OVERVIEW

ColorAway is an application designed to enhance the mindfulness of solo travelers through interacting with modified photos.

I started this side project to explore the design space in mindfulness. I along with my team turned our learning into a paper. The paper was accepted and will be published at CHI Conference 2018.

A previous related work (will add to this site soon) I led was published in CHI Conference 2017 as one of the four international undergraduate representations.

CHI Conference is considered one of the highest-rank conferences in Human-Computer Interaction field.

ROLES/CONTRIBUTION

Project Lead
Directed and Managed project roadmap in team of 4

Research Lead
Conducted literature review & data analysis with team; user testing & in-depth interview 6 target users

UX Designer
Led 3-phased design sprint & created prototype with team

Technical Writer
Generated findings and academic paper; publishing at CHI Conference 2018

OBJECTIVE

How can we design a system that enhances solo travelers' mindfulness?

OUTCOMES

Prototype
(click below to view)

Paper
(click below to view)

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A brief highlight of the research insights. Contact me to learn more!

What is mindfulness?

Recollect past learning and evaluate thoughts so to become a better self.

What are solo traveler's needs?

Solo travelers tend to have mindful moments and they rely on taking photos to capture those moments

Key design opportunity

Recollect and evaluate past meaningful moments through the photos solo travelers take in past trips

Key design principles

Use photos to naturally recollect users' past learning, and use ambiguity techniques to allow them to instinctively evaluate them.

DESIGN HIGHLIGHT

A brief highlight of the design process. Contact me to learn more!

Ideation

We gathered all the insights from the research and generated design ideas.

Sample Sketches

Here are some selected sketches for our prototype

Sample Prototype

Original

Modified

PROCESS

A brief highlight of the process, view the paper for detailed process and findings :)

Paper

Literature Review

Literature from western psychology and Buddhism were thoroughly reviewed to obtain an understanding of mindfulness

Data Analysis

Analyzed interview data from the larger study, and understood solo travelers' needs for mindfulness

Ideation

Incorporated findings from literature review and data analysis to ideate design ideas

Prototyping

Conducted a 3-phase design sprint to prototype design from ideation

User Study

Recruited 6 solo travelers and gave each of them a personalized ColorAway prototype. Interviewed them after they used the prototype

Results

Analyzed the interview data from the user study and consolidated the findings into a paper. Paper accepted and publishing in CHI 2018.

Reflecting Forward

HCI/UX Research // Conceptualization // Prototyping // Project Management // Embrace Ambiguity

This was by far the most intellectually challenging project I have worked on. Since I was the first author, I learned from first-hand experience on how to translate concepts from more than 80 academic books & articles to the team. Other than concept translation, I further honed my skills in conducting usability study and in-depth interviews. It was very fun to turn all the research into a concrete design piece in the end!

Finally, a candid team picture for your pleasure :)