This is a demo of the Nomad app prototype in action. The Nomad app is a sustainable activity community + recommender application I designed together with Hannah Li, Tianhao Dai, and Xi Lei for DH-411 (Design Research for Digital Innovation) at the EPFL + ECAL Lab in Lausanne, Switzerland while I was on academic exchange at EPFL in Fall 2023. DH-411 is a graduate level course that focuses on turning digital technologies + data into meaningful user experiences through design research and user centric UI/UX methodologies. The aims of this project was to apply the design research theories and UI/UX design skills we learned throughout the term into creating an innovative product over iterations of user testing.
The initial prompt we got was designing an app that encourages Swiss citizens to reduce the electricity consumption per capita in creative ways. I mainly worked on brainstorming which main features we are offering, conducting user interviews to understand how to solidify these design philosophies into real features that achieve the target effect, and designing the UI/UX components for the recommender and activities section.
Here is a demo of the prototype:
Nomad_App_Demo.mp4
I learned a lot about design research theories and applying user-centric approaches at every step of the project. Conducting surveys to collect initial data, conducting user interviews, and showing the user our prototype offered us extremely valuable insights into the user's perception on such a mobile app and solidifying our ideas into a working prototype. None of this would be possible without the curiousity and collaboration within our team. We are super grateful for our professor Nicolas and design Advisor Lara for their mastery in user-centric design and always guiding us with so much kindness and support. They are the best teachers anyone could ever ask for and our growth and learning wouldn't be possible without them. Here are more details about the EPFL + ECAL Lab and DH-411 if you want to learn more!