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Hello, I'm Daniel

I've been designing digital products since 2011. I redesigned Kernel's analysis tool for medical teams; I designed Shootr’s Chat service; and I helped to design Telefonica’s Niji.

Before, I enjoyed a few years of cold and northern lights in the swedish Lapland. I studied a master in HCI; I researched about design for unobtrusive interfaces; and I designed for brands such as Benetton and Swedish Television at North Kingdom.

Besides that I believe that technology can have a positive impact in the world. I am passionate for data analysis and understanding new technologies, systems and bussineses. I use this passion to invest in or design for the companies of the future.

Currently I live in Barcelona, but originaly I’m from La Rioja, a small region in Spain.

Thanks for stopping by.

Unobtrusive interaction

Niji

Improving the experience of mobile browsing

Niji

How does Niji work

Niji is a service that users can forget that it exists while enjoying that their internet connection has additional features. The website offers statistics and multiple options to manage the features.

Once a user activate Niji, it looks at the data that comes from websites to block anything that the user does not want to, such as ads, trackers, or virus, before it reachs the user’s mobile. Niji does not look at data that is encrypted, such as websites with the protocol HTTPS, because one our core values is to support online privacy and security.

Some advantages against similar services are that users do not need to download any app on their phones and there is no impact on battery life or the general functioning of the device.

Niji

Role

As UX designer, my responsability was to design how the product was going to be used by the user, including designing new features, user flows, UI, ensuring that the design was correctly implemented by the developers, and presenting my work to other members of the team and skateholders.

Niji

UX challenges

When I started in October 2015, the team was getting the product ready for our first trial with Telefónica employees.

Initial research showed that our potential users did not fully understand some of our value propositions, such as online privacy and security, and consequently they did not pay much attention to that. They related more with our other features regarding blocking ads and saving data. However, blocking ads was a major concern as Telefonica had numerous strategic advertising partnerships.

Another important challenge was to manage users expectations and technical limitations. Many websites and apps use the secure protocol HTTPS which means that data is encrypted and our service does not work. However, users were often not aware whether they were under HTTPS or, even if they knew, they expected our service to work.

In addition, ussability tests with users showed that users had several problems to navigate through the website and, overall, to understand the statistics and other information. Besides, it was very difficult to activate the service in our first trials.

During 1 year, we released 3 closed trials within different Mobile Operators and users: Telefonica employees, clients of Tuenti Spain, and clients of Movistar Peru. As we were integrated with each of the Mobile Operators in order to function, we had to adapt the service each time. Changes often involved to modify how some of our features work, users flows like activate the service, and the UI of our website.

Niji

UX solutions

First, we designed new user flows, such as how to activate the service, and re-created the website with a completely different UI, style and navigation, tackling all the problems that we had seen in our research.

We created stories through the app that explained the importance of concepts such as online privacy, security, https and more. We changed the tone so the illustrations and writing felt closer and relatable to our users. Often, the goal was to create interest in learning rather than to explain everything. The tone and the approach was very well received and it was completely different from other security services of Telefonica.

We tested different versions of our feature for blocking advertising. The objective was to find the right balance between the corporate point of view and provide the most value to our users. We settled in blocking only the most annoying ads: pop-ups, auto-play videos and sounds. Not only those ads are annoying but they consume a lot of data.

Most of the changes implemented were well received according with our surveys, user interviews and raw usage data.

Results

Niji began as a technical innovation. We created a commercial product in 1 year. Just before I left, we were getting ready to launch with other two subsidiaries of Telefónica. Also, the project had been funded to launch in 6 countries in 2017. This rapid grow and support is outstanding in a company like Telefónica.

The team received awards inside the company for excellent results and collaboration between different areas. For example, we got an award for our collaboration with Tuenti Spain, a Telefónica subsidiary, to launch the trial with them.

I'm always looking for interesting challenges and new friends