Usman Sunday

Visualization Challenge

The Challenge

You work for one of the world’s largest media and communications companies. Currently your company  has five apps the customer can use to pay bills, troubleshoot service issues, chat with a customer  representative, customize internet features, and stream video and music. The problem is your  customers feel this is way too many apps, and it is confusing on what app does what. You notice that  because of this fact customers have elected to use none of them, but instead simply use your company  for service access, and use competing companies such as Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify for the other  services. This is a serious problem because it is through your apps that you can collect data about your  customer’s entertainment habits that you can use to sell advertisement space on your service. Your  challenge is to come up with an app that is an all in one app. Customers can do everything your apps do  and more without the hassle of bloating their smart device with groups of tedious apps from your  company.

Selection

I would start off with the flow chart technique of drawing what our individual apps do and ask the “5  Ws”. Why do we need FIVE apps? What does each app do? When do I think we can launch the new all in  one app? How do the five apps currently flow? Who is the target audience for these apps (business  customers or residential customers?). Where can we make some cuts to our current digital footprint?  Having a hand drawn layout of how each of the five apps work would make it easier to see what needs  to stay and what can be cut for the new all in one app.

Application

Using the “Key Principles of Mobile UX Design” by Nick Babich (Editior in Chief of UXplanet.com) which  states that consumers want simple, quick, and easy to understand apps, I would assemble the best  designers, software engineering, programmers, and stakeholders to discuss the current problem, the  solution, the benefits of going the one app route, the execution of design, release timeline, the costs  involved, and any possible hurdles we may face during this process. Using a blank wall we will use a  series of colored post-it notes in different categories to come up with how the new app will function.

Insight and Approach

What I learned from this challenge is that for designing something as complex as this it does take an  incredibly talented and dedicated team to accomplish the task. Getting everyone to share the same

vision was not the hard part, but it was actually having too many GOOD ideas that made it hard on  knowing what to cut and what to keep. Once we took those ideas and trimmed them down to what a  real life customer would want we felt we had something to present to higher ups.

What I learned from this is visualization is truly a valuable tool in design thinking. I feel it’s the one tool  that everyone can get behind because you are actually displaying the ideas versus just blindly discussing  them. I know not every situation is going to call for a visualization tool, but in the future I hope to take  what I learned and apply it even better for the next great idea.


Usman Sunday Visualization Challenge The Challenge You work for one of the world ’s largest media and communications companies . Currently your company has five apps the customer can use to pay bills , troubleshoot service issues , chat with a customer representative , customize internet features , and stream video and music . The problem is your customers feel this is way too many apps , and it is confusing on what app does what . You notice that because of this fact customers have elected to use none of them , but instead simply use your company for service access , and use competing companies such as Netflix , Hulu , and Spotify for the other services . This is a serious problem because it is through your apps that you can collect data about your customer ’s entertainment habits that you can use to sell advertisement space on your service . Your challenge is to come up with an app that is an all in one app . Customers can do everything your apps do and more without the hassle of bloating their smart device with groups of tedious apps from your company . Selection I would start off with the flow chart technique of drawing what our individual apps do and ask the “ 5 Ws ” . Why do we need FIVE apps ? What does each app do ? When do I think we can launch the new all in one app ? How do the five apps currently flow ? Who is the target audience for these apps ( business customers or residential customers ? ) . Where can we make some cuts to our current digital footprint ? Having a hand drawn layout of how each of the five apps work would make it easier to see what needs to stay and what can be cut for the new all in one app . Application Using the “ Key Principles of Mobile UX Design ” by Nick Babich ( Editior in Chief of UXplanet.com ) which states that consumers want simple , quick , and easy to understand apps , I would assemble the best designers , software engineering , programmers , and stakeholders to discuss the current problem , the solution , the benefits of going the one app route , the execution of design , release timeline , the costs involved , and any possible hurdles we may face during this process . Using a blank wall we will use a series of colored post - it notes in different categories to come up with how the new app will function . Insight and Approach What I learned from this challenge is that for designing something as complex as this it does take an incredibly talented and dedicated team to accomplish the task . Getting everyone to share the same vision was not the hard part , but it was actually having too many GOOD ideas that made it hard on knowing what to cut and what to keep . Once we took those ideas and trimmed them down to what a real life customer would want we felt we had something to present to higher ups . What I learned from this is visualization is truly a valuable tool in design thinking . I feel it ’s the one tool that everyone can get behind because you are actually displaying the ideas versus just blindly discussing them . I know not every situation is going to call for a visualization tool , but in the future I hope to take what I learned and apply it even better for the next great idea .