Projects at Pantech
Designing Mobile User Experience for Smartphones
I became Mobile and Android UX Design expert after 4.5 years of experience in Pantech.
From 2011 to 2015, I had worked as an user researcher, UI/UX designer for several smartphone models in Pantech that were launched to Korea, Japan and U.S. I designed and produced mobile apps and platforms in User Experience Design team. To be more specific I had conducted research on market trend and user behavior to see if our applications provide valuable experiences to our users, and designed wireframe and UI based on user feedbacks and coordinated with soft ware engineers to improve user experience. Application such as camera, calendar and weather are included. After those applications were launched with each model of smartphone, I kept responding to user feedbacks and improved user experience of my products.and holding seminars in the team to share UI/UX trends and knowledge periodically.
Pantech is a global smartphone manufacturer located in South Korea. Main markets are South Korea, Japan, United States. Especially in Korea, it is top 4 smartphone seller. Brand name for Pantech’s smartphone in Korea and Japan is “VEGA” and varies in US. Notable carrier clients include KDDI in Japan, AT&T and Verizon in US, and SKT in South Korea.
My project history
For smartphone manufacturer, the roll-out date for each smartphone model is the most important issue because every work process is scheduled considering the roll-out date. So I have summarized all of my projects by aligning with the smartphone models. For all the projects, except for the Camera project, I worked as a researcher, UI/UX designer, and project manager. For Camera project, I was an assistant UI/UX designer because it was much more large-scale and important project for the company.
Project One.
Media Cover
A New UX of Earphone Connectivity
Summary
As time goes by, mobile devices are becoming smarter and capability of context awareness of smartphone is getting bigger. Media cover is a specialized feature for context awareness especially when user connects earphone to smartphone. When user connects earphone to smartphone, the feature provides the most proper app links such as media player apps that user wants to use when connecting earphone to phone.
My Role: UI/UX Design
Project Period: January - April 2013
Project Two.
Next Generation Calendar
What does user really need when using Calendar App?
Summary
In a world where people are using smartphone and even managing daily schedules with it, the importance of calendar application is getting bigger. Main goal of this project was to set up direction of user interface for next generation calendar app which will enhance brand identity of Pantech's smartphone. For this project, I created user interface based on user research and the app was launched with Vega Secret Up model of 2014.
My Role: Project Manager, Market research, User research, UI/UX design, Communication with Software engineers
Team Members: Aehyun Kim, Okwang Kwon
Project Period: March - July 2013
Project Three.
Next Camera User Interface
Prototyping as a Decision Making Tool
Summary
When making a design decision, wireframe is not enough to discuss for designating UI direction. That's why prototyping is essential. Also, prototyping is useful especially when communicating with software engineers for describing how to make it. There are various methods for prototyping such as making paper prototype, developing flash file and so on. This time, assignment for camera application roadmap was to apply trendy user interface. At that time, Material Design from Google just came out and the battle between flat UI design and skeuomorphism was a big issue. Eventually, my team decided to go for flat UI. So, this project is about how my team and I made a design decision to go for flat UI by doing iteration of prototypes and user testing.
My Role: Research, UI Design, Prototyping
Team Members: Jisun Yoon, Aehyun Kim
Project Period: Jan - April 2014
Project Four.
Weather App UI
Enhancing brand value by making design consistency.
Summary
This project was practiced to enlarge brand value of VEGA smartphone by integrating Weather app UI for each carriers in di fferent countries. Since our smartphone had adopted diff erent weather service solutions for di fferent countries, the information provided by each solutions decided composition and layout of weather app's User Interface. So, I decided to use only one solution, Accu-Weather because of its contents that can be used globally. And then, with usability test and trend research, I founded general and standard UI that can be accommodated by various users from di fferent countries.
My Role: Market Research, User Research, UI Design, Cooperation with Accuweather for integrating weather information in our smartphones.
Team Members: Juyi Lee
Project Period: August 2011 - January 2012
