Seethal James
User Experience and Service Design
I am basically an Architect and decided to do masters in User Experience and Service Design because of my love towards User Experience. I always wanted to help people to improve their experience, even when I was doing Architecture projects I made users experience my priority when designing spaces. I am also a person who observes things around me very well, and always had a keen eye towards problem solving. My design style from the beginning of my design life is "Minimalism". I am a simple, minimalistic and a perfectionist all throughout my life.
Major project
Amica - "A buddy for safe walking in the dark"
Amica - "A buddy for safe walking in the dark"
"A service that intends to help women at night by connecting different users within the app, who are traveling to the same area, thus making them feel safe and secure. "
I saw an opportunity to design a solution for female students feeling insecure walking alone in the dark that helps them feel safe and stress-free, encouraging males to take part in making women feel less unsafe so that they can feel independent and confident to be alone at any time of the day. The target users are female and male students at Loughborough University.
The service intends to help women who feel unsafe on the streets at dark by walking with a (male or female) buddy. There is also another feature in the app helping women to feel safer by showing safe routes in a map. This app is introduced to thee users in a campaign by Loughborough Students Union.
Story Board of the service "amica"
This storyboard shows the journey of the female user who feels unsafe while walking alone in the dark after her classes. She feels unsafe and requests a buddy in the app where the other buddy joins for the walk to her apartment.
The service ecosystem of amica
Using the make safe feel safe campaign run by the students union by posters and social media posts to the students at Loughborough where the amica app is introduced. Also collaborating in the future with different enterprises like Tesco, Sainsbury's, or Primark.
Business model canvas of the service "amica"
The bottom of the image shows the revenue and the top shows the expenses for the service to happen. The main revenue would be from subscriptions from Loughborough students, and LSU for the betterment of the students and also from the companies Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Primark for advertisement.
Orior bridge "Food brings us together"
Orior bridge is service work that works within the 15-minute neighborhood in Loughborough.
Our service aims to...
• Build meaningful relationships also break cultural barriers
• Promote awareness of saving food
• Make cooking simple and interesting
Our service helps customers to have a Healthier lifestyle, less cost of living, accomplish meaningful relationships, Satisfaction with reducing food waste, fulfilment in cultural exchange, satisfaction with improved cooking skills, improved wellbeing, and confidence.
The main feature of this service is Socializing, hassle free cooking, and usage of surplus foods. Students feel isolated when they come to a new environment. Our service provides a platform for diverse groups of people, to interact through pre-planned cooking activities which helps them to blend into the new environment.
For students who are not familiar with cooking when they arrive in the UK, our service helps them learn to cook effortlessly by providing the recipe.
Lots of surplus foods are wasted in stores, restaurants, etc. Our service collects these surplus products from oriental food shops and agencies (where the products are supplied). These are then made into the right amounts for recipes in our recipe box.
Service Ecosystem of the service "Orior bridge"
The surplus foods from oriental shops, retail stores like Sainsbury, Tesco, Lidl, etc are collected by weekends and this information is uploaded to orior app. Using the pre-prepared recipes from the Student union chef, AI-generated software recommends recipes in the app. These recipes are displayed in the app where students choose meals for their recipe box and it's then delivered to their apartments or the venue of cooking..
Revenue model of the service "Orior bridge"
The box on the top right corner shows our revenue and these are the expenses. Here is the membership model showing the 3 levels of membership – silver, gold, and platinum. (3/13/25).
Seethal James
Major project
Amica - "A buddy for safe walking in the dark"
Awards
Ford Smart Mobility Challenge
Design School, Loughborough University
Smart Mobility Challenge organized by Ford Motors collaborated with Loughborough University. The challenge was to propose new ideas for sustainable urban solutions for communities.
This project was done outside university modules, and it was really tough to manage the course, part-time work, and competition. Yet, we could do the project with the help of my teammates. My teammates were from different schools, so it was again hard because of the timings. With all the diversities we could work well as a team. I was the team leader for this project which taught me several things.
Work Experience
UI/UX Design Intern
Zoople Technologies, India (June 2020 to October 2020)
I learned a lot beyond books and theories. Field experience is much more important than just learning what's in the book. The application of what I learned and researched was quite a path. I learned a lot about users' needs, talked with developers, and could see work from their side too which showed me a different aspect of practicality rather than being aesthetic and playful. I was introduced to new software like Adobe XD, Sketch, Illustrator, Indesign, etc. Which helped me present my ideas in a realistic and presentable manner with a professional touch.
In the User Experience Training projects inside Zoople, we were exposed to topics such as user research, workflows, paper prototyping, wireframes, and then finally visual design.
Research and Development Manager
DQ Labs Private Limited - Bengaluru, India (June 2020 to August 2021)
I was training students for the entrance qualifying exam like CEED, NIFT, and NID which are the top universities in India for Design and Architecture. I also had an opportunity to do research and update the notes on the website from time to time.
I gained more knowledge in art and design by attending several workshops and talks both online and offline, attending classes, doing research, and learning about arts, artists, software and how to design a website and applications, etc, and built a lot of contacts in the field.
I also communicated with students, faculty, and professionals working in the field. From these experiences, I know that I am an excellent team leader who also manages multiple things at the same time.
Architecture Intern
ECHORHYTHM - India (December 2018 to April 2019)
I was working as an Intern in Echorhythm as part of my final academic year.
I did handle a lot of projects and small parts of projects. I was also going for site visits where I handle site works also.
I gained exposure to hard work and also late-night work. I was part of designing the home of a famous cine artist in Kerala, India.