Finnish / Suomeksi

Dr. Joel Kiskola

Portfolio. Language: Finnish, English.



From the resume

February 2024 -

Postdoctoral Researcher

Drawing and studying future AI-enhanced news apps

2013 part-time work

Consulting on Web design

and coding HTML, CSS, JS

PhD in Human-Technology Interaction

January 2024

Doctoral dissertation

BA in Design

2015

Resume in LinkedIn


Read my resume in LinkedIn

Thoughts on my skills and their beneficiality to organizations

I have design, research and strategic design expertise. I can think differently and push boundaries in design. I am skilled in expanding the scope of opportunities and finding potential disruptions. While I like to create beautiful prototypes with Figma and know visual design well enough to have lectured about it, I like to do much more than that. In the following, I will discuss my skills in relation to the parts or stages of design work: understanding people and situations; defining design-guiding constraints and expectations; brainstorming and idea workshops; prototyping; testing, and documenting the design and the design process.

Understanding People and Situations

I recognize that it is important to be empathetic and understand users' needs, desires, and aspirations. It is also crucial to prioritize the user. This can lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn can increase sales and profits. By understanding the real needs of customers, costly redesign and product failures in the market are also avoided.

At the same time, I recognize that leaders in design and development do not solely rely on what is currently true in the world according to sales figures, interviews, and surveys. Design leaders also invest in speculative design and the exploitation of its fruits. In speculative design, designs are used to ask unconventional questions and challenge prevailing perceptions. This generates knowledge of technology and market risks and opportunities, as well as a deeper understanding of the connections between things. When an organization has the ability and understanding to utilize this knowledge, which is not a given, it is excellent.

As a doctoral researcher, I conducted high-level user interviews and survey research for my speculative designs. For example, I produced information on the application of advanced artificial intelligence to guide online news commentators towards more civil discussion — a couple of years before ChatGPT was released and made my speculations possible.

Defining Design-Guiding Constraints and Expectations

By clearly defining design constraints and expectations, we can focus on creating excellent products that are feasible within the given resources. Well-communicated design constraints and expectations also reduce the risk of misunderstandings and save time at different stages of the project.

Some common design constraints and guides:

  • User requirements and desires.
  • Conceptions developed through speculative design and reflection on the course of action.
  • Case studies used in design.
  • Design areas. Good design is evidenced by not overlooking any area, such as accessibility, in design.
  • Design choices within areas and dimensions. Excellent design is evidenced by meticulous and precise consideration of all details. The winning product is often not revolutionary in terms of its areas compared to other products, but the choices within them are made more carefully and precisely.
  • Usability and information architecture principles.
  • Principles of visual design.
  • Functions that promote the ethics of products (e.g., how they aim to increase users' activity, responsibility, understanding, and decision-making ability). I am familiar with the topic through my doctoral research.
Brainstorming and Idea Workshops

The creative brainstorming process can develop innovative solutions that stand out from competitors and create new market opportunities. I have extensive brainstorming skills and experience in organizing idea workshops. I can quickly sketch ideas and wireframes on paper and brainstorm openly with others. Additionally, I can use critical and speculative design tactics in brainstorming, such as aiming for a dystopian idea. This helps break boundaries and, on the other hand, consider the ethical questions of design. In 2024, I led idea workshops on the artificial intelligence of future media consumption.

Prototyping and Testing

By developing prototypes and testing them with real users, we ensure that the product is user-friendly and exceeds user expectations before larger investments. Prototyping also reduces post-market launch repair costs and product defect-related risks.

I am proficient in building prototypes using Figma, Balsamiq, Gimp/Photoshop, and HTML. I also master responsive, or device-adaptive web design.

When usability and clarity are at an appropriate level in the early prototype, I am able to make a final-looking prototype that more clearly communicates the product idea. I achieve this through my skills in visual design. I have also lectured on visual design to TAY master's students. On the other hand, I want to note that my research and strategic expertise set me apart from those focused on the visual side.

