Big Ideas, Real Impact
While I cannot showcase my professional wireframes due to my contract- I can showcase my process, the smaller designs accomplished during my time at Tuft's and how I handled the unique obstacles I faced during each project.
My Process
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Plan with Purpose
To be able to deliver the best designs you can, you need to have a clear plan, goals and strategies. Being organized is the name of the game.
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User Understanding
Designs should fit the users, the users should not have to change to fit the design. Understanding the user at their core allows for high quality and useful designs.
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Put the Puzzle Together
There is a lot of information to juggle during the design process, the key is to understand which details belong where. Being able to see the big picture allows for high quality results.
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Share the Story
Once the design is done, you have to cross the finish line strong. Presenting your designs in a clear story allows the users and other stakeholders to understand not only your design process, but your work’s impact and value.
Earbuds Redesign 2024
My first redesign assignment focused on a physical wearable product.The assignment was to redesign a wearable in a unique way and fit within a target market of our choosing. I focused on designing an earbud product for students and working professionals. The key features include a small screen on the case of the earbuds (to lessen phone usage when a user needs to change the volume or skip a song, thereby reducing distraction), as well as the ability to locate a missing earbud by allowing the user to sound a small alarm.Other features within the screen include guided meditation and a built-in Pomodoro Study Timer Guide to increase motivation and attention while simultaneously providing easy-access stress relief.The biggest obstacle I faced within this project was how to carve out a niche within a saturated market while making the product unique and desirable. Through this, I learned how to push the boundaries of my own brainstorming.
What started as a personal struggle with journaling consistently morphed into a project where I practiced my user interviewing skills, survey writing, market research, and outlining comprehensive personas and user journeys.
Rant is an app that encourages its users to record their journal entries rather than physically writing or typing them out. It is designed to target a user persona that is unable, for a multitude of reasons, to build a habit of writing out their feelings and day-to-day experiences. Rant provides an easy and secure place where a user can record their 'rant' of the day and transcribe it into entries they can read later. Users are also empowered to analyze emerging patterns and repetitive issues to better understand themselves. I conducted my own research to unveil the user goals, motivations, and pain-points to drive the design of this product.
The biggest challenge I faced with this project was branding. When I first started this personal project, I took deep inspiration from existing products. Taking ownership and injecting my own vision into the product forced me to scrap many iterations of the design and brand until I reached a vision that felt just right.
Rant - Journaling App
Productathon 2024 - "Muse"
The first major project I completed at Tufts was a 36 hour Producathon. The challenge that my team and I partook in was designing a social media.
Introducing Muse, a collaborative and professional networking app for artists and buyers. On Muse, you are able to put up art for sale, view different artists, commission artists, or post a commission for an artist to offer their skills for.
Within 36 hours, our team conducted market research, designed and built out a wireframe of our application, and created a PowerPoint deck to present our solution, the problems it aims to solve, and our design process to the judges.
This product taught me how to ideate and wireframe on a time crunch. This was before the Figma AI plugins were released, so future mockups could only be more impressive from here. The important lesson, regardless of access toAI tools or not, I learned how to be flexible within ideation, how to know when to pivot ideas, and how to successfully communicate and delegate within a small team while facing personal struggles such as lack of sleep and pressure to deliver a high-quality product under a tight deadline.
