1 minute to understand YONA

Through the cycle jounrey of learning a song, there are a lot of repeating practice cycles in each section and it was taken a long time to learn, but it was an interesting phenomenon that the mixed emotions (positive and negative) were occurred throughout the learning journey.

Compared different level of learning cycle, for beginners, long learning curve in the technical section lead to loss of interest and hard to stay self-encouragement.

In 2016, Venture capitals and corporate investors poured $2.3 billion into VR/AR startups. Facebook believes that AR smart glasses will go mainstream from 2022. Although Google has applied AR glasses technique in social situation but it didn't fit to the market due to the privacy. In the coming decade, I believe that AR glassese will be in high demand especially in the field of education and training, where puts information in an engaging and visual way.

Beginners are easy to give up due to the long learning curve at the early stage, disconnected service experience, and mismatching their initial goals.


These 3 key challenges can be translated into the following opportunities:
( 1. ) Making short-term achievement at early stage
( 2. ) Goal-orientation drives learning
( 3. ) Sociability arouses motivation and continuance in learning

YONA is a Augmented Reality Music Learning Platform engaging learners to enjoy playing their songs in a fun and easy way.

There are 3 levels: Level 1 creates quick engagement by providing simple instruction on instrument for a learner to follow; Level 2 provides tailored missions based on learners favourite song and learner's current level, so the learner can understand exactly what he/she have to learn and improve to reach the goal. The learner can also only focus on exploring the sections that he/she finds most interesting.

AR glasses is a potential tool on education for learners in that it creates a quick engagement on playing music before getting into long practice and reading the music note by on-instrument instruction. I tested this idea in exhibition and it turned out to be an increadible success. (watch previous video)

YONA supports people to meet their learning partners in similar level and same interest by a customised choice, providing a online and offline platform to increase people's self-motvation and continuance.

George Waddell -- Research Associate in Performance Science, Royal College of Music

Show RCA Exhibition at Royal College of Art Kensington 24 June 2017 to 2 July 2017

Press Link

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Partner: Royal College of Music

Date: Jan 2017 - Jun 2017, London, United Kingdom

In team with: Individual

Tutor: Mat Hunter

This ecosystem map illustrates the relationship of all the stakeholders both in external and internal network, which indicates the interoperability issue within the market.

From the interview, we collected a lot of interesting insights that we can not see on the care report. Seniors said that they do not want to be treated as an elderly but the market does not respond on the flexibility of the equipment design and the care service.

While most of the time staying at home, watching news is one of the most important way for elderly to interact with the external world in daily life. They are still eager to engage with other people and stay connected.

This map leads us to the segregation of the ageing market into 2 clear segments:

(1) The 'YOUNG OLD' who are typically 65-80 and who do not feel old, and do not want to be reminded that they are old. For them the technology needs to be 'INVISIBLE' and bought like insurance. Often influenced strongly by family members.

(2) The 'LATER OLD' who are typically 80+ and are experiencing a loss of confidence owing to declining eyesight, mobility, or cognitive abililty. For them technology needs to be 'VISIBLE' and bought & consumed as an extension of care.

This is a complex sphere where is not just about the elder people but also the family members and the carers in the care ecosystem. We have to consider all stakeholder's demand as the buyer and user are different in our service.

This service involves seniors enabling the homes of residents and uses TCS Assisted Living Platform to deliver alerts and notification to family members and carers through a web/mobile interface, allowing them to remotely monitor the well being of the seniors. It also enables seniors to live more independently in their homes.

Achieving ( 1. ) wellness and ageing with confidence for the elderly, ( 2. ) peace of mind for family members, and ( 3. ) efficiency as well as effectiveness for care workers

Prototype

The app is targeted for carers or family members. After the fist round user testing, we realised that:

( 1. ) Home page info should be highlighted and clear for quick check-in
( 2. ) The frequency of alerts is the primary touchpoint to user
( 3. ) The language we use should be human-oriented rather than sensor-oriented

Second Round

70% of users gave positive feedback, but it's still important to look at:

( 1. ) Lack of the flexibility for the text space from the square box design
( 2. ) Cases with mutli users - while mutli carers are taking responsibility for one resident, communication task between each other is key to make them work efficiently

Final Design - Selected Pages

The new design with clear visual hierarchy, enables users focus on the alerts that they look for, along with supporting seamless experience on task management with groups of carers

Flow Diagram

The core of this diagrom is about "Multi-carers to multi-residents". The service help carers to manage their tasks, also assist them to communicate with other carers when issues happened.

