barbara porada

This course focused on discovering usability and user experience problems with the latest model of the Ultimaker 3D printer. We learned to conduct very structured user tests, one with the existing printer and one with our partially-Wizarded mock-up. We also practiced qualitative analysis to guide our redesign and give further recommendations to the company at the end. These recommendations were taken seriously and many were realized in the recently released model.

The goal of my project was to take SeattleInProgress.com and transform it into a mobile app that presents quick and easy information on every construction site in Seattle. The current structure of the website takes the user directly to the project proposal, a large PDF which the user must sift through to find what they are looking for. My mobile app gets rid of that hunt and presents the user with the facts that they want, when they want them.

The focus of this research + design project was to deeply understand the behaviors of cellphone users in order to design a product or service that would accept the cellphone as the necessary, omnipresent object that it is but limit its use in face-to-face interactions. 

The ILLUMINATE Smart Runner nonverbally creates social pressure on the phone user so that he / she only uses their phone for short interactions and does not feel comfortable engaging with it for a long time. This restores the power balance between user and observer.

For this course we designed a social venture with the initial aim of helping highly-educated refugees find employment in their field in the Netherlands. Through interviews and focus groups, we quickly realized that refugees need to first apply and complete an accredited Masters before they can hope to find a job. 

Our REstart Your Future initiative combines one-on-one counseling and a week-long program to help refugees find a path of education personalized to their needs and previous experience. We pitched our proposal to the TU Delft administration and hope to further develop and implement it together at the TU.

People care about their health but at the same time want to work in an efficient and productive way. It is important that they find a balance between all their needs and responsibilities, but this is easier said than done. Our Desk of the Future is able to detect and interpret the user's physiological state and make healthy recommendations to keep working, take a break, drink some water, etc - taking the stress out of juggling work and health! 

Automation is a trend not only in factories but also in our daily lives. In the future, most jobs will be performed by robots - especially physical ones. One of the only jobs left for humans will be ethical decision making. Because robots cannot be trusted with making decisions where there is no clear right or wrong answer, humans must be responsible for every decision that robots carry out in society.

JUDEX is an interactive collar that allows you to make decisions from any location, quickly and efficiently. The consequences of each decision a decision-maker makes determine his/her social status in society. The armor-like shape and heavy weight of the collar represent the responsibility of having the future on your shoulders. 

The goal of this project was to create a business model in rural Ethiopia for a client with an existing product - the Enat Mitad injera cooking stove. Injera is the traditional bread eaten in Ethiopia and is normally baked by women in their homes, most of whom do not work. Research was conducted on the global problems of women in the labor market, on the unequal conditions in Ethiopia and on the competitors of this cooking stove. A business model was proposed for a bakery system run entirely by women, giving them the training and resources to feel that they are better contributing to their families, communities and themselves.