of high-fidelity mock-ups.

Downloads
Temporarily Unavailable

Challenge

We were tasked with creating a thermostat interface that challenges the typical functional mind-set of thermostat users, while promoting sustainable use your heating and cooling systems.

Exploration

This project had a very short deadline. In the time we had, we reached out to a handful of personal contacts and had them do one simple task: photograph their thermostats and give a brief account of how they perceive the functionality of the thermostat.

Solution

We sketched multiple iterations and concepts. From some rapid user testing, we chose one concept and built out a high-fidelity, functional flash prototype. We used the prototype to present our idea to our respective audience.

Downloads
Design Document PDF

Downloads
Usability Report PDF

Downloads
Poster PDF

Downloads
Information upon request.

Support Center Front-line Consultant
Indiana University - Bloomington, IN
University Information Technology Services
September 2004 - August 2008

• Provided user-centric technical support for all students, faculty, and staff of Indiana University and all satellite campuses
• Analyzed Indiana University's in-house systems "OnCourse CL" and the e-mail environment "Cyrus"
• Demonstrated excellent communication and team collaboration skills by working in three areas: phone support, help desk, and one-on-one customer system support
• Tracked and followed through with end-user incidents using a ticketing system and a combination of phone, e-mail, and in-person support
• Analyzed service level statistics and suggested actions based on the results
• Streamlined the computer rebuilding process for customers of the "Carry-In" computer service

On-site Computer Technician, Sales Associate
Midwest Computer Solutions- Columbus, IN
October 2003 - February 2005

• Repaired a vast array of computer hardware and software, including PC/Windows, Apple/Macintosh, and some UNIX-based systems
• Conducted over 200 sales and service calls for customers both in person and over the phone, including the associated book-keeping and billing processes
• Researched and recommended new components and systems to be sold to customers in-store

Academic Accolades

Finalist - CHI2009 Student Design Competition
Presented "WattBot: a residential electricity monitoring and feedback system" (now known as WattFinder)

Press

• WattBot Residential Monitoring System Generates Energy Savings
• Wattfinder, a residential monitor developed by IU informatics students, generates energy savings
• Informatics focus on sustainability at CHI 2009 conference

Honorable Mention
Indiana University School of Informatics Graduate Student Poster Session with poster for WattBot.

Involvement

• Presenter - CHI2009 - Boston, MA.
• Student Volunteer - CHI2010 - Atlanta, GA.
• Student Volunteer - Interactions '11 - Boulder, CO.
• Student Volunteer - TEDx Bloomington - Bloomington, IN.
• Student Volunteer - The Combine 2011 - Bloomington, IN.
• Volunteer - Midwest UX Conference 2012 - Columbus, OH.
• IxDA Local Leader - Bloomington, IN.