One highlighted case is that if all carers are not able to check the emergent task, which will be auto passed to a third-party assistant. This is the escalation mechanism.

Dashboard - Care manager

It is designed for the care manager who monitors a large number of senior activities. This design focus on the experience around rapid data retrieval and emergency notification.

Web Design

ON-GOING in TCS!

I am currently working in Tata Consultancy Service as a Service Designer. I am leading the design work of this project and our team is welcome for collaboration or who are interested in this topic as a partner or client. Feel free to contact me and let's have a chat!

My email in TCS: longkei.fong@tcs.com

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Project in: Tata Consultancy Service

Date: 2018 - present, London, United Kingdom

In team with: SWAT Team

Mentor: Ved Sen

KeyFrame–Tainan is an interactive device designed by Long-Kei Fong, Yuan-Chi Tseng and Yu-Chiao Wang that combines culture, digital arts, local music and technology to bring the viewer into Tainan life. Designers mix the style of picture book, watercolor brushes and other visual effects to create a digital scroll representing the urban image of Tainan.

The horizontal scroll captures the local culture, friendly and laid-back residents and the landscape of the ancient capital of Taiwan, Tainan. The viewer is an urban wanderer who can even jump from real world into the virtual urban daily life by the Kinect technology. S/he can follow her/himself and others to explore the illustrated city step by step.

Led design process with my team on Mural from competitor research, defining problem, value proposition canvas and UX wireframe to prototype etc.

“Take It Easy” is a suitcase designed for wheelchair users. It solves the problems of inconvenient use and psychological pressure of wheelchair users with suitcases on the market, enabling wheelchair users to pack their luggage on their own, without assistances of other people.

We conducted dozens of interviews with wheelchair users. From which we recongnised that wheelchair users face some problems with current suitcases while packing up their luggage. They couldn’t use the suitcases without other people’s help, therefore they are not able to travel independently with confidence. There is no specialised suitcase designed for wheelchair uers in the existing market.

Wheelchair users always tend to take care of themselves if possible. From the past scenario, it was clear that wheelchair users met a lot of problmes on using their suitcase due to the unsuitable design.

Intergrate in 7 Problems

Summarise in 2 Key Problems

"WEIGHT"

A suitcase filled with luggage is too heavy for them to take down from the table. They need to asked for help. Moreover, if the suitcase lled wtih stuff, they certainly can not put on the table as well.

"HEIGHT"

Current suitcases should be lay flat while using. However, a wheelchair user can’t reach the suitcases for the limit of their hands. The suitcase should be placed on a small table by other people for them to pack up luggage.

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Brainstorming and Sketch

Depending on two main problems, we started to brainstorm the solution via variety of Design Methodologies. For example: Morpholoical Charts.

Marketing Research

Learned from the usage of material, manufacture and structure. Our design should be light, universal and inclusive appearance.

Sketch

According to our key problems, we had sketched over hundards of ideas aiming to solve the usability problems in different scenarios

The Solution

Take It Easy

Modern people like to enjoy lives through traveling, however, a normal activity such as travel would be luxury to the poeple using wheelchair. They will meet barriers not only in the environment, but also their psychological conditions. They would feel bad when always asking other people for help since they don’t want to become a burden to them.

From the basis of “ design for wheelchair traveling”, we searched for the touch point of design. We hope that through our design, wheelchair users can travel with carefree and satisfaction independently. Last but not the least, we’d like to expand our design to universal design. We hope our design can be benefit not only for the wheelchair users but also old people or people who move with difficulty. We believe that not only the environment, but also products should be accessible to everyone.

New Scenario Video

Main Features

1. DETACHABLE DESIGN

The whole design is a combination of two detachable cases. Users can pack up their luggage of commonly use on upper case for special condition without open the whole suitcase. The detachable design also benefits users with flexible size depending on their days of traveling.

The switch design on the upper case can detach the combination, but it can hardly move without applying a force for safety consideration and accident. Moreover, there is a touch-avoiding design for additional protection.

2. UPRIGHT LID DESIGN

The innovative design of upright lid enables users to use the suitcase without moving it, solving the ergonomic problem of height and weight. Wheelchair users can easily use the suitcase by themselves with one hand beside the wheelchair.

