Bosch UX/UI Design Internship
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Time
16 weeks | 2024.05 - 2024.08
Team
Pan Li ( GS/BDU-APAC Design Lead )
Role
UX/UI Designer Intern
Type
Interface Design | Design Strategy | Service Design | Research
Tools
Figma | Powerpoint | Adobe Creative Suite
This summer, I joined Bosch as a UX/UI intern in the GS/BDU department, supporting digital transformation initiatives to meet internal digitalization requirements. My work focused on various internal departments, including logistics, finance, and HR.
I contributed to four major projects involving user research, interface design, and strategic planning. It was my first experience working in a global context. This role provided valuable insights and growth in both design and digital strategy.
My contributions
User Research:
User Interviews: I coordinated 19 user interviews across the APAC region, documenting insights and synthesizing key findings into actionable deliverables for our clients.
Data Visualization: I led an internal survey report, analyzing results and transforming data into clear, impactful visuals to highlight key insights.
Design Strategy：
Analyzed user feedback to identify needs, highlight potential enhancements under current strategic structure, and develop basic framework of action plans.
Interface Design:
Designed user interface prototypes for internal users across two projects: a fixed asset management platform and an AI research tool platform for UX designers.
Service Design:
Delivered a service package for internal users’ light digitalization needs, including checklists, training videos and a simplified design system.
The Dashboard is a prototype I designed for the fixed asset management system. This is a sample demonstration only, as the NDA prevents me from sharing the full project outside of Bosch.
Overall
My time at Bosch has been an amazing journey. I had the chance to try different areas and apply the skills I learned at school, and it was wonderful to see my ideas come to life. I want to give special thanks to my mentor, Fang Jie, who was very supportive and gave me the freedom to explore different possibilities. She respected my opinions, and together we achieved something great—a 4.7/5 satisfaction rating from our clients.
The APAC team was also incredible. Working with Ha from Vietnam on the OKR project taught me a lot; she is a very skilled UX specialist. And although I haven’t met my colleagues from EMEA and AMER in person, our regular online meetings made me feel very connected to them. I will always remember this experience.
One of the workshops we hosted in the lobby.
Trip.com UX Design Internship
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Time
2024.09 - Present
Team
Lina Wang( Design Lead of Car Rental BU )
Role
UX Designer Intern
Type
B2B web design | B2C app design | User Research
Tools
Sketch | Figma | Axure
This fall, I had the privilege of joining Trip.com Group as a UX intern in the Car Rental department. I gained invaluable experience working on both B2B supplier management systems and B2C customer-facing interfaces, collaborating with product and development teams to quickly iterate, launch new features, and address existing system issues.
My main design project focused on synchronizing mini-programs, unifying the interface and functionality of Trip.com’s app with Weixin and Alipay-based mini-programs. I also designed interfaces for new features added during the synchronization process.
Contributions
Collaborated with product, front-end, and back-end teams to develop optimal product strategies, evaluate solution feasibility, and deliver corresponding interface designs.
Design for iterative updates to enhance user experience for customer-end application, improving accessibility and usability.
Implemented refinements in business supplier system, enabling more precise control and adaptability in digital workflows, such as Fine Management of Minimum Advance Booking Period
To be continued
Renting Reimagined
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Time
2023.10 - 2023.12
Sector
Public Interest | Campus Affairs
Role
Research | Visual design | Information architecture
Teammates
Joe Schnackertz | Jasmine Sun
Collaboration
Northeastern University Off-campus Engagement and Support Department
As a student at Northeastern University, I've had firsthand experience with the daunting task of finding rental accommodation in Boston. This experience, echoed by my fellow students, has been notably challenging both to domestic students and international students. Driven by personal experiences and observations, we discovered that many student renters are not only unfamiliar with the rental process but also unaware of their rights as tenants. Despite Northeastern University offering housing advice through a dedicated department, there lacked a comprehensive resource guiding students through the entire rental journey. And we want to change that and reimagine the renting experience.
