GOOGLE / MISM PROJECT, Carnegie Mellon University
Client: Google Business Operations Department
The goal of this project was to enable the discovery of valuable and actionable business insight through the visualization of internal Google data. We were given a large, multivariate dataset of employee information and were asked to explore new ways to visually present, navigate, and organize this information in order to further operational analysis at Google.
To do this, we researched creative and technical data visualization techniques and implemented an interactive web-based platform using Google Web Toolkit. As UI designer, I was responsible for coming up with the design concept and implementing myGWT - an excellent UI package for GWT.
Features:
- Circular heatmap visualization with 2 layers - the outer layer represents major departments within Google, and the inner layer represents subdepartments. The arc size represents headcount.
- The user can customize the circle by selecting the heatmap variable (attrition %, total cost, etc.) and restricting the data that goes into the visualization (by gender, employee type, etc.)
- Hover over a department to see its basic information, select up to 5 departments or subdepartments to compare their statistics in traditional bar charts or boxplots for numerical data.
- Preview the hard data behind the visualization by pulling up a data table which can be exported to CSV for further analysis.
- The web-app supports CSV-formatted uploads and resizable panels and visualizations.
Google was so pleased with the design that they will be providing funding to continue the project internally with their own engineers.
APPLE, Cupertino, CA
Design Intern for
Mac OS X Server and
Xsan
In the summer of 2007 I interned for the Mac OS X Server team at Apple. My design work was included in 2 of their shipped products: Xsan 2.0 and the Leopard release of Server Admin. For Xsan 2.0 I designed the Overview pane and streamlined overall navigation, and for Server Admin I designed the icon family used in the File Sharing pane, which can be seen on the new front page for Mac OS X Server here.
In terms of development, I was asked to create a web app that monitors Time Machine backups to a web server. This was the most technically complex and challenging project that I was assigned due to the fact that I had to use a variety of technologies to get features such as CoverFlow working on the web - something that had never been done before.
Tech Specs:
- PHP script writes metadata to XML every 5 min. via Launchd
- Quickly switch between Total, Daily, and Weekly views with AJAX
- JavaScript chart shows how backups have changed over time
- Browse through user pictures with CoverFlow to see individual backup history. CoverFlow is created by a webkit plugin, and interaction is done through bridged methods between JavaScript and Cocoa
Lastly, I was asked to redesign an existing application from scratch to simplify it and make it more usable. I storyboarded every screen, however due to the project's confidentiality I am unable to share it.
SENIOR HCI PROJECT, Carnegie Mellon
Client: Professor Ananda Gunawardena
In order to design a math-based educational game for the tablet PC platform, our team conducted research on topics such as educational gaming, tablet-based gaming, and collaborative game design. Based on our research we focused on the following factors to increase motivation: repetition until mastery, personalization, and story-driven scenarios.
Project History:
- Interviewed teachers and students at Glendale Elementary and observed a 4th/5th grade math class
- Organized ideas with an affinity diagram + paper prototyping
- Iteratively developed a working prototype in Flash
- Two rounds of user testing with think-alouds, directed walkthroughs, and free play
Deliverables:
[The Shop is not clickable. Only Multiplication Safari and Bonus Room are clickable on the Main Map.]
IS APPLICATIONS - HONORS, Carnegie Mellon
Client: Blackburn Study Center
Blackburn is a classical Christian study center for home schooled children with around 80 students, 20 tutors, 6 board members, and 2 administrators. The purpose of this project was to create a website that would streamline their information flow, maximize efficiency, and create a collaborative work environment for their community.
Features:
- Course Management: tutors can easily edit their roster and report cards + create weekly assignment sheets which students can print
- Online Directory: all Blackburn members can look up anyone else in the community in an instant
- Forums and Internal Messaging: each class has its own forum which students can use to communicate with their tutor or classmates + members can send each other private messages
- Role-specific functionality: privileges and content will change depending on whether you are logged in as a student, parent, tutor, board member, or admin
- Site Management: admins can edit content on the front page and add announcements in a blog-like fashion
IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT FORUM, Pittsburgh, PA
Client: Leah Palmer of Proctor & Gamble (President of itSMF USA)
In the summer of 2006 I was hired by itSMF to design and develop a social networking site for students and professionals interested in service management. The vision of the project was to set up a self-sustaining system that would grow over time in authorship, membership, and readership. In order to do this I utilized and customized Drupal, an open-source content management platform.
