TIMTHIANTHAI
Reimagine Transitional-Space Experiences (Thesis)
Although my grad school project may seem outdated and not reflective of my current skill set, I believe it was an important step to becoming the designer I am today. Back in 2010, I was unsure about my career path. I only knew I had to complete a thesis project, but even then, I couldn’t find a subject that inspired me. One day, while walking to school and thinking about how mundane my commute was, my thesis was born—how to make transitional space meaningful.
I defined transitional space as the space between destinations that people tend to overlook. GPS-based technologies prioritize destination and time it takes to get there (i.e. selecting path or transitional space to destination that uses the least amount of time). From my research, I learned that there are other factors besides time that influence how people subconsciously choose their transitional spaces. These include safety, condition of the terrain (steep, wet, etc.), level of sun or weather exposure, whether it is “scenic,” and so on. However, these factors were usually untold and undocumented.
Subsequently, I came up with a few design ideas to make transitional space more meaningful. For the brevity of this portfolio, I will only present one. NuWay is a mobile-mapping app that offers a “new way” to navigate through space. The user will arrive at a desired destination, or loop around a path to the starting point, by selecting the route (transitional-space) experience that suits their purpose (safest, least sun exposure, most scenic, etc.) This way, there will be more emphasis on transitional spaces, rather than destinations.
The UC Berkeley students I interviewed were asked to identify and draw transitional spaces they frequently used on campus such as time-saving, energy-saving, and scenic.
My Role
Research and Design
To explore the problem space, I conducted secondary research (books, articles, reliable websites) and field research (observation, interviews, data collection) from multiple sites in the Bay Area and Bangkok. For design solution and presentation, I produced personas, infographics, prototypes (e.g. NuWay) and interaction maps. For thesis documentation, I put together an 81-page book that documented my process from beginning to end with text and illustrations.
I created screen mockups with interaction map to show how NuWay could work as a mobile-mapping app.
Challenges & Takeaways
Working with Ambiguity
At the beginning, transitional space was not an easy concept to work on, let alone explain to an audience (e.g. my advisor, thesis committee, other students) because it seemed broad and vague. Over time, this ambiguity became attractive to me. It’s what empowered me to define my own scope, plan, and goal for the project. I learned to pick a specific problem within a broad space, investigate that problem, and finally, design a tangible solution for my audience.
Process Driven
During my architecture undergrad, I would spend less than a week on research to come up with the concept for my building. Then I would spend the rest of the semester iterating on my design. My grad school thesis approach was the opposite. I spent months doing research without any solution in mind, and let the process drive me. I am grateful to have experienced these contrary approaches, as they gave me comfort and confidence in my ability to adapt to new approaches in the future.
I specifically intend the graphics and language of this app to be playful to show that wayfinding can be fun.
Results
Although NuWay didn’t go into production like other projects in this portfolio, the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the committee helped validate my path as a designer. At Commencement Exhibition where California College of the Arts’ graduating students presented their thesis to the public, one of the audience members, Aaron Marcus, handed me his card and invited me to be an intern at his company, Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A). I worked there for three months as Designer & Analyst Intern before he connected me to SAP, my current employer. I presented my thesis again at SAP for my portfolio review, and the rest was history.
I presented my thesis project at 2011 Commencement Exhibition, as part of my graduation requirement. Little did I know it would land me my first job!