Goal.
Inform, protect and empower Northeastern University students who are renting property in Boston.
Improve the experience of renting properties as a Northeastern University students in Boston.
Provide resources to Northeastern University students who are renting property in Boston.
Solution.
Literature Review.
Before diving into research our team spent time understanding and defining the problem we were trying to address. Our first step was to examine existing sources to identify issues that student renters experience. This examination led us to several key findings.
| Boston is an extremely expensive place to live.
“No other major New England city comes even close to the latest Boston average rent. Comparing years, from December 2021 to December 2022, the average rent in Boston increased by roughly 9.4%, from $3,113 to $3,405.”
| Student renters are not familiar with the rental process.
While Northeastern University has a dedicated department for students to seek housing advice, there is not one resource that can guide students through the whole renting journey.
| Student renters were not familiar with their rights as renters
They don’t know how to protect their rights and stand up for themselves.
Findings
Financial Burden: student do not have a significant or steady source of income therefore cannot afford to pay the high rental rates in Boston.
Power Gap: student renters have neither the knowledge/experience of renting in the past or the authority to pass back against decisions and actions of the landlord.
Hierarchy of needs: reliable and safe shelter is a basic need that all people need, it is the view of our group that stress over a housing situation can cause issues in other parts of a renting student’s life.
Increasing rental price: it is no secret that Boston is one of the most expensive cities to live in the country, this leaves students in a troubling situation when they are trying to complete their hard earned degrees and could not plan for rental price increases year over year
Based on that, we developed our HMV question…
How Might We inform, protect, and empower
Northeastern University students
who are renting property in the city of Boston?
Research.
In order to understand the feelings, experiences, thoughts and actions of our target population (student renters at Northeastern) our team decided to conduct three types of data collection: observation, surveying, and interviews.
Observation.
| Part 1 Social Media
Since the common time for securing apartments had part, our team decided to conduct ‘secondary observations’ to collect the data we needed. Our team made our secondary observation on social media sites including Red, Yammer, and WhatsApp. These sites are used by students to find apartment availability, exchange information, and secure properties. Much of what we learned from these sites was that rent can be very different, ranging from $500 to $2000 per month for a person in a shared house. Most of the posts focus on location, infrastructure, and price. Some would also introduce basic information about roommates.
| Part 2 Workshop
Our team observed a workshop hosted by Northeastern’s Off-Campus Engagement and Support department. The workshop covers a wide range of contents, which is also the daily work of Northeastern’s Off-Campus Engagement and Support department:
Help students connect with housing resources
Help students to find their roommates
Help students to solve their renting issues
Help students connect to attorney support if needed
| Conclusion:
We discovered that although Northeastern University Off-Campus Engagement and Support Department offers numerous resources, very few students are aware of and utilize these resources, and there are not a lot of students participated in the workshop. There’s a disconnection between the resources and the student renters.
Survey.
In order to further explore our research question, our team created and conducted surveying to collect more detailed information about our target group: Northeastern University students renting in the Boston area.
This 25 question survey attempted to capture a wide picture of the experiences of student renters based on topics including safety, renting experience, and finances. Over one week, our team collected 60 responses. We distributed our survey by sending out the link to several What’sApp groups related to Northeastern and even posted the link in a message asking for participation to the official “Northeastern Off Campus Housing” Yammer group. Additionally, our team brought scannable QR codes with each member and walked around the Northeastern campus asking for students to participate.
We analyzed all the surveys and here’s the result…
Through the data, we realize the problem is not the limitation of resources, but the limited awareness of students and the information gap in between.
Interview.
To understand more details besides quantitative data, we conducted three interviews: two with student renters (A and B) and one with a stakeholder from the NU Off-Campus Engagement and Support Department. The interviews revealed diverse challenges and needs among Northeastern student renters. Awareness of on-campus resources is limited, and there are common issues such as deposit disputes and rent increases. The NU Off-Campus Engagement and Support Department plays a crucial role in providing support, but efforts are needed to enhance student awareness and follow-up. Tailored communication strategies, early resource dissemination, and improved support during co-op experiences could contribute to better informing, protecting, and empowering NU student renters in the city of Boston.