Documenting the Design and Design Process

By performing careful documentation, we ensure the continuity and efficiency of the design process, which can reduce the costs and time of future projects. Additionally, when the design process is well documented, it eases the orientation of new team members and reduces the dependence on individual persons, which improves project management and reduces the risk of errors. I am quite familiar with what all needs to be recorded from the design.

Thoughts on my skills and their beneficiality to organizations

I have design, research and strategic design expertise. I can think differently and push boundaries in design. I am skilled in expanding the scope of opportunities and finding potential disruptions. While I like to create beautiful prototypes with Figma and know visual design well enough to have lectured about it, I like to do much more than that. In the following, I will discuss my skills in relation to the parts or stages of design work: understanding people and situations; defining design-guiding constraints and expectations; brainstorming and idea workshops; prototyping; testing, and documenting the design and the design process.

Understanding People and Situations

I recognize that it is important to be empathetic and understand users' needs, desires, and aspirations. It is also crucial to prioritize the user. This can lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn can increase sales and profits. By understanding the real needs of customers, costly redesign and product failures in the market are also avoided.

At the same time, I recognize that leaders in design and development do not solely rely on what is currently true in the world according to sales figures, interviews, and surveys. Design leaders also invest in speculative design and the exploitation of its fruits. In speculative design, designs are used to ask unconventional questions and challenge prevailing perceptions. This generates knowledge of technology and market risks and opportunities, as well as a deeper understanding of the connections between things. When an organization has the ability and understanding to utilize this knowledge, which is not a given, it is excellent.

As a doctoral researcher, I conducted high-level user interviews and survey research for my speculative designs. For example, I produced information on the application of advanced artificial intelligence to guide online news commentators towards more civil discussion — a couple of years before ChatGPT was released and made my speculations possible.

Defining Design-Guiding Constraints and Expectations

By clearly defining design constraints and expectations, we can focus on creating excellent products that are feasible within the given resources. Well-communicated design constraints and expectations also reduce the risk of misunderstandings and save time at different stages of the project.

Some common design constraints and guides:

  • User requirements and desires.
  • Conceptions developed through speculative design and reflection on the course of action.
  • Case studies used in design.
  • Design areas. Good design is evidenced by not overlooking any area, such as accessibility, in design.
  • Design choices within areas and dimensions. Excellent design is evidenced by meticulous and precise consideration of all details. The winning product is often not revolutionary in terms of its areas compared to other products, but the choices within them are made more carefully and precisely.
  • Usability and information architecture principles.
  • Principles of visual design.
  • Functions that promote the ethics of products (e.g., how they aim to increase users' activity, responsibility, understanding, and decision-making ability). I am familiar with the topic through my doctoral research.
Brainstorming and Idea Workshops

The creative brainstorming process can develop innovative solutions that stand out from competitors and create new market opportunities. I have extensive brainstorming skills and experience in organizing idea workshops. I can quickly sketch ideas and wireframes on paper and brainstorm openly with others. Additionally, I can use critical and speculative design tactics in brainstorming, such as aiming for a dystopian idea. This helps break boundaries and, on the other hand, consider the ethical questions of design. In 2024, I led idea workshops on the artificial intelligence of future media consumption.

Prototyping and Testing

By developing prototypes and testing them with real users, we ensure that the product is user-friendly and exceeds user expectations before larger investments. Prototyping also reduces post-market launch repair costs and product defect-related risks.

I am proficient in building prototypes using Figma, Balsamiq, Gimp/Photoshop, and HTML. I also master responsive, or device-adaptive web design.

When usability and clarity are at an appropriate level in the early prototype, I am able to make a final-looking prototype that more clearly communicates the product idea. I achieve this through my skills in visual design. I have also lectured on visual design to TAY master's students. On the other hand, I want to note that my research and strategic expertise set me apart from those focused on the visual side.

Documenting the Design and Design Process

By performing careful documentation, we ensure the continuity and efficiency of the design process, which can reduce the costs and time of future projects. Additionally, when the design process is well documented, it eases the orientation of new team members and reduces the dependence on individual persons, which improves project management and reduces the risk of errors. I am quite familiar with what all needs to be recorded from the design.

