Zaid Haque
Carnegie Mellon Qatar
20 March 2017
About Me
Red Dot Award: Bilingual Flight Info Display SystemMy Website
What about you?
What makes you interested in HCI and Design?
Why did you choose this class?
What do you want to do after graduation?
Lecture
Outline -Decision making in product design
-Measuring ambiguous situations
-Uber Technologies
- Symbiote Systems (time permitting)
An insight into design
research in mobility
A little
background…
This lecture is brought to
you by a design researcher
and strategist
symbiote
Uber Technologies, Inc.
Design Researcher
Product Team
Symbiote Systems
Co-founder
Strategy/Product
My job is literally
making decisions.
But based on what?
Designers often need to ‘use their gut’ to
conceptualize their products.
Making large-
scale decisions
A lot of times as designers and
engineers we need to make
decisions on potentially
ambiguous situations. 

How do we decide which path to
follow?
Cost
FormFunction
Product Parameters
Money, Manpower,
effort, etc.
Aesthetics,
Beauty
Performance,
Features
Cost
FormFunction
Corporate Managers
Everyone has
different views on
what is important.
Product Parameters
Cost
Form
Function
Software Engineers
Everyone has
different views on
what is important.
Product Parameters
Cost
Form
Function
“Designers” - closer to Artists
Everyone has
different views on
what is important.
Product Parameters
Cost
FormFunction
Try to balance these out!
Product Parameters
Money
matters.
Each decision you make as a
designer/engineer costs the
company money. You’ll need to
convince them what you are doing
will help their business.
So do we follow
the money?
No. But yeah. Kind of.
Find a balance
What can create the biggest impact on our users
with the least effort?
Complexity/Cost
Impact
quick wins
low-hanging
fruit
ratholes
big ticket
items
But how do you
measure the impact?
Only way to convince management to accept your
terms is to show them numbers.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data
Our customers are giving positive reviews. Our rating on the App Store is 4.7 stars.
We provide taxis quicker than our competitors. We can get a driver to a customer within 3 mins.
??? ???
Key Performance
Indicators
Business-savvy term for the
success of your product.
HOW CAN WE
REDUCE
AMBIGUITY
WHEN
ESTABLISHING
RIDER PICKUP
LOCATIONS?
CHALLENGE
UNPACKING
MULTIPLE
TYPES OF
RIDER
PICK-UPS
UNPACKING
AMBIGUITY
OCCURS ON
TWO PARTS
OF THE USER
FLOW
UNPACKING
SYSTEM
DIAGRAM/
WEDGES
SYSTEM
DIAGRAM/
WEDGES
KEY
PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS
5 Star driver/rider ratings
Number of phone callsDistance between request
and pickup locations
Difference between est. and
actual pickup times
KEY
PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS
JOURNEY
START
FINISH
iBEACONS
BLUETOOTH
LTE DIRECT
SUGGESTIONS
COMMENTS
COLOR
CODING
CONFIRMATION
STREET VIEW
CONFIRMATION
Locating the rider
RIDER CONFIRMS
THEIR LOCATION; GPS
COORDINATES AND
VENUE NAME SENT TO
DRIVER.
Rider app Driver app
https://atc-mengproject.herokuapp.com/nearby_locations#
CONFIRMATION
Locating the rider
RIDER CONFIRMS
THEIR LOCATION; GPS
COORDINATES AND
VENUE NAME SENT TO
DRIVER.
Rider app Driver app
https://atc-mengproject.herokuapp.com/nearby_locations#
COLOR CODES
Identifying the driver
RIDER AND DRIVER
FLASH COLOR CODED
SCREENS TO QUICKLY
IDENTIFY EACH OTHER.
BETA TESTING IN SEATTLE
COLOR CODES
Identifying the driver
LTE DIRECT
Locating a rider using other phones Rider
Phone 1
Phone 2
Phone 3
https://www.qualcomm.com/invention/research/projects/lte-direct
ARCHITECTURE
VALIDATION
Worldwide usage of our app
Doha London San Francisco
VALIDATION
26m
% of riders by walking distance
0
4.5
9
13.5
18
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125 135 145
AVERAGE WALKING
DISTANCE FOR RIDERS
Calculated using Uber’s
Ride Data in Manhattan
VALIDATION
% of riders by walking distance
0
12.5
25
37.5
50
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125 135 145
10.5mAVERAGE WALKING
DISTANCE FOR RIDERS
Calculated using our app
Qualitative
Analysis?
It’s still useful, but can you make it quantitative?
Always remember
Back your decisions up with hard data!
Lecture
Outline
-Decision making in product design
- Balance between cost and
experience
- Ambiguous situations
- Can you assign a number to it?
- Improving the Uber experience
through research
An insight into design
research in mobility
Zaid Haque
Carnegie Mellon Qatar
20 March 2017
zaidhaque@gmail.com | www.zaidhaque.com
Autonomy is
the future.
A Lack of Trust
and Understanding
Prevents us from moving faster.
Blanco, Myra, et al. Human NFactors Evaluation of Level 2 and Level 3
Automated Driving Concepts. No. DOT HS 812 182. 2015.
Zaid Haque Hannah Xue Noshin Nisa
Strategy Technology Product
symbiote
Symbiote is developing
intuitive interfaces for
the next generation of
mobility technology.

symbiote
Building an interface
symbiote
Keyboards
Mice
Touchscreens
It’s time to move on.
symbiote
Building
an interface
symbiote
Phase I
Phase II
Safety
Comfort
Satisfaction
symbiote
Hierarchy
of needs
In a transportation context
Safety
Comfort
Satisfaction
symbiote
Perceive
symbiote
Acknowledge
Arduino demo video on http://symbiote.link/product
Jung, Malte F., et al. "Displayed uncertainty improves driving experience and behavior: The case of
range anxiety in an electric car." Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2015.
symbiote
symbiote
Maintaining
alertness
Tasks to regain focus during
autonomy
Jung, Malte F., et al. "Displayed uncertainty improves driving experience and behavior: The case of range anxiety in an
electric car." Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2015.
Act I:
symbiote
Changing
Driving Dynamics
ZCT
symbiote
Act II:
symbiote
+
Numerous
Possibilities
A better understanding of the rider
leads to new opportunities for
interaction
Music Control Route Selection
Driving Dynamics Ridesharing Experiences
Health Monitoring
Act:
symbiote
Market Size
Starting with semi-autonomous cars,
with an intent to expand to other
transportation industries.
~$250B in yearly revenue
$126B
Air Transport
$40B
Road Transport $30B
Other Transport
$50B
Autonomous
Vehicles (2020)
Data Source: Statista http://statista.com
symbiote
TAM
Taking different percentages based
on the value of autonomy and trust
in different contexts.
~$1.8B Total Addressable Market
$126M
Air Transport
$400M
Road Transport
$30M
Other Transport
$1.25B
Autonomous
Vehicles (2020)
Data Source: Statista http://statista.com
symbiote
Competitive
Landscape
Although there are many indirect competitors,
there is only one direct competitor.
symbiote
Strategy
An iterative approach to
gaining customers
Sell to Owners of
Luxury Vehicles (validation)
Partnerships with
Car Manufacturers
Standardizing Safety
Technologies (e.g. ABS, SRS)
Partnerships with
Passenger Transportation
Phase I
Phase II
1
2
4
3
symbiote
Zaid Haque Hannah Xue Noshin Nisa
Strategy Technology Product
symbiote
symbiote

Decision Making in Product Design