Analysis.
Affinity Diagram
To capture the entirety of our selected problem (NEU students’ renting experience in Boston) and begin to process the data that we collected, we created an affinity diagram. This diagram breaks down the major concerns and action of our target group: student renters at Northeastern. We identified several major categories that emerged from our research: the market, rent price, the profile of the renter, how concerns are addressed, and problems both before and after moving in.
Draft
Digital Poster
Persona
From the affinity map and our data collected from our research process, our team created two user personas to summarize our research findings. Each persona is intended to broadly capture the types of situations students at NEU find themselves in while renting in Boston.
User Journey Map
In addition to the personas that we created, our group took the persona of SeungJun Kim further by creating a user journey map of his experience renting up to the point of signing the lease.
The goal of the experience journey map was to better capture the emotions that the students expressed in our research phase. The previously shown personas can provide detailed descriptions, but lack the feeling that comes with the renting process.
Intervention Opportunities
02 | Increase awareness of renters’ rights
01 | Increase awareness of the existing support resources for renters in the NEU network
03 | There is a knowledge gap for first time student renters and those new to Boston
04 | Smooth the roommate finding process
Final Design.
Based on the first prototype we developed and the feedback received, we reorganized and redesigned the housing page for the NEU Off-Campus Engagement website.
Design Concept
Our team will create an interactive platform that takes current and incoming NEU students on an apartment renting journey from search to move-in. We will be able to expand this platform in the future to capture additional journeys such as subletting, navigating roommate conflicts, move-out, and more.
Current Website
Information Architecture
We used information architecture to help us understand the structure of the current website and then improve it.
To summarize this concept, a student would log onto this platform with their current NU credentials. Once in, the student would be invited to begin going through mini lessons related to their renting an apartment. An avatar of Paws (Northeastern’s mascot) will be the student’s guide as they go through each lesson. Every lesson, or group of lessons done unlocks the next set of lessons. The lessons match the steps that the students will be taking in their apartment search. At the end of the journey, the student should either successfully rented an apartment or be confident in their knowledge of renting to move forward on steps on their own. The student can always go back and visit the lessons they competed in to review the knowledge.
Stroll Story.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Time
2023.10 - 2023.12
Sector
Education | Growth | Fitness
Role
Research | Visual design | Service system design
Teammates
Dharini Kamdar
Collaboration
Walk Massachusetts
Kids used to be able to confidently roam around the neighborhoods, learning and growing along the way. However, in today's urban landscapes, we face challenges in nurturing children's independence and spatial awareness due to the drastically changing surroundings which have little space that is suitable for kids to explore on their own.
That's why we created Stroll Story. This project enables kids to reconnect with their surrounding, offering them the freedom to explore and grow through their discoveries.
Starting Points.
The changing urban landscape and the limited space for children's exploration.
Parental concerns and challenges faced in fostering independence.
The importance of addressing these challenges for children's development.
In today's urban landscapes, we face challenges in nurturing children's independence and spatial awareness.
But what if we could give them the freedom to explore their surroundings based on their own?
Our envisions.
｜Autonomy
| Growth
| Self-exploration
| Community
| Walk more
| Interact with real world
| Bonding
| Fun school route
Solution.
Stroll Story Logo
We have developed the Stroll Story project, which provides a monthly event allowing children to independently explore their surroundings. Children are gathered at a location near their school by volunteers from Walk Massachusetts, who then guide them to a designated 'Exploration Zone'. Within this zone, kids are free to roam and discover. The program is equipped with toolkits to facilitate these adventures, including the exploration map and Apple Watch.
This program is designed with the growth and well-being of children in mind. We believe that by restoring children's freedom to explore on their own, we can positively impact their cognitive development and enhance their social skills.
