IN-Depth Proposal Report

This reflective report consists of two parts. First, I will introduce the

improvement of my project, and then I will introduce my new project in the

way of DIEP

Introduce:
After I carefully interpreted the feedback, in this report, firstly, I reflected and

summarized the reason which lead the previous failure, and made some

improvements in the new project. According to the feedback of previous

failures, I learned that in the original final project, I only focused on people's

daily driving, I did not go deep into the project. And the previous research part

was not accurate enough, which led me to design the function of my previous

app have a coincide with Google Maps. So, I modified the key elements of my

project to focus on advocating green travel for people. Because I found that

as the increasing number of cars, the problems that come with them also

show an upward trend. For example, the environmental problems caused by

automobile growth are becoming more and more serious in China. And after

reflection, in this new final project, I want to express the design concept that it

is convenient for people to daily travel and in the meanwhile protect the

environment by reducing the carbon. Therefore, my theme is low carbon

travel and green life.

1.D-Describe objectively what you learned

In the new project, I modified it according to the previous automotive theme

and combined with the emergence of new energy as my new project theme.

First of all, I learned that before designing a product, a complete survey in the

early stage is very important. This is related to the positioning of the product.

That is to say, the usage habits and needs of the target group must be

accurate to make the product more popular with consumers. Secondly, the

design concept must keep with the times, and repeatedly think about our

design ideas, and use a comprehensive vision to avoid possible problems

during design the product. Third, analyze the advantages and disadvantages

of the same type of applications, improve on the basis, and avoid overlapping

functions, and try to develop unique features to attract customers.

With the development of the national economy and the continuous

improvement of people's living standards, automobiles have become an

indispensable means of transportation in people's daily lives. However, some

problems raised which caused by the increasing private cars, especially

environment problems. Due to the lack of research of the previous project, the

depth of the design ideas is not enough. Therefore, in the new project, I

adjusted the theme of my project and using some qualitative research method

to research the current situation about my project, and what I want to express

is that people can not only use the APP to facilitate daily travel, but also can

promote low carbon travel in the meanwhile protect the environment.

Therefore, I began to try to integrate the concept of green environmental

protection into my design. The first thing I thought of was new energy

vehicles. And this is the background that I have researched about new energy

vehicles: In today's society, the problem of air pollution and the greenhouse

effect are becoming more and more serious, and the demand for new energy

in various countries is increasing. It is undeniable that electric vehicles have

attracted peoples’ attention. However, at present, people are still more

accustomed to using gasoline cars. Therefore, I want to design a way to

encourage people to use electric cars to go out. First, it can reduce the

problem of air pollution. Second, traffic pressure will be reduced as people

rent electric cars. Combining these key points, I will use the process to

demonstrate my ideas (low-carbon travel, green living), and design an app

that is convenient for people to rent electric cars as the final product. And

figure 1 is one of my design sketch.

!
(Figure1,Design Sketch, Gary, 2019)
2. I-Interpret the insight

In the process of completing the new project, I have to think about my design

with a comprehensive vision, because of the previous failure experience, so in

the new project, I will closely integrate the design with people's lives, find out

specific problems and solve the problems through my design. As Holtzblatt

and Beyer, (2016) said that design is for better life. Therefore, I think designer

should shoulder the responsibility to design better products for the people.

In the field of interaction design, I think the quality of the interaction between

the user and the application is important. In other words, when designing a

new app, designers should fully understand the needs of consumers and

design new products follow the characteristics of the times, so that the

designed app is not only close to people's lives, but also uses the perspective

of development to keep the app from being eliminated. Therefore, I have

adopted some methods for collecting information about target users. I think

that interaction design should be user-centered. These research methods are

questionnaires, interviews, and field visits. Before starting my project, I used

questionnaires, interviews, field visits to doing the research and investigate

user’s information and current social situation. And the interviewers are

between the ages of 18 and 45 (as can be seen in Figure 2). After

investigation and research, I made a summary based on their views about

new energy vehicles and current environmental issues: There are many

reasons why new energy vehicles are not popularized. For example, people's

awareness of low-carbon travel and environmental protection is relatively low.

