BEN ROCHON
Hey there,
I am a forward thinking Designer + Technologist based in Montreal, Canada.
I like to work at the intersection of people and tech to uncover and redefine opportunities.
I currently work for FLO, an EV Charging network, helping make the charging experience better and more accessible to all.
Here are some things I worked on. I’d be happy to talk about some of them if you ask.
Human-Robot Interaction
Using robots in retail
Leveraged Pepper, a popular humanoid robot, as a store assistant. Proposed a working prototype to kickstart discussions about modern retailing. Also did some electronics to add NFC and Bluetooth capabilities which greatly improved the user experience. This project was showcased at many conference across America and Europe.Augmented Reality
We did a few proof of concepts using different tasks and technologies.
Augmenting instruction-based tasks
Following a user research initiative I conducted, we identified frictions when employees were given instructions (paper or digital) to complete physical layout tasks. This project is an exploration of the question: What if the instructions were displayed in the real world, where they belong?We did a few proof of concepts using different tasks and technologies.
Natural Language Interaction
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Voice Assistant for Retail Employees
I brought some retail employees app features to the Google Assistant.
Mobile App
Store Optimizer
Built the blueprints and first prototype of a mobile app that leverage IoT sensors. In partnership with Intel.
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Design Research
Seems pretty abstract, right? This process is simply how retailers plan how the products will be laid out on shelves in the stores and how store employees act upon that plan. I planned and conducted field researches and mapped the process. This helped outline critical friction points that were later adressed in next-generation products.
Improving the planogram creation and execution process
Design Research
Done with D3 in ObservableHQ using data from sunrise-sunset.org.
Somewhat working code here
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A year of sunlight
A simple data viz side project to display sunlight variations over a year.Done with D3 in ObservableHQ using data from sunrise-sunset.org.
Somewhat working code here
Design Research
Shoji:
Following ethnographic research with households of roommates, we established that the asynchronous nature of each roommates lifestyles can jeopardize the relationship and quality of life within the household. Shoji is a prototype and thought experiment that explores doors as means of communication between roommates using ambiant design methods.
This project was submitted at the Student Design Competition at CHI 2012 and won first place. YAY!
Shoji:
Communicating Privacy
Following ethnographic research with households of roommates, we established that the asynchronous nature of each roommates lifestyles can jeopardize the relationship and quality of life within the household. Shoji is a prototype and thought experiment that explores doors as means of communication between roommates using ambiant design methods.This project was submitted at the Student Design Competition at CHI 2012 and won first place. YAY!
Experiments
Rullo Solver
Quick experiment with constraint programming. Done to understand what some colleagues did.
Are there any bananas left?
Hackathon project. We used Yolo 9k to detect what fruit were available in our office fruit basket.
STM metro interruptions
Work in progress. I am collecting Montreal’s metro interruption over time to visualize.
Let’s Connect.
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