Selected projects

Clicking on the image enlarges it, and when necessary, opens a description of the design. Videos start playing when clicked once, and double-clicking them will make them fullscreen. For some videos, it's also possible to open a story about the video.

Research project on ways to mitigate uncivil online discussion and a video prototype of an audience for online writers that I created at the end of the project.

Inappropriate online discussions are a problem, and a multi-year research project addressed this issue from the perspective of emotion psychology. I worked on the project as a designer and doctoral researcher. I developed several prototypes suitable for research purposes to address inappropriate writing and gathered extensive information about user preferences related to these interventions. Next, I will tell about this video prototype of an audience for an online writer that I developed after the project and of the process that led to it.

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Research project on ways to mitigate uncivil online discussion and a video prototype of an audience for online writers that I created at the end of the project.

Inappropriate online discussions are a problem, and a multi-year research project addressed this issue from the perspective of emotion psychology. I worked on the project as a designer and doctoral researcher, collaborating with psychologists. I developed several prototypes suitable for research purposes to address inappropriate writing and gathered extensive information about online writers' preferences related to these interventions. Next, I will tell about this video prototype of an audience for an online writer that I developed after the project and of the process that led to it.

My Task

In the research project, my task was to explore potential interface solutions for addressing inappropriate news comments through the means of speculative and critical design. Specifically, solutions that would address inappropriate news commenting by supporting the user’s emotional regulation. My ideas needed to be interesting to both the design team and psychologists, and serve as conversation starters in user research. This was because little knowledge existed on the opportunities and risks of intervening in uncivil online news commenting.

Ideation and Selection of Ideas for Further Development

I began by sketching ideas on paper and discussing them with my design team. This sketching-discussion cycle was repeated three times and resulted in me producing approximately 60 ideas. My design team included myself, as well as my supervisor, Professor Thomas Olsson of user-centered design. The design team also included Heli Väätäjä for a year, who has extensive experience in user-centered design.

Afterwards, I evaluated all my ideas from the perspectives of feasibility, novelty, and the challenge they posed in terms of thought, and I discarded about twenty ideas. Then, my design team and I evaluated the remaining 40 ideas together and found 19 of my sketched ideas to be promising. One of these was the idea of a virtual audience for online news commenters.

I created cleaner and more detailed wireframes of these 19 ideas using Balsamiq. Then, I presented the ideas to the entire research team, which included my design team and the psychology team (3 psychologists and 1 IT expert). The psychologists provided feedback that some of the ideas were not good because they included too many gamification elements or were unclear.

I took the psychologists' feedback into account and selected the 6 best wireframes, in my opinion, and gave a presentation on them at a meeting of journalists and media researchers to gather additional information on their relevance. I asked for feedback on the ideas from an audience of about twenty people. Based on the feedback, the 6 selected ideas seemed promising in terms of being interesting and sparking discussion. I concluded that they were suitable for research use where participants are asked for their thoughts. One of these ideas was the virtual audience for news commenters.

Wireframes as Part of Interview Research

The 6 wireframes I selected for addressing inappropriate news comments were part of interviews with 10 experienced Finnish journalists. Together with a more experienced research colleague, I planned the interview process and questions, and the colleague conducted the interviews with journalists. (Later in the project, I was responsible for conducting the interviews myself). The interviewees were asked to think aloud about the ideas presented to them, particularly in terms of their feasibility, etc.

From these interviews, I learned, among other things, that the idea of a virtual audience for news commenters was considered questionable but reasonable and worth further investigation.

Creating More Refined Images for an Online Survey and Survey Findings on the Audience Idea

Next, I decided to conduct an international survey of online news commenters regarding my ideas and sold the idea to the rest of the team. I created more polished versions of the selected eight ideas, including the audience idea, using Adobe XD and built illustrative storyboards for them. I also discussed the images with the design team and refined them based on that feedback. I also planned the survey and its questions together with colleagues.

