1. WENZHU ZOU
jewelzou@hotmail.com
+31 645 119 285
www.wenzhuzou.com www.linkedin.com/in/wenzhuzou
USER EXPERIENCE/INTERACTION DESIGNER PORTFOLIO
Content Commercial Website Design 14
SmartProducts -- Kitchen Assistant Web App 1 Freelance Designs 16
UI Harmonization For Electron Microscopes 5 • SocialMenu Mobile App 17
Sleep Enhancement -- Warm Pillow 8 • One Penny Entrepreneur Website 17
Redesign TV Remote Control for Elderly 11 Graphic Design 18
2. About Wenzhu Zou
She is a highly motivated and creative UX/Interaction
Designer. She got her Professional Doctorate in Engineering
degree of User-System Interaction from Industrial Design, TU/e.
She has experience of working with multidisciplinary teams in
Philips research, FEI, etc. on the Interaction design, UX design and
Usability Engineering. She has the abilities of
- Proficiency in user-centered design method and creation of inno-
vative conceptual designs;
- Experience with performing concept prototyping and user test;
- Skillfulness in translate ideas into tangible concepts;
- Well acquainted with both quantitative and qualitative usability
research methods;
- Excellent skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator,
InDesign, etc.);
- Effectively work in a multidisciplinary team.
Her ambition is to contribute her expertise to create successful
products and positive user experiences.
i
3. Smart Products
Philips Research 02/2011—04/2012
Introduction
The SmartProducts project is a European Commission’s 7th Framework
Programme conducted by ten partners from industry and academia,
aiming at developing the scientific and technological basis for building
"smart products" with embedded "proactive knowledge" in order to
improve people’s quality of life. Philips led the Smart Kitchen application
scenario.
SmartProducts website: http://www.smartproducts-project.eu/mainpage/vision
My role: Work Package Lead & Interaction Designer
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4. SmartProducts
I worked with nutrition specialists and software engineers on I defined the basic concept and information architecture for the
refining the kitchen scenarios starting from user’s needs, and Smart Kitchen Assistant application, sketched and created
developed the flowchart. The scenarios include meal plan for hi-fidelity mockup for every single page of the application. The
next weeks, supermarket shopping experience, cooking with Smart Kitchen Assistant is a web application which enhances
the help of cooking guide and food intake tracking. Different user’s awareness of healthily eating in each step. For example, in
smart kitchen appliances are applied in each scenario to guide the step of making meal plan, the Smart Kitchen Assistant uses
people healthily eating. various persuasive elements to help user to select healthy recipe,
like target setting, persuasive messages, healthfulness color
Flowchart indication and avatar. In addition, I applied the usability princi-
It shows the flow from making meal plan until cooking ples to the UI design.
and recording food intake. Sketch
Tool: Illustrator
User makes meal plan for
several days through the
Cooking Guide System
generate
adapt Meal plan list
Eat outside. The real
food intake cannot be
measured
Follow No Eat at No automatically. User
Plan? home? needs to update the
meal planner manually.
Yes Yes
Change recipe
Cooking with Input food
No info No
Chopping
Board? manually?
Yes Yes
Real food intake info
measured by chopping
board
SmartProducts website: http://www.smartproducts-project.eu/mainpage/vision
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5. SmartProducts
I coached the development team including 3 Software Engi- I designed tasks and conducted the usability testing to evaluate
neers with SCRUM method to ensure that the HTML5 kitchen the Smart Kitchen Assistant application. The test was executed in
assistant application is successfully implemented. This applica- the Experience Lab of Philips. 20 users participated in the test.
tion is the core of the smart kitchen system. It guides user’s meal The positive user feedback and the analysis results provided the
planning and cooking, and tracks user’s food intake by working improvement proposals for the next version of The Smart
with other smart kitchen appliances. A follow-up user test
Kitchen Assistant application which are demoed to the EU com-
validated the usability and effectiveness of iPad kitchen assistant
application. mittee review.
In addition, I also helped the project partners complete another
user test about the smart kitchen system in Philips’ Experience
Prototype
Lab. The user test and result were contributed to the project
HTML5
deliverables.
Usability Testing
Method: Co-discovery, qualitative research, thematic analysis
SmartProducts website: http://www.smartproducts-project.eu/mainpage/vision
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6. SmartProducts
As the Smart Kitchen Work Package lead, I organized the work Achievement
package telephone meeting among 5 academies partners once The Smart Kitchen application scenario obtained positive user
every two weeks to ensure the work progress. In the project feedback proved by usability testing. The Smart Kitchen system
consortium meetings I was the chairman of the Smart Kitchen is successfully demonstrated in the final EU review meeting, and
work package leading the discussions and making procedure received high appreciation from EU committee members. The
decisions. Besides, I monthly reported the progress to European performance of the work package led by Philips achieved the
project requirements.
