What?

Simplifying the transition from handwritten to digital content for mobile users.

Who?

Internship project supported by the ODSP team, involving collaboration with design, dev and product teams from multiple products within IDC.

How?

Applied skills in user experience design, user research, interaction design, and prototyping.

Microsoft Lists on Mobile

Graduation Internship · 6 Months · 2020

Collaborated with the OneDrive & SharePoint team at Microsoft IDC to design a mobile solution using the camera for capturing content in Lists. This project aimed to help users on the go transition from handwriting to digital seamlessly, enhancing productivity with features like OCR and annotation tools.

Problem Statement

Users struggled with efficiently transitioning from handwriting to digital lists, causing redundancy and inefficiency.

The project sought to bridge this gap, making digital content creation intuitive and effortless.

Objectives

Simplify the process of capturing and digitizing handwritten content.
Enhance ease of editing, organizing, and sharing digital lists.
Improve accessibility and usability for diverse user groups.

Process and Methodology

The project was divided into 3-segments, starting with the research, then defining the problem followed by designing and prototyping, and refining the solution.

Discover:
- Initiated with the research by understanding the product proposition.
- Evaluated and empathised with the user needs and pain points by conducting primary research and in-depth interviews.
Define and Ideate:
- Started the 'define' phase with the user personas, journey maps, activity flow diagrams, user stories and how-might-we statements.
- Later on to the ideation part, where paper wireframes of the possible solutions were created and reviewed with the stakeholders.
Design and Deliver:
- Designed the solution utilising the Microsoft design system. This helped to maintain consistency with the existing ecosystem and facilitate optimal hand-overs.
- Created wireframes and prototypes with features like OCR, annotation tools, and search functionality.
- Tested the designs and collected user feedback through internal reviews and design critiques.

Design Solution

Designed a mobile experience with OCR for converting handwritten content to digital text.
Implemented tools for cropping, annotation, and color-coded organization.
Developed a user-friendly home screen for text recognition, providing easy access to captured content.

Outcome and Impact

Increased user satisfaction by streamlining the digitization process.
Enhanced productivity through seamless transitions between formats, platforms and devices.
Positive initial user feedback indicating improved efficiency and ease of use.

Reflections and Learnings

Learned how products are planned, designed, and delivered for millions of users globally.
Gained experience in communicating and collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams across different geographies and time zones.
Prioritizing the process over the outcome helps derive the right solution.
Embraced the "fail fast, learn fast" philosophy.
Adopted a growth mindset: staying curious and continually learning.
Committed to giving back to the community and society.