My responsibilities: User Research, Competitive analysis, Technical Specs, UI & Interaction Design, Prototyping

Team: 2 UX Designers, 1 Product Manager, Teams of Developers

<aside> <img src="/icons/report_gray.svg" alt="/icons/report_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Context

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Expand Glodon’s portfolio into a new product category—generative 3D modeling—for competitive differentiation. The company aims to launch a new product that improves the conceptual design phase in architectural design process.

<aside> <img src="/icons/iterate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/iterate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Design Process

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• User Research
• Persona & Experience Map
• Competitor Research
• Workflows & Diagrams
• UI & Interactions
• Reflections

<aside> <img src="/icons/chat-user_gray.svg" alt="/icons/chat-user_gray.svg" width="40px" /> USER RESEARCH

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Target Users: Architectural drafters, senior architects, computational designers

<aside> <img src="/icons/arrow-down_gray.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-down_gray.svg" width="40px" /> User challenges with the products in the market:

• Interoperability issues
• Losing data while moving between 2D drafting and 3D modeling
• Overly simplistic, but not enough capabilities vs Advanced capabilities, but highly sophisticated
• The manual process of calculating feasibility and costs during the early design stage, as well as the necessity to compare these figures across various options. </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/user_gray.svg" alt="/icons/user_gray.svg" width="40px" /> PERSONA

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Architectural Designer

A mid-level, front-line architect with broad responsibility. High degree of technical skill in architecture and design, less computation.

Education: Bachelor or Master in Architecture

Experience: 3 year - ****NCARB Certificate

Influence: Makes technology purchase suggestions, based on personal experience with software.

Product Knowledge:

AutoCAD

Rhino

Revit

Google Sketch up

Adobe CC

Responsibilities:

• Produces drawings throughout the design lifecycle.
• Has experience in construction administration.
• Creates presentations for client review.
• Collaborates closely with consulting engineers, contractors, and owners.

Likes

• Apply spatial and visual skills, abstract thinking.
• Gaining consensus between the design team, contractor and owner.

Dislikes

• Overly specific BIM software that hampers design creativity, which is why they like Rhino.
• Drafting bathroom details, interior elevations, and RCPs.
• Low salary despite heavy load work

Goals:

• Realizing their architectural vision for projects.
• Design accepted by client under the budget.

Challenges:

• Always pressed for time against looming phase deadlines.
• Making important, required design decisions with inadequate information.
• Resolving conflicting priorities of the designers, owners, and contractors.

Computational Designer

Design technology specialist at an AEC firm. Or modelling group at Foster + Partners, or at Arup.

Education: M.Arc or MS in Architecture

Experience: 5 years. Was a staff architect for first year at the firm but penchant with digital tools got them promoted.

Influence: Decides both technology and process, has outsized influence given low seniority.

Product Knowledge:

Rhino

Grasshopper

Rhino python

Energy Modeling and related software

Adobe CC

Responsibilities:

• Provides tech guidance and design problem solving.
• Creates parametric complex 3d models using visual programing language.
• Collaborates in design optimization using energy analysis software.

Likes:

• Being an intellectual tourist
• Technology transfer
• Scripting, math, geometry but knows their limits.

Dislikes:

• Lag.
• Repetitive work
• Old-school methods

Goals:

• Making the project team succeed.
• Increase the work efficiency

Challenges:

• Advocate for the use of technology to the Firm's seniors.
• Needs to be fairly decent in wide range of software.

Plugin Developer

Mid-level developer with experience in building game application.

Education: BS in mechanical engineering, MSCS.

Experience: 2 years in SW development start-up.

Influence: AI and ML applications

Product Knowledge:

Python

HTML and Java script

C#

Responsibilities:

Search and explore possible solutions to implement the projects.

Create in-house plugins

Likes:

• Solve surrounding problems by making digital products.
• Solving puzzles.
• 3D modeling and 3D printing.
• Video games.

Dislikes:

• Compatibility issues
• Poorly drafted APIs
• Debugging and testing

Goals:

• Realizing the project specs defined by architects and designers, Leveraging their AI knowledge to support the project.

Challenges:

• Communicating technical limitations to the designers.