Union Committees. In the Smart Kitchen system final integration
The Smart Kitchen System is placed in the Kitchen Lab of Philips
I played a key role in planning and organizing the system Experience Lab as one of Philips Consumer Lifestyle product
integration and demonstration with the project partners from 5 prototype shown to the visitors and been used in other
academies in Europe. research.
Smart Kitchen Concept Map
Smart
Smart
Smart Kitchen Assistant
Steamer
Chopping
Board
SmartProducts website: http://www.smartproducts-project.eu/mainpage/vision
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7. UI Harmonization
FEI, VanBerlo 01/2010—09/2010
Introduction
A joint project of FEI Company, VanBerlo Design, and the TU/e, aiming at
creating harmonized user interfaces for FEI’s two main types of electron
microscopes in order to improve the usability and user experience of FEI’s
products, and create strong company brand.
My role: Usability Engineer & UI Designer
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8. UI Harmonization
User-Centered Design method and iterative design process are I explored users’ needs through contextual inquiry method by
applied in this project. Two rounds of design and user test are interviewing 4 application technicians and specialists in FEI and
conducted. observing their operation with the different types electron
I collaboratively worked with R&D team in FEI, which includes microscopes. 4 design principles are selected as the guideline for
Principal Systems Architect, Senior Application Development the UI harmonization.
Scientists and experienced Electron Microscope technicians and
specialists on defining user requirements, analyzing the system
structure and user task. Design Principles
Iterative Design Process
Phases: User Analysis The 1st round of The 2nd round of Completion
p
design and testing design and testing
User Analysis Brainstormed Refined Completed
Goals:
Goals:
l •who users are designs designs designs
y
•their key tasks
Graphical Graphical
screen U
Usability
Usability
il t screen U
Usability
Usability
il t
design t ti
testing:
testing: design t ti
testing:
testing:
User-
centered Evaluate
Evaluate
v Participatory
rt i r
Participatory User Participatory
rt i r
Participatory
Methods:
t d
Methods: i r ti
interaction
interaction i r ti
interaction
interaction Usability principle Brief description of the principle
design tasks
k involvement
Interface
r
Interface
Heuristic
ri t
Heuristic Heuristic
ri t
Heuristic
guidelines
evaluation
v ti
evaluation
Interface
r
Interface
evaluation
v ti
evaluation Consistency Making elements uniform — having them look and behave the same wa
guidelines
Minimizing cognitive allowing a user to efficiently perform a task with a smallest amount of
load mental activity on working memory at an instance in time
high fidelity high fidelity Efficient Interactions minimize the number of steps to complete a task
prototyping prototyping
methods methods
Effective information All language used in a system should be concise and unambiguous;
presentation Maintaining all the necessary information in an appropriate screen
Results:
Results:
t User and task Testable Testable density; and
descriptions prototypes prototypes
Maximize Readability
Meaningful Use color contrast on text
Use font sizes that are large enough to read
Use various font weights for emphasis
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9. UI Harmonization
I worked closely with the senior designers of VanBerlo to define I independently planned, scripted, recruited, conducted, and
user interface on imaging tiling, detector selection and control evaluated usability testing for verifying and testing the UI at the
panel for different types of electron microscopes end of each design iteration. Each round 4 participants (the
In addition, I implemented interactive UI prototypes of electron Electron Microscope technicians or specialists) participated in
microscopes in PPT and Adobe Flash for two rounds of UI design the test.
and usability testing The innovative improvement proposals are submitted after each
round design and test.
Prototype
Tool: PowerPoint, Flash Usability Testing
y g
Achievement
The UIs for the specific tasks are successfully harmonized. A series
of rules on the image tiling, detector selection and function
panes control are defined. The improvement recommendations
are proposed for the further work of the UI harmonization.
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10. Sleep Enhancement
TU/e, Philips Research 06/2009—12/2009
Introduction
A joint project of Philips Research and TU/e, aiming to improve the
sleep quality of couples who are living apart.
My role : Interaction Designer
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11. Sleep Enhancement
To explore remote parnters’ sleep habits and the reason leading In the conceptuation phase the warm pillow concept is decided
to the low sleep quality, I designed Sleeping Diary. 5 objectives through brainstorming. The pillow is a physical intimacy transfer
recorded their behavior and mind activities before going to bed media. When one of partners is hugging his/her warm pillow in
for one week. We found that contacting with each other through the bed, his/her partner’s pillow follows becoming warm. It is a
internet or phone before going to bed, and working until late sign informing partner that his/her love is in the bed aiming to
mainly result in delaying sleep. Together with the design team, “push” the partner going to bed earlier and simulate the contact
we considered the intimacy between partners as the way to between partners.
improve objectives’ sleep quality.
Conceptuation
User Study
Sleeping Diary
Warm Pillow
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12. Sleep Enhancement
The connection between pillows is through internet. An Arduino Prototype
electric circuit connecting internet controls pillows’ warming up. Hardware Prototype: arduino, electric circuit, thermo-
I am in charge of implementing the warm-pillow hardware pad and pillow
prototype for the user test.
