Amy Kuo

Our project intended to accomplish a number of things to promote our vision of bringing sustainability into the social realm. We made knowledge on fuel economy optimization accessible by creating a social networking website for people to interact and exchange knowledge on driving tips and techniques.This project participated in Cloud Computing in the Commute design competition held by Ford & Microsoft in May 2010.

I took this contest as a chance to examine my design skills and creativity thinking. I imagined the future design of multi-touch screen technology by interviewing friends and studying related papers. I visualized those techniques by drawing comics on pixton, and created a video to present my ideas. This project won Honorable Mention in multi-touch screen design contest held by Microsoft Taiwan.

We are designing an app on Google Nexus One for visual impaired users to find point of interests near them, e.g restaurants, study rooms, special events, etc. As an Android phone user, I devoted a lot of time to research the accessibility and the interface guidelines on the Android system. I also interviewed a couple of users to understand the challenges of designing the interface on touch screen for blind users. The system will be launched in September at University of Michigan.

In information visualization class, our team designed an augmented reality interface for an iPhone application, using similar technology related to spatial proximity. This is a great opportunity to brainstorm creative ways to explain works of art without a tour guide, and really define how ubiquitous computing can be designed to better inform us.

I was a research assistant in the Internet and Multimedia Lab and primarily worked with Dr. Christian Chang. We did research about interaction and interface design of three 3G cell phones. I designed the research method the conducted usability test sessions with 30 students by asking to complete some tasks, including finding a restaurant, looking for information on the net, and setting the route to the destination. Dr. Chang and I published the working paper on Creativity journal in March 2009.

I interned at TrendMicro, an anti-virus software company in Cupertino, California as a user experience researcher. I evaluated the formation of consumers by analyzing more than 1000 survey responses. I provided several design suggestions to the visual design team based on my analysis and evaluation. I also managed the internal content management system, SharePoint, and redesigned the workflow of task-tracking.

In analysis & design of online communities class, I chose SpreadFirefox as the studying subject and observed the goal, structure, members, norms and events within the website to analyze how effective the community works and how people interact with others. I'll come up with design claims related to improvements of newcomers' commitment, regulation of users' behavior, and motivation for members' contribution.

Our team studied and assessed the usability of Hab.la, a lightweight widget that allows the website owners to chat with their visitors using their existing instant messengers. We analyzed the website and the widget by interviewing potential users, developing personas and scenarios, comparing the pros and cons of 6 competitors, and doing heuristic evaluation.

Our team collected information on the flow of communication both within and between the ePortfolio group and client sites in order to investigate and analyze the working process of ePortfolio team to set up new ePortfolio pilot sites with clients. We collected data by conducting seven interviews with ePortfolio team members and clients. Our team developed a number of visual representations, including a flow, sequential, artifact and physical model, analyzed all the data and provided 3 useful recommendations for improving the working process of the team.