Setting the Stage.
| Part 1 Hypothesis Formation
We are aware that our research project, involving complex topics such as children and safety, makes the actual design process a little bit tricky. Therefore, it's essential to start with hypotheses so we get a guideline of design. Through research, we aim to clarify what is feasible and what is not. Here are 5 assumptions.
1. Parents are not comfortable to let their kids walking alone in Boston.
2. Safety of their kids is one of the biggest concerns
3. Kids want to explore their neighborhood after school hours
4. People are willing to alter the behavior for intervention
5. Kids are traveling to school by bus, bike or on foot?
| Part 2 Preliminary Research
Site: Curley K-8 School
Target audience: Children between the age 7-12 years
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Type: Public School
Why we choose it: Safe neighborhood
Research Plan:
Research over that whether the surrounding area has sufficient exploration spaces for children to play.
Interact with the target audiences to understand their behavioral habits and characteristics through research and observation methods.
Reach out:
Curley K-8 School - connect with official channels/ gain access to talk to parents and children.
Contact with relevant organizations to gain insights into those involved in children, education, and transportation, and seeking guidance on the feasibility of design through communication.
We mapped out the surroundings…
To ensure the availability of ample, secure, and enjoyable spaces for exploration within the school's accessible vicinity, I mapped out the possible activity zones within an area that is within a 15-minute walking distance from the school. I categorize them into 6 different types: commercial health, residential area, playground, park, garden and nature reserve.
Findings
There are enough areas for kids to explore, especially since there are 4 parks, 3 gardens and 3 playgrounds within walkable distance.
We interviewed two moms from the school…
We wanted to hear more from parents and find out if they are interested in having their children participate in such activities. So we visited Curley K-8 school and interview 2 moms. The research results is interesting and I list all the findings below.
Click here to see the interview questionnaire.
Findings (answering the assumption questions)
1.Parents are not comfortable to let their kids walking alone. They prefer someone to be with their kids.
2.Safety of their kids are their major concerns
3.Kids have plenty of time to play after school hours. Now they just hang out with their friends in playgrounds.
4.People welcome intervention, only if it is safe.
5.Kids travelled by car, bus, bike and on foot. Some of the parents walk their kids to school since their homes are near.
Fail, fail and fall.
It became extremely difficult for us to carry out our research and get the data,
which made us felt lost and don’t know what to do.
We initially planned to collaborate with schools to obtain parental feedback. However, the slow progress of the schools did not align with the limited timeframe of our project, resulting in the failure of our original research plan.
We also attempted to reach out to members of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) organization, aiming to understand their existing projects and thereby identify feasible directions for our own project. Unfortunately, our emails went unanswered.
We sent emails to 4 organizations, but received no responses.
Fail, fail and learn.
| What we did:
Since we received no responses from the previous emails we sent, we persisted in reaching out other organizations.
We received emails Walk Massachusetts. They invited us to attend one of their meetings.
We established email communication with an individual who had previously collaborated with SRTS.
| What we learnt:
Walk Massachusetts
WalkMassachusetts makes walking safer and easier in Massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and more vibrant communities.
We attended their monthly meeting
We had a chance to go over the Safe Routes to School Presentation prepared for Walk Massachusetts
We understood the stakeholders of our project to a larger extent…
We found that similar to our project, SRTS is also channeling their focus towards promoting travel on foot…
The vast majority of students commute by vehicle, few walk.
SRTS promotes walking bus activities
Meeting with C associated with SRTS
C is an individual that has previously worked with SRTS. She had a 45-minute meeting with us, during which she shared details about some SRTS projects and her collaborative project with SRTS. We also briefly introduced our project to her, including some of the progress we have achieved so far. She offered us some invaluable advice.
Identify Opportunities.
During our research, we tested out our assumptions, which shows intervention to a certain extent is feasible. Thus, based on our findings during the research process, we proposed the HMV question.