Two pairs of remote partners participated in the user test for two
weeks at their home. To compare the effect, the participants are
asked to use normal pillow for one week, and warm pillow for
another week.
We also created the video prototype for the web investigation to
evaluate the warm pillow concept.
System Architecture
Internet connection, Arduino electric circuit controls
pillow’s on/off
Administrator
(Experimenter)
Video Prototype
Host 1 Host 2 The videos are available at:
(Partner 1)
Internet
(Partner 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQv0yYSsrX0&feature=relmfu
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjuK66s03zo
Achievement
The concept succeeded in providing a sense of connectedness
between partners when sleeping remotely. It leads to a more
pleasant sleeping experience .
PUBLICATION: W. Zou, T. Scherini, P.Melo, T. van Craenendonck,
M. Kaptein, Enhancing the Sleeping Quality of Partners Living
Apart, DIS10 Designing Interactive Systems 2010, Arhus,
Denmark, August 2010.
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13. Redesign Remote Control for Elderly
TU/e 01/2009—02/2009
Introduction
Redesign remote control for elderly people is an assignment during the
USI study, aiming to improve elderly people’s experience of using TV
remote control.
My role: Interaction Designer
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14. Redesign Remote Control for Elderly
Many of current TV remote control contain a number of small From the ergonomics consideration, we simplified the keys,
size keys on a limited area panel, which results in the inconven- redesigned the key layout and reshaped the remote control
ience of control for elderly. according to the gesture that elderly people hold remote control.
Together with the design team, we explored the operation I performed the concept from sketch to the foam mockup model.
requirements of elderly people when using the remote control. The fine foam mockup is created for the focus group.
Sitemap
We analyzed the elderly’s needs and the essential features of the Mockups
redesigned remote control.
Raw model Illustrator version Fine foam model
Features
Fit for both one hand
and two hands control
Fit for controlling Wide
when putting on pointing
the table without angle
hand holding
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15. Redesign Remote Control for Elderly
We tested our concept in a local Dutch elderly people house in
the form of focus group. 4 people (2 females, 2 males) joined the
test. They gave positive comment to the redesigned remote
Features control after they carried out the given tasks (turn on TV, change
Symmetrical keyboard the channel and change the volume and so on) with both the
layout: fit for both ordinary and the redesigned remote control.
left-handed and right-
handed people
Channel Group Focus Group
• 4 different shape buttons
indicate 4 favorites channels
ls Function Group
• Simplified 0-9 channel • On/off
buttons to pre/next channelel • Mute
buttons • Back: go back to the
previous status of
channels, setting or
volum
Volum buttons
Comfortable handle
Achievement
The redesign is warmly appreciated by elderly people because
of its simple keys layout and comfortable ergonomic design.
They commented that :
• The remote control’s shape fits their gesture.
• The buttons are big and clear.
• The shape of favorite channel buttons helps them memorize
the corresponding channels
The test objectives would like to have a functional prototype.
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16. Commercial Website Design
Helantong 01/2008—10/2008
Introduction
Helantong is a comprehensive services exchange web platform, facing
to Chinese who study or work in the Netherlands. It is founded in 2008
in the Netherlands and aims to provide Chinese in the Netherlands
information on studying and living. Users can fast and conveniently
access to information and share experiences through Helantong web-
site. The preliminary release included four sections: Wiki, Useful website
collection, entertainment, and forum, which cover all aspects of living
in the Netherlands.
My role was UI Designer. Besides, as a co-founder of this startup, I took
a somewhat entrepreneurial role to translate the user needs into a use-
centered interactive interface. In this venture, my desire of understand-
ing more user-centered design approaches grew.
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17. commercial website design
I was responsible for
• designing, coordinating and managing artwork and executing creative concepts for www.outpie.com, including website infor-
mation architecture, webpage layout, icons and themes design;
• creating and maintaining the UI;
• creating company’s identity, brochures and collateral.
Helantong Logo Design Webpage layout sketch
Sketch Photoshop graph
Helantong’s collateral example
g p
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19. Freelance Design
Social Menu 05/2012 - 09/2012 One Penny Entrepreneur 10/2012 - present
The SocialMenu is a location-based iPhone application that One Penny Entrepreneur is a guided, community-rich platform
enables users to view, add, and rate dishes from the menu of the designed to help entrepreneurs of all backgrounds define their
restaurants nearby. The SocialMenu is in the startup phase. ideas, find resources and launch.
I specified information architecture, created workflow for the I reorganized website information architecture， designed the
SocialMenu iPhone application and designed business landing Beta version of the website， created the high-fidelity proto-
and
pages. type in Photoshop.
Landing Pages One Penny Webpages
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20. Graphic Design
Photoshop Work--Under Water City 01/2010
Obtained silver awards in “Eindhoven in the Eyes 2010” Chinese Design Competition
Poster Design Photoshop Coloring
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