ashlyn b. aske
Explorations in UX
A collection of my favorite projects from my early explorations of human-centered design.
Koi Relaxation
I ideated and prototyped a mindfulness app to incentivize people to participate in a citizen-science project.
Project Information
Role
Collaborators
UX Designer
None
Project Type
Skills
Class Project
HCDE210 - Explorations in HCDE
How might we encourage penthouse residents to engage with a citizen-science project?
The parameters of this assignment involved designing for a prescribed user (penthouse residents), meanwhile including a prescribed element (koi fish) and engaging the user in a citizen science project.
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Given these parameters, I decided to create a mindfulness application, in which users take photos of koi to start and end a meditation session. The primary incentive is the opportunity to practice mindfulness.
App Design
It was important the app be designed in a manner that centered mindfulness rather than competition. The app assumes the users will be motivated to use it by an intrinsic desire to relax. Since the prescribed users are wealthy, I wanted to think creatively and avoid monetary incentives.
Citizen-Science Project
Part of the purpose of the app is for the user to collect data about koi for scientific research. The (fictional) study the app includes examines the behavior of koi when humans are present.
Smart Cat Bed
My partner and I worked together to prototype a physical computing device that stimulates a sleeping cat to exercise.
Project Information
Role
Collaborators
UX Designer
Hannah Lee
(UX Designer)
Project Type
Skills
Class Project
HCDE210 - Explorations in HCDE
How might we design a physical computing device to keep house cats active?
The parameters of this assignment involved creating a physical computing device that would help solve the issue of overweight domestic cats. We decided to build a system to prompt the cat to play instead of sleep.
Hannah and I used LittleBits to create a system in which a cat sleeping in a bed was awoken by a loud buzzer and then engaged the cat to play with a toy.
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While not the most substantive concept, we really enjoyed working on this project and using the LittleBits!
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Alarm Clock Redesign
In this assignment, we were provided an alarm clock and instructed to assess its usability and provide some suggestions for a redesign.
Project Information
Role
Interview Observer, Researcher
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Designer - redesigned alarm clock
Project Type
Class Project
HCDE210 - Explorations in HCDE
Collaborators
Michael Gabalis (Interviewer, Researcher)
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Sydney Brusnighan (Interviewer, Researcher)
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Kierra Long (Interviewer, Researcher)
Skills
How usable is an outdated alarm clock? How might we make it more usable?
We decided to assess the usability of the alarm clock by interviewing 3 college students and asking them to complete 3 tasks using the clock. While they worked on the tasks, we observed them and measured the time it took to complete each task and the number of "wrong turns" each interviewee made.
View a short summary of our process and findings in the above video.
Alarm Clock redesign
Based on the data we collected during our interviews, I redesigned the alarm clock to be more intuitive.
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To the left, the original design is shown in the photo and the proposed changes are overlaid in yellow.