Features:
- Blogging: whenever members write a new blog, it gets posted on the front page to maximize exposure and increase readership
- Forums: students can continue discussions that start in the classroom or participate in open air discussions
- Featured Content: widgets on the front page organize blogs and forum topics by popularity, ratings, or recency
- Newsfeed: articles from external websites are listed daily by a separate widget through the use of RSS technology
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, Carnegie Mellon
UI Designer / Quality Assurance Manager
For our junior project, my team set out to design an elegant solution to the problem of group scheduling. Specifically, we wanted to streamline the process of finding time to meet, requesting meetings, and visualizing both individual and group schedules. The end result was a rich-internet application entitled Fusion.
Features:
- AJAX navigation and form processing: scroll through weeks, change groups, hide and show individual schedules, and submit forms on the fly without reloading the page
- Request meetings: pitch as many timeslots as you want, Fusion will email invitations and remove the times that get rejected + automatically add confirmed meetings to everyones schedule
- Intelligent forms: when you add courses to your schedule just enter the course number and Fusion will auto-complete it for you + event forms support recurrence and exceptions and will tell you if a new event conflicts with an existing one
- Group management: all of your group members' contact info on one page + add new members by typing in their Andrew ID
Extras:
[Only CMU students can make accounts as an Andrew ID is required]
VISUAL INTERFACE DESIGN, Carnegie Mellon
Professor: Christopher Graefe
Intended for HCI double majors, VID highlights the role that visual interface designers play in the multi-disciplinary attempt to bridge the gap between functionality and usability. The course introduces students to some of the unique challenges of designing within the realm of a digital, interactive medium, and teaches students visual design strategies and techniques that support the phases of traditional UI design process.
Deliverables:
INTRO TO HCI METHODS, Carnegie Mellon
Professor: John Zimmerman and Chris Neuwirth
In this project course, our team evaluated the usability of the Palm IIIc platform by applying the following HCI methods: contextual inquiry and design, keystroke-level modeling, heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough, and think-aloud studies.
The first goal of our redesign is to help the user feel in control of their workload by making it easier to organize and view all of their tasks and scheduled events. Our second goal is to reduce the time it takes to learn how to effectively use the Palm platform.
Features:
- Consistent title bar and help across all apps
- Hierarchical to-do list supports subtasks
- Datebook supports visualization + multi-day + all-day events
- E-mail integration makes it easier to add new tasks and events
Deliverables:
DOCUMENT DESIGN, Carnegie Mellon
Professor: Suguru Ishizaki
Today, many professionals are responsible for the visual design of documents. This course provides students who have already learned the foundation of written communication with an opportunity to develop the ability to analyze and create visual-verbal synergy in printed documents.
Deliverables:
WRITING FOR MULTIMEDIA, Carnegie Mellon
Professor: Susan Hagan
Whenever you are looking at static and animated images, hearing sound, and reading text simultaneously or in quick succession you are having a multimodal experience. Writers concerned with the multimodal interests of multimedia enter a realm with unique opportunities and constraints for the content and design of the text. In this class, we explored those constraints and opportunities by first reading about, then having in-class discussions concerning multimedia applications.
Deliverables:
When I was in high school I used to write in my spare time. I was involved with all of the publications, including yearbook - which is where I first became interested in design. Originally I wanted to go into journalism, but my dad convinced me to go to CMU and do something technical. He wanted me to do CS (probably because he used to teach it), but I didn't want to program for the rest of my life so Information Systems was a compromise.
With a general interest in technology and a desire to fix unintuitive designs, I found myself entering the HCI program as well. I loved learning about user-centered design, and I ended up being the UI designer for all of my team projects. I would typically be responsible for gathering and finalizing requirements, coming up with mock-ups, and front-end development. Another overarching responsibility would be to make sure that the implementation matches my design concept and meets (or exceeds) client expectations.
Since I finished my reqs for IS and HCI early and I didn't want to waste my senior year taking useless electives, I thought it would be a good idea to apply for the accelerated Masters in IS Management and get some background in business. I recently finished my Masters, and after I graduate I plan on going back to the work that I love: UI design and usability. Maybe in the distant future I will go into consulting and management, but until then I will be doing design work. If I had to describe my designs, I would say that they are simple, elegant and innovative.
Other than that, I am a 22 year-old Korean-American Christian with no real hometown. I was born in Columbus, OH and spent my early childhood days in Baton Rouge, LA and Iowa City, IA before moving to Seoul, Korea, where I went to international high school. My favorite TV show is LOST and my favorite directors are Hayao Miyazaki and Wong-Kar Wai (my senior project in high school was writing and directing a short film with a friend). If I could have any other career I would be a screenplay writer. My belief in life is that what will be will be.
