Vochlea: Prototyping Music

Earlier Rig Control Systems were engineered to perfection and capable of displaying complex controls and information. But it was too complex to use and required a lot of training to educate an operator. To motivate, and encourage old and new operators to work with these complex machines and avoid losing well-trained operators and billions of dollars, we designed a new rig control system for one of our most complicated rigs — Boomer.

Hackaball is a connected object that brings together the imagination of children, game creation and the basic mechanics of programming. The project is designed to allow children to create games together, fostering an environment that shows children that coding can be fun, social and creative.

Human trafficking affects 20-30 million victims worldwide. Over 70% of these are women who are forced to work in factories, farms, homes, and brothels around the world. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of minors are considered to be at-risk for commercial sexual exploitation. Victims are rarely “rescued” from trafficking. Most survivors extricate themselves, and are immediately dependent on a variety of support services for housing, medical attention, and emotional care.

The ʻI Want To Beʼ course is a 2-month after-school program for 12-15 year olds, designed to open the minds of children in Ghana to the career opportunities around them. The class, led by a teacher, takes children on a trip of (self) discovery through company visits, interviews, talent quizzes, and group assignments. An interactive computer application supports the class, tracking kidsʼ progress and showcasing companies and careers available in their communities. Children in Ghana have a narrow view of career options. When researching kidsʼ ambitions, most children told us they wanted to be a ʻdoctorʼ or ʻlawyerʼ and that they didnʼt want to be a ʻdrug dealerʼ or ʻbank robberʼ. In reality, most children leave school at 16 and take a low-paying job to help out with the family finances. This course gives children and their parents the chance to explore realistic career goals and understand paths to achieve them. As a result, children and families may reach higher in terms of education and career and contribute to the long-term skills needed to develop Ghana – and eventually other developing nations.

From coffee shops to workspaces, we gather around other people—who we may or may not know—as much for the atmosphere as for any specific conversation, collaboration, or task. Increasingly, we are occupied by a myriad of devices that connect us to others beyond the physical space we occupy. This immediately disconnects us from those in the here and now. Personal Billboard is a design exploration that engages people to interact and express who they are to those in the same proximity using a dual-screen laptop (a laptop that has an additional screen on the cover of the device).We believe there is an opportunity to create connections between people in the same physical space through digital expressions on a dual-screen laptop. We developed a Windows 8 app that lets people quickly post text and images to the external-facing screen of the laptop. Other people in the same proximity can interact with that content digitally (by “liking”, voting on, or getting a copy of displayed content), or they can begin a conversation that wouldn’t have otherwise happened without Personal Billboard. This project redefines what it means to be social with a digital device.

280 million people worldwide have diabetes causing 4 million deaths each year. With no cure on the horizon, daily self-management is the only option for sufferers to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Blood glucose levels must be tested several times a day and insulin dosage adjusted accordingly. While the technology to monitor blood glucose is improving, the cognitive and physical abilities of the (mostly older) patient group still present a major challenge. "For my patients who require insulin, the steps involved in the self-care of their diabetes can be complicated and overwhelming" -Diabetes Nurse (SanFrancisco) It often falls to nurses to overcome these usability obstacles - spending valuable consultation time training patients to use these devices instead of focusing on more important healthcare issues to prevent complications, e.g. blindness and amputations. In less developed healthcare systems, patients rarely get any training-leaving them frustrated by complex technology, procedures, and instructions that prevent them from effectively managing their diabetes, increasing their health risks. Roche Diabetes Care commissioned Frontend to analyze this issue. What are the usability barriers for patients and nurses? How could the process be simplified? How can we empower patients to manage their diabetes? How can we help nurses optimize training?

Architecture is one of the most amazing arts in the world. It deserves a more appealing way to let people know them. So how to create an immersive experience to discover famous architecture is the most important task in my design. When I look through the current interactions and games, the users’ journey is mainly about users getting instructions from the platform and then following the rules. But now it’s time to reverse the whole journey. Design with advanced technology is not just about giving a tutorial or a comfort zone for users. Because creating a fantastic world is not a privilege only for designers. Design could be an inspiration, an Eye of Agamotto, and even a magic wand beyond the physical world for everyone. Archimood is an AR app that helps you learn about the greatest buildings and let them interact with you! There are 10 different filters on it, where you can dance with buildings, create your own imagination and share with your friends. Archmood brings a whole new meaning to augmented reality. You can use simple, fun interactions to create creative augmented architectures around you. It improves the interactive experience among the whole physical world, human choreography, and users. It makes the learning process more vivid and participatory. In the future, every user will become an imaginer to co-create an amazing world by trying Archimood.

Similar to how GPS technology helps people to navigate physical infrastructure, the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Visualizer maps out virtual network infrastructure and converts it into an interactive map. This birds-eye view allows users to visualize how resources are interconnected, how are they configured, and suggests actions to take in case something isn’t working as expected. With this tool, IT Administrators will no longer be stuck navigating their virtual infrastructure and instead, they can focus their energies on other tasks that require their technical expertise more and bring value to their enterprises.

Finavia is one of the most prominent organizations in the aviation industry of Finland. We run airports all across Finland and aim for creating an integrated and smooth passenger experience. With this website renewal project, our goal was to establish the website as the key digital touchpoint that would help align all our digital touchpoints to our vision of smooth traveling by providing the passenger control over their experience, and journey.

America’s healthcare system is the biggest black box out there. Research shows that people are consistently confused about how to navigate their benefits, and stumped on how to pay for care once they do get it. The current system puts the onus on the consumer to make hard decisions in an unsympathetic and outdated space. We knew better was possible.