The survey revealed the following about the audience idea: Several respondents noted that providing feedback to the commenter on their writing through a virtual audience would make the commenter feel too anxious or annoyed. For example: "I don't want to know right away that I'm being judged before the comment is even published." Additionally, some respondents pointed out that "[the feedback] might just encourage some people to continue commenting [to the point of negativity]." Despite this, some mentioned that they would find feedback helpful when writing.

Based on the conflicting results of the survey, I decided to create a version of the idea where the audience would only pop up when the user clicks "send" on an inappropriate comment.

Second Online Survey

I conducted a second online survey for news commenters, where I included the updated audience idea for evaluation and a comparison with a standard 'feedback window.' I also presented both with varying amount of instruction text for the writer on how they should edit their comment.

Based on the survey results, the audience that pops up when an inappropriate comment is sent is no more annoying to users than just a text box. It also became clear that what matters in whether the feedback is perceived effective or not is how precise the information in the feedback is. Vague feedback like "your comment may need adjustment" was not seen by respondents as effective as feedback like "this is how the audience might react to the comment."

Video Prototype with Adobe XD

After the project, I created a video prototype of the audience idea for my portfolio, but also because I was interested in how the idea of an audience constantly following the writer might work in practice. Through video prototyping, I was able to experiment with what kind of changes in the audience’s gestures would be appropriate. For example, I found that clapping hands or other quick movements would annoy me as a writer.

Coursework. Apartment finding tool for students

I Designed and Coded This Portfolio Website

The layout of this page is my own work. The functionality of the buttons and the image gallery is also my own creation. I chose to build the pages myself because pre-made solutions are not very flexible and contain unnecessary components for my needs, and they load much slower.

Coursework, prototype. Intelligent home insurance

This is a course project for the Artificial Intelligence and Insurance course. The student team consisted of three business and/or insurance experts and two UX/UI design experts, of which I was one (with less experience).

The project progressed as follows: we first collectively familiarized ourselves with IBM Watson's machine learning and the possibilities it offers. After that, we brainstormed together, leveraging the expertise of each team member. Following this, the designers took a more prominent role, creating wireframes that we discussed. Next, one of the designers created a prototype of the mobile application seen in the video, while I and others provided feedback. Finally, I took the lead in directing and producing this video presentation.

Coursework, prototype. New Media Experiences

In this course project, myself and two others designed the addition of augmented reality content to magazines. The work included ideation, user research, and prototyping phases, all done collaboratively.

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Coursework, prototype. New Media Experiences

In this course project, myself and two others designed the addition of augmented reality content to magazines. The work included ideation, user research, and prototyping phases, all done collaboratively.

1. Initial Idea Description

In articles about cars, there are many pictures, but unlike a typical car magazine, here the reader can get different views of the car using 3D augmented reality. The reader can explore the car from their own perspectives and save their observations for other readers to view. The reader is, in principle, part of the article, having learned more about cars and perhaps even added value to the article.

2. We Conducted Surveys on the Understandability of Magazines and Interest in Augmented Reality Content
3. Sketching Phase

After analyzing and summarizing the results of the surveys we conducted and confirming our user experience goals, we began sketching. In the first sketching round, we drew eight different quick sketches of what the design could look like, how problems could be solved, and goals achieved.

In the second sketching round, we drew at least seven different sketches based on our discussions of the sketches made in the first round. We drew these sketches on rectangular sheets the size of a smartphone.

The sketches start with the basic idea of the starting screen, followed by the tutorial screen for first-time users, and then the multi-content screen that briefly displays all the additional content of the current article. The remaining screens are content screens, such as discussion area screens and image library screens, to which the user would navigate from the multi-content screen.

After a few initial sketches, in the second round, we realized that using the application would likely be best when the device is placed next to the magazine horizontally (contrary to how it is typically held in the hand). This also led to the idea that the device could detect page turning using smartphone sensors like the microphone, which would now be placed at the ends of the magazine's pages.

4. We Wrote and Drew the Application's User Journey and Interaction with the Magazine
5. We Used MarvelApp and Photoshop for Prototyping
6. We Created an Introductory Video

Contact

Email: joel.kiskola(at)gmail.com

Resume

I have my resume in LinkedIn.

Copyright © Design 2024 Joel Kiskola

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