3. INNER BAGS PACKING

The interior design of suitcase combines with inner bags, helping users distribute the weight of luggage and reach the object in the bottom. The design solves the height and weight limit problems of wheelchair users. The inner bags are designed with reaching rope connected to the lid of lower case, user can easily use with one hand.

Inner bags design is based on the using habits of our targeted user, female wheelchair users. Inner bags help users to distribute the luggage weight and assorting the luggage while packing.

New Scenario

Drop Avoiding Bag

Drop-avoiding bag is a design in the edge of lower case, preventing the object from falling into the bottom but hard to take. When the user can hardly bend down to take the falling object, they can pull the edge of the drop-avoiding bag that they can reach them.

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Date: Sep 2013 - May 2014, Tainan, Taiwan

In team with: Hsin Yi Lo, Hsi Chen, Wen Hui Huang

Tutor: Ding-Bang Luh

The multi-culturally diverse and relatively poor borough of Tower Hamlets faces different challenges. The practice has little means to deal with the root causes of the increase in people's demand. The health center is therefore looking for a new way of transfering knowledge utilising it's resource with the community.

The research involved demographic interview, local media analysis, observation in centre and lots of patients interview. It was clear that patient always feels dismissed by the doctor and questions the efficacy of his advice, there is no feedback loop in healthcare centre and they are disconnected with doctors.

We combinated all of the insights from our different research to make a big picture, we concluded them as our problem statement: "There is an increasing demand for healthcare and the practice has little PROBLEM means to deal with the root causes of people's demand." It also can be divided in the following 4 key problems:

Generate different ideas via variety of design method and discussion

Health Cadets builds on the idea of the existing after school club. With the ultimate goal of keeping people healthier and reducing demand for care, it aims to be more strategic about what it teaches and how those learnings can be transferred back to the community.

By teaching on local health issues with tools to make the learning outcomes of each lesson highly visible, the after school club can become an effective health promotion tool in the community.

Within the toolkit there is everything the practice needs to teach children: ID badges for kids, Achievement books, work folders, lesson plans and certificates. It is also creating more meaningful feedback from kids and community.

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Partner: Blithehale Health Centre

Date: Sep 2015 - Dec 2015, London, United Kingdom

In team with: John Makepeace, Anna Schoen, Jia Xiang Chua

Tutor: Gus Desbarats

“Mara” is an AI that is friendly, caring and smart assistant, that helps you anytime, anywhere to prevent unexpected situations as well as providing quick advice and emotional support. Mara is able do this by understanding the user, not only through big data, but also your emotions, personality and your value. This will make Mara empathise the users and truly give you the best support.

Despite the increases AI market it seems like not many people are not using the AI or satisfy of what the AI is providing. From our interview we found that most people only use alarm clock or asking for weather and calls. They do not seem to use any other feature despite it can do more.

Target User

Workshop

According to first round interviews and observation from people’s daily routine, which address many unexpected and hard moment resulting in negative experience. We decided to organise a workshop to deeply comprehand how they behave and feel in this situations.

Different Priority of Personal Values

From the user workshop, we explicitly recognised that there are two groups of personality - their needs and reactions are completely different when facing an unexpected situation.

4 Elements of Motivations

There are 4 elements people always think about when judging a situations:

The Solution

“Mara” is a personal voice assistant that are able to preventing unexpected situations, provide quick advice and give you emotional support. Mara is able do this by understanding the user, not only through big data, but also your emotions, personality and your value. This will make Mara empathise the users and truly give you the best support.

How does it work?

MARA is divided mainly between quick advice and emotional support. It will extract informations not only from your data, but also emotions, personality, person value and etc. To provide the way it quick advice and support, this could be the word, tone, or the order of how AI interact with the users.

Emotional Support Principle

Architecture of MARA

The Device for the future

We think Mara will shine the most as a earphone and staying with you all the time. Earphone is also a great device to detect your stress level, emotions, voice and etc. Not only that we think is im- portant to communicate with your AI privately hands free, so you can con- centrate on the situations you are at.

Additional we think bone conduction could solve the problem with blocking the ear while walking as well as more comfort.

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Partner: Samsung

Date: Sep 2016 - Dec 2016, London, United Kingdom

In team with: Sean Koo, Monica Chen

Tutor: Nick de Leon