Designing the future of self-serviced hotel through emerging technologies

Under the Future Innovation Lab, major projects that I have worked on encompassed envisioning the future of hotel and online retail experiences through emerging technologies. During my experience at Alibaba, some of my major responsibilities included leading industrial design of the experiences, working closely with partners, and maneuvering projects under tight schedules.

/china daily

/business insider

/reuters

Task

Fully immerse in the project to conceptualize, visualize and realize products for the future hotel experiences for Alibaba.

Responsibilities

- Lead ID throughout development phase

- Iterative concept and design development process

- Product definition and competitive analysis

- Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and partners

- Maneuver project around tight schedules

Duration

Summer 2018

/experience

/connected experience

Creating an integrated and holistic experience through different physical-digital touch points.

/service robot

Service robot that welcomes, provide information and guidance to guests, and deliver small items to rooms.

/food delivery robot

Connected with 3rd party food delivery platform to create seamless end to end experience.

/luggage robot

Luggage robot that help guests bring their luggage from lobby to their room.

/process

/moodboard

Referencing existing products to quickly deliver the 'look and feel' I have in mind at the initial phase before going into ideation.

/inspiration board

Referencing objects and interiors to delivery how the entire experience should feel like, and explaining how to integrate different touch points through design aspects.

/function

Thinking from a macro level of how the product will work.

/form

Thinking about how the product should look and feel like.

/function+form

Combining how the product should work, and how it should look and feel like.

/technical

Going more in depth about the parts and mechanisms should be placed and work.

/share & discuss

Pumping out ideas and posting them where everybody can see to build natural conversations and collaboration.

/1:1 2d

Printing out 1:1 scale drawing to double check if the dimensions are right before going into building prototypes.

/1:1 3d

Building 1:1 scale 3D prototype to test out physical interaction with the design before further developing the design.

/engineering

Communicating with engineers to understand where the constraints are from manufacturing and cost perspective.

/product definition team

Running conversations with product definition team to brainstorm and strategize value proposition, product differentiation, product specification and categorization.