Aga Szóstek

UX research, design and strategy portfolio

User research determines who I am - I try to understand the context of my actions and look into others for inspiration and insights before taking decisions.

For the last fifteen years I have been conduct-ing user research in a large variety of domains, from understanding how doctors in hospitals assure quality of medical equipment, through envisioning the future of work, to investigat-ing how people consume telecom offers. Overall, I have conducted over one hundred studies: big and small, and talked to, I think (never really counted), over five thousand us-ers of different professions, ages and cultures. These years of conducting research have taught me that a person can never know how others think and feel, and what they fear and dream about.

Research

Problem: how to design a mobile service of-fering that is attractive to kids?

Solution: design of a service made to address the mobile needs of children and their par-ents.

Process: creative workshops, iterative pro-totyping (physical and virtual elements), qualitative and quantitative evaluation, new method: an offer supermarket. The offer was introduced into the market in December 2014.

Project conducted by:Aga SzóstekMagdalena PlichtaMagda KochanowskaMarcin PiotrowskiJoanna BudaŁukasz Wrotniak

Mobile service for KIDSPlay telecom

Problem: how to construct a service mobile offering that fits the needs of an entire family?

Solution: design of a service made to address the mobile needs of families with kids.

Process: creative workshops, physical iterative prototyping used to validate the concept with users and stakeholders, qualitative and quan-titative evaluation. The offer was introduced to the market in April 2014.

Project conducted by:Marcin PiotrowskiJoanna KwiatkowskaAga Szóstek

Mobile service for FAMILIESPlay telecom

Problem: how to elicit a deep understanding of the needs regarding a design of an intuitive invoice?

Solution: user research into discovering user habits, problems and hopes regarding receiv-ing of invoices.

Process: cultural probing, creative workshops, iterative design, evaluation. The new invoice will be introduced in the 2nd quarter of 2015.

Project conducted by:Weronika SiwiecMagdalena RydygierPrzemek PomaskiMagda KochanowskaAga SzóstekMarcin Piotrowski

New InvoicePlay telecom

Problem: how to measure experiential im-pression of lighting solutions in an interactive museum?

Solution: design of a touch sensitive applica-tion that enable museum visitors share their feedback on light installations in an self-ex-planatory and intuitive way.

The project was introduced to the Licht Mu-seum in Eindhoven in 2010 and it’s concept was published at CHI 2011.

Process: iterative prototyping, evaluation

Project conducted by: Aga Szóstek,Evan KarapanosEric Toering

Vero: tool for measuring experi-ence with lighting solutionsIntelligent Lighting institute

Problem: how to imagine, build and test fu-ture solutions for office environments?

Solution: a project of a design research labo-ratory where the concepts of future office solutions would be implemented and tested with real life scenarios to address aspects of ubiquitous information, instant communica-tion and flexibility in the way individuals work.

Process: creative sessions, personas and stake-holders’ interviews, paper prototyping

Project conducted by:Aga SzóstekJoost MeierDion Slijp

Future office labOce technologies

My training and experience are in interaction design. Although my drawing skills might require ever constant improvement I love to think through drawing. Paper gives me the feeling of freedom. As a designer I have always worked with other designers as part of a team. Such collaboration continues to show me that a bunch of creative minds can come up with a truly unique perspective. Through the years I have created over fifty different designs: from a physical interface for ATM machines, through a sensor-based tool for remembering who is who in large meetings, to navigational aids for hiking trails in Poland’s most loved national park - aiing to inspire and educate visitors about Nature. These days I am more a project leader than a designer, though having even the smallest opportunity to cre-ate concepts is something that makes my days worthwhile. I believe that design, even for the smallest thing, has the unique ability to change people’s lives for the better and this is a truly unique gift given to our profession.

Design

Problem: how to help co-workers feel more aligned with company strategy i tactics?(following up on the project Vista)

Solution: a design of an interactive large screen display enabling co-workers to share information about themselves and their projects, supporting HR department in or-ganising company-wide events. and enabling instant subscribing to those events with a smart card

Process: contextual interviews, designing alternatives, low fidelity prototyping, iterative design, contextual evaluation

Project conducted by: Aga SzóstekBartosz KluczyńskiKrzysztof FabianowskiŁukasz SzóstekRafał Kołodziej

SPARK: a system to support knowl-edge sharing at workBlue Hat

Problem: how to integrate seven sales support applications into one consistent user interface to increase sales force efficiency by providing fluent and intuitive user experience?

