The Team

One of the most important reason for this project going on so succesfully is of course our fantastic team. Our interdisciplinary team consists of five university studends with different backgrounds. We have the knowledge business, user interfaces, user experience and programming - everyone has an important role in this project, and also with helping each other. We would all like to describe our goals, responsbilities, and also tell something about ourselves for you to get know who are behind this project.

Tuğberk Duman

The Project Manager / Business Value

+358414868983, tugberk.duman@student.tut.fi, LinkedIn

Responsbilities in this project:

• Ensuring the feasibility of development plan
• Creating a business model for the end-product
• Communicating the value to the stakeholders & meeting their demand
• Determining and delegating the tasks
• Creating public awareness regarding the project and its end-product

An exciting phase before starting my studies was to win a full scholarship at Okan University for Electrical and Electronics Engineering program. To gain a wider experience in terms of international relations and multicultural environment, I joined the Erasmus Exchange program twice. I spent one semester in Opole Poland as a student which was followed by project engineering internship in Rheine, Germany. Thanks to these achivements and my above average GPA, I was awarded as a “high honour student” in my department. After graduation, I had 1 year of project management experience in the aviation industry. Currently, I am at the end of my master’s degree studies on Business and Technology Management at Tampere University of Technology.

After completing my studies I am looking forward to continuing my career in the Project Management field.

Essi Pihlajamäki

Business Value 

+358505359680, essi.pihlajamaki@outlook.com, LinkedIn

My responsibilities in this project include:

• Business aspects
• Knowledge of cars and parking with ParkMan and EasyPark
• Creating public awareness of the project and the possibilities of Google Glass
• Product testing
• Training the end users
• Stakeholder relationships

I study business in the School of Management in the University of Tampere. I’m an enthusiastic team worker and during my studies I’ve engaged in many activities related to the student organization Boomi ry. I’ve been a part of Boomi’s accounting team, corporate relations team and event organizing team. I have tutored international students from different countries.
 

Before I started my studies at the university, I studied in the entrepreneurship group in Ylöjärvi high school. In the group we had many different kind of projects, for example we started our own company and co-operated with other students from different countries. 

 
Besides teamwork and business, I’m also very interested in technology and especially new technologies, and that’s one reason why I’m very excited to be part of a Google Glass project. After this project I am looking for new opportunities related to business and technology.

 

 Hanna Remula

UI & UX Designer

 +358408312414, remula.hanna.k@student.uta.fi, LinkedIn 

Responsbilities in this project:

• Designing and evaluation of...
• user interface
• user experience
• user interaction
• End user interviews (focus point: usability issues)
• Photographing for this blog and presentations

To get a change to design a UI and UX for the new and innovative technology is very inspirational. Google Glass can offer a totally new kind of user experience, and that is also setting interesting challenges to me and the team for designing also. I study Interactive Technology at the University of Tampere, and my the master's degree program is in User Experience: Design and Evolution. My minors are marketing and social psychology, so in designing user experience, I also have a consumer experience perspective.

I have several years of experience in sales work, and now - since this year - as a customer coordination at the Yrityspäivät (the largest networking and recruiting event for academic students in Finland). So - working between human, technology and the business is a natural choice for me.

In a future I am looking forward to work with user interfaces, user experience and the consumer experience field.

Ali Waris

UI & UX Designer / Programming 
+358466312228, ali_waris89@yahoo.com, LinkedIn

Responsibilities

In the project I am responsible for the UI / UX of the application. My other is developing the front end on android platform.  Designing the interface which will put less cognitive load on the user head and eye, and make sure it should be not stressful when use for a long time. As UX designer is important to ensure that the product logically flows from one step to the next. Define interaction models, user task flows, and UI specifications. Communicate scenarios, end-to-end experiences, interaction models. Suggesting improvements in the interface from the feedback from the real user.

Background

I have 1.7 years of professional experience in working a software company. I worked on developing the Ios applications also on Enterprise solution PeopleSoft and customization of product in Silverlight and C#. Worked as a Teaching Assistant for ArcGIS lab.