Therefore, the worse result is that the air pollution is getting more and more
serious, the number of vehicles is increasing sharply, and the traffic

congestion is getting worse.

!
(Figure2, Research:Interviews, Gary, 2019)

Therefore, during the design process, I brainstormed based on the information

I collected. Next, I planned some design work that I was going to do, such as

making a content map and introduction, designing the outline, describing the

project, drawing a mind map, designing, and testing its feasibility (can be seen

in Figure 3). Because the success of the project is closely related to its design

pattern, only in this way can designer avoid some loopholes and highlight the

objectivity and reliability. Eventually, I hope that the products I design can help

people use new energy electric vehicles, increase people's awareness of

environmental protection, and promote people's awareness of green travel.

!

(Figure 3,Flow chart of using the application, Gary, 2019)

3. E-Evaluate what you have learned

First of all, user experience is a kind of psychological feeling established by

the user in the process of using the product. And as Hassenzah, (2008)

defined that this kind of sense mainly comes from the interaction between

users and products. A good user experience means that the product is

successful. However, if designer want to create a good product, they must

carry out sufficient market research activities centered on the target group,

find out their needs, and design products according to the development of

current situation. Therefore, this requires designers to use a comprehensive

vision to review their design ideas. What is more, every design should be

people-oriented. User-centered design is extremely important to the user

experience. Extensive user experience testing as an effective research

method can effectively avoid unrealistic and poor experience design ideas

during the design process.

Secondly, in addition to mentioned above, "we must review our design ideas

with a comprehensive vision, and avoid possible problems thorough research,

so that the final designed product can develop better." And I have got a new

understanding that is innovative design is needed in conjunction with the

development of today's society. Because of the lack of innovation in previous

projects, the works I designed did not attractive enough, and did not solve the

problems in life which lead a failure design. Therefore, innovation is a key

element when design a new product. And von Stamm, (2004) said that

“innovation can be achieved through design to achieve better business or life

goals”. In addition, it is necessary for designers to collect information,

because design innovation may come from people’s daily life, and this can

stimulate the designer's brain to design better works, as an old saying goes,

creation comes from life. However, once you understand these things, it is

important to take action and put them into practice. In short, through this

process, I know that the most meaningful thing for me is to turn my idea into a

good design idea and then act on it.

4. P-Plan how this learning will be applied in practice

From the above, I learned that some thoughts should be applied to real life. In

the process, I will design applications to make things easier for people.

Interaction design is closely related to people's daily life, and the former ones
serves the latter ones. In future projects or practices, I will still attach great

importance to what I have learned in this project. Rethinking my design ideas

with a comprehensive perspective, and avoiding problems that may be come

out thorough investigations, this will become a design method that I will

always follow in future projects. Because this design method can improve my

design efficiency. In addition, it is also important to combine the design to

today's social development. Because, in the century of new technology being

constantly updated, new demands from users are constantly emerging. Lastly,

understanding users’ requirement throughout research is very important for a

designer during the design process.

Practical interaction design techniques are constantly evolving, so interaction

designers need to continuously develop various skills to create new

experiential works. In fact, the focus of interaction design is to continuously

participate in the user experience of the project and establish a connection

between the user and the content designer. We are committed to promoting

user engagement and ensuring a good user experience on the topics of low-

carbon mobility and green living. Our mission is to strive to provide better

services to our users and bring them a pleasant user experience.

Reference:

Hassenzahl, M. (2008,). User experience (UX): towards an experiential

perspective on product quality. In IHM (Vol. 8, pp. 11-15).

Holtzblatt, K., & Beyer, H. (2016). Contextual design: Design for life. Morgan
Kaufmann.

von Stamm, B. (2004). Innovation—what's design got to do with it? Design

Management Review, 15(1), 10-19.