Solution: an application consisting of three areas: consultant desktop, search engine and a customer view with consistent look and feel based on google search engine principles.

Process: observations, creative workshops, paper prototyping, interactive prototyping, evaluation

Project conducted by:Aga SzóstekKamil Rostkowski

Integrated frontendPlay telecom

Problem: how to integrate seven sale sup-porting applications into one consistent user interface to increase sales force efficiency by providing fluent and intuitive user experi-ence?

Solution: an application consisting of three areas: consultant desktop, search engine and a customer view with consistent look and feel based on google search engine principles.

Process: observations, creative workshops, paper prototyping, interactive prototyping, evaluation

Project conducted by:Aga SzóstekKamil Rostkowski

Shop expositorParadyz ceramics

Problem: how to help patients of a psychiatric crisis centre to relax?

Solution: a persuasive lamp designed based on breathing exercises from yoga. The pillow put on the belly synchronises the breathing pattern of the user with the lamp. The lamp tries to persuade the user to adapt the breath-ing pattern to the light movement.

Process: observations, Contextual Inquiry, iterative prototyping and evaluation

Project conducted by: Aga SzóstekJoran DamsteegtLoes RuijsKarin Lemmens

Lyae lampIntelligent Lighting Institute

Problem: how to support people in dealing with email overload?

Solution: design of an alternative view on Gmail at Google supporting email prioritisa-tion. The design was introduced to the market in 2009.

Process: creative exercises with users, inter-views, Repertory Grid Technique, sketching, paper prototyping and evaluation

Project conducted by:Aga Szóstek

Priority inboxGoogle

User research determines who I am - I try to understand the context of my actions and look into others for inspiration and insights before taking decisions.

For the last fifteen years I have been conduct-ing user research in a large variety of domains, from understanding how doctors in hospitals assure quality of medical equipment, through envisioning the future of work, to investigat-ing how people consume telecom offers. Overall, I have conducted over one hundred studies: big and small, and talked to, I think (never really counted), over five thousand us-ers of different professions, ages and cultures. These years of conducting research have taught me that a person can never know how others think and feel, and what they fear and dream about.

Over the last three years I have been taking on increasingly strategic roles in the companies with which I collaborate. In Poland using de-sign in business is new, therefore in a number of organisations I have been asked to help to build design teams and to promote design-based approach to the upper management. My largest success is bringing design to Play: one of our telecom providers. Four years ago, I run my first creative workshop with them and today the Management Board is looking at defining of a Customer Experience Vision for the entire company. My second largest success is creation of a two-year educational program for Allegro (Polish eBay), training the company in User Centred Design methodol-ogy and also training the trainers who then spread that knowledge further through the organisation. I am also a lecturer of an execu-tive master class, teaching company own-ers about the business value of service and experience design and my classes tend to get pretty good scores. Working at the C-level gives me a feeling of effectiveness and true impact on the company culture.

Strategy

Problem: understanding what is the state of the company culture and what should be done to stimulate it towards company values

Solution: strategic roadmap for value-based company culture shift

Process: creative interviews with Management Board and Directors, cultural probe study with 120 employees

Project conducted by:Aga SzóstekKamil Fiedorow

Value refreshmentPlay telecom

Problem: how to educate a company with over 1000 employees about the value of design?

Solution: a two-year program consisting of a set of trainings where next to training the employees in the methods and tools, ambas-sadors are also trained whose task is to imple-ment the knowledge on the theoretical and practical level in the rest of the organization

Process: a training program based on the fol-lowing model: for each topic three trainings are organised: the first training is run by the trainer, in the second training part of the class is done by the ambassadors, the third training is run by the ambassadors with the support from the trainer

Project conducted by:Aga Szóstek

Training ambassadorsAllegro

Problem: how to build user research and de-sign competencies into an agile team?

Solution: building the structure, competen-cies and the team itself. Coaching the team for three months to lead it to becoming inde-pendent.

Process: co-hiring, weekly trainings for the UX team and also the agile team, participatory sessions, paper co-prototyping, bringing agile methodologies to design

Project conducted by:Aga Szóstek

Building a UX teamPZU Insurance

Aga SzóstekUser experience and design professionalaga.szostek@gmail.com