Education

Master Degree Student in User Experience in TUT, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Interests

Design application, evaluating user experience, Mobile development, Business Intelligence

Philipp Weitz 

Main Developer / Programming 

LinkedIn

Responsbilities in this project:

• Main Developer / Programmer
• Interface Design

My motivation for this project is that it allows me to work with Google Glasses. This new and state of the art technology provides huge chances for the future and I want to experience it on my own. I want to examine the possibilities and limitations of this new device. My main goal for this project is to produce a product which will provide at least the requested functionality. It is important for me that all the different elements work together to form a product which fulfils the customers’ requirements as best as possible.

Google Glass Traffic Warden: Country-Specific Challenges

When you read our blog, you might feel that everything has been unrealistically perfect about this project. We are not denying the fact that we are a great team who likes to work with each other. We have a dedicated project partner-Vincit- and Demola has been extremely generous when helping us with our needs. All in all, we can say that we are absolutely on the right track! However, it has not been easy as you might have imagined.

It is easy to anticipate that smartphones are already reaching the decline stage in the technology lifecycle, thus a new technology is expected to emerge. Could Google Glass (or virtual glasses in general) be the successor? At least that is what we thought so. The smartphones had a predecessor, namely mobile phone, that is similar only not that smart. However, Glass is a completely new experience with its different look which some even describe as ''dorky''. Now, think about marketing this product to the 40+ years old traffic wardens which are members of one of the world's shyest and/or most introvert (take your pick) society. Sounds challenging, doesn’t it?  

Speaking of country specific challenges, I am sure most of you know how long winter is in Finland. For the ones who do not know, it is 6-7 months long! And  wait! It keeps getting better: The hours of sunshine that we receive here during the winter are approximately  30-40 hours per month. (refer here: YLE-It is official Helsinki was three times glomier, for a simpler explanation refer here: Meanwhile in Finland). Now, let’s re-think that idea: We want to develop an application for the Google Glass that uses the camera to recognize license plates. This might require a bit of  daylight, don't you think?

In the winter also gloves are always needed outside in Finland

Good news; we are lucky to have a team that like challenges. We MIGHT have already overcome the aforementioned challenges.  In order to figure that out you should wait a bit more and keep visiting our blog.  We'll keep you posted!

Week 9: ...continues with Demola Jam II

On Saturday we were again jamming at Demola. We got a chance to show the Traffic Tools working on the Google Glass, and got the application tested by other jammers. 

 The other jammers were eager to test the Traffic Tools

 The lunch was delicious!

We got also very valuable feedback and suggestions for the usability issues we have

Week 9: User Interface Testing with Traffic Wardens

Last few weeks we have been developing our application now called Traffic Tools. Now it's finally working! We  also tested the application several times in the street. Few problems were discovered, but the developing continues...

On Friday we could finally get again to the Traffic Warden's office to show them, what we have developed. Traffic wardens were enthusiastic to test the Google Glass and Traffic Tools. We got really positive feedback and also valuable ideas to develop our implementation further. It was great to notice and hear that traffic warden really think that the Traffic Tools would save much time and other resources - because that is the main goal of the project! City of Tampere's head of traffic wardens Marjo Hallinen is also going to present our project in the official meeting with other cities.

Checking the licence plates with Google Glass & Traffic Tools!

Next week we are going to Vincit to present and test our application. Waiting for that!

Week 8: Mid-Pitching

In the eigth week we had the Demola Mid-Pitching event. Tugberk presented our project to the hall full of people. We got some feedback and also gave feedback to the other groups. The developing process is going further all the time. Next week we should be able to test the ...Traffic Tools!

Week 6: Visit to Vincity

  
Vincit's rubber duck

In the beginning of the project we were invited to Vincity in Hervanta by our project partner. On Friday we were finally able to visit the best place to work in Finland! Petri Suhonen kindly introduced Vincit's innovative working environment to us, and we got an opportunity to present our project to the other Vincitizens. 

 

Inspirational working environment in Vincity.

The Vincity's Street Map. It is used to describe the career progress model.

It was a great honor to have a change to get familiarized with Vincit's working methods. The whole team would like to thank Vincit and Demola to offer this opportunity.

Pssst... The Google Glass has arrived!