How Might We solve the safety problem
and unlock safe and inclusive adventures
for kids after they dismiss from school?
We brainstormed the possible solutions and elements involved…
Prototyping.
“ Scavenger Hunt ".
Our initial prototype was a “ scavenger hunt” game, derived from the idea previously mentioned about unlocking children's freedom to explore. As illustrated below, through 'Building Connections', we provide guided routes, allowing children to observe and note 'Points of Interest', such as cats, dogs, or charming landmarks. Additionally, we planned for special activities like 'Festival Events' and special functions like 'Building Community' to enrich the children's free exploration and social needs.
Building Connections
Guidance to the playground or park
Routes recommendations
Multiple modes of transport
Festival Events
Holiday candy hunt
Easter egg hunt
“ Points of Interest ”
Cute pets
Landmarks
Nice shops & window decoration
Building Community
Work with others
Friend spots notification
We applied Apple Watch for safety concerns and recording needs…
Apple Watch act as a tool for communication, recording, and location tracking. It serves both safety concerns and recording functions.
real-time location tracking
sharing the location with parents' phones
reminder of the remaining time
audio prompts
stay in exploration zone
We created a service system map to illustrate the process…
Children
Parents
Volunteer
iwatch
Frontstage
Backstage
And the feedbacks…
｜That seems fun!
1.Kids are allowed to explore own their own.
2.The concept is interesting.
3.Apple watch is a good way to locate kids.
｜It can be better.
1. Apple watch is used too frequently.
2. Is there enough volunteer?
3. The guidance for kids is vague.
Final Design.
Based on the first prototype we developed and the feedback received, we reorganized and launched the "Stroll Story" project.
System Map
In this diagram, the relationships between the system stakeholders in the project is shown to help people better understand the organization of the activity. After school, children gather at the school gate, where volunteer from Walk Massachusetts organize and lead them to a nearby exploration zone. The exploration zone will be a place within 15-minute walk distance from school. Volunteers from Walk Massachusetts will safeguard the main intersections to make sure the zone is capable for the kids to explore on their own. Once the exploration is complete, kids are led back to the school by volunteers. Parents are kept informed about their children through mobile notifications all the time and are responsible for pick-ups.
Service Blueprint
The "Service Blueprint" diagram provides a more detailed description of how the various stakeholders interact within the system. Building on the previous system, our final version of the service system incorporates the "Exploration Map" tool, allowing the Apple Watch to serve merely as a GPS locator and navigation aid. During their exploration, children mainly use the Exploration Map for recording and navigation, which helps developing their reading skills and cognitive abilities.
Exploration map
To better provide guidance, we designed a double-sided exploration map in a hand-drawn style. The front of the map displays information such as the month of the activity, while the back shows the name of the area for that month's activity and other details. Each child will be given an exploration map before the start of the activity for use during their free exploration.
The "Exploration Map" is a worksheet. The front side is a hand-drawn map of this month's exploration area. It includes key details such as major road names, landmarks, the boundaries of the exploration area, and the location of the assembly point. Each time before the exploration start, volunteers will conduct a brief lecture to teach them how to use the map.
The back of the map features four prompts, guiding children to think and take notes during their exploration. The four questions we proposed are designed based on the cognitive characteristics of children in this age group, focusing on reflective thinking. The questions cover exploration of the world, nature, self, as well as family or friend relationships.
We adopt a special form - Origami Twist
To better stimulate the children's interest and make exploration more engaging, we used a special folding technique to present the map — the "classic origami twist." This method is simple to create and transforms the map into an interactive origami piece, offering plenty of fun for the children as they open and fold it.
To encourage continuous participation, we created a "Collection Book" specifically for collecting exploration maps from each activity. This collection book is designed to match the origami design of the maps, showing the name of the location for each activity when a map is put into the book. This collection book can also serve as a growth tracker for the child, also allowing discussions between the child and parents about the day's activities, thereby enhancing family communication.
