portfolio > telephone redesign
I took the course Advanced User Interface Design with Roland Hubscher (Bentley University). One of the assignments in the course was to recreate an office communication device--essentially a device that will replace the conventional office telephone. Myself and a group of three others created such a device. Because of the file size upload limit, I have not included the final report of this project. The other collaborators on this project were Vanessa Battaglia (Raytheon), Steve Denning (PA Consulting Group), and Martha Kam (Design and Usability Center).
we began with brainstorming sessions...
During brainstorming we determined the ultimate goal of the current office telephone: to facilitate communication between and within offices. Due to time constraints, we jumped right into requirements gathering. One of the assignment parameters was to look at the current functionality of the office telephones used at Bentley University and include them in the new design (or at least what the functionality achieves).
we conducted interviews and created personas
In addition to the requirements we received as part of the assignment, we decided to conduct interviews with typical users to understand who they are, their needs, and wants. We interviewed executive assistants, faculty, and others to create personas. We used these personas to help inform us during the design process.
we sketched possible designs that included our requirements
With our requirements and personas in mind, we individually sketched out possible ideas for the office communication device. We then voted on some of the best features we all sketched and decided on an overall design concept for the device.
we voted on a final design and started to prototype
After voting, we began to work on rough sketches of our prototype. Between each iteration (4 in total), we received class feedback to get an objective view on our work. With each iteration, the fidelity of the prototype was increased.
we made rough sketches
We all got together and created rough sketches of the overall look and feel of the device. We knew it was going to be visual, a device for the desk, and made of glass. From our class review, we had a lot to consider. For instance, the visibility of elements because of the device being made of glass. We iterated from there...
we created iterations using prototyping tools
Our second and third iterations were created using Microsoft Visio, which we found to be a robust and user-friendly tool. However, we found the stylistic capabilities to be limited, and used PowerPoint for our final iteration.
our final iteration
Our final prototype and presentation earned the team a 4.0. The primary challenges of the project was to find time to get together for brainstorming and design sessions. However, once we were all able to get together we found it essential that we meet in person to make decisions, discuss requirements, and create prototypes.