Ada x Puma

AI DRIVEN SOFTWARE FOR puma to make informed design decisions

Product Design | user research | artificial intelligence


An AI Approach to Performance Analytics

Product Analysis Software designed for PUMA to make Informed Design Decisions

Team

Toolkit

May 2022 -
Aug 2023
Sunset

3 Designers
5 Engineers
3 Professors

My Role

UX Design Intern
—  Problem Solving, MVP Scoping, Market Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Dev -Handoff, Client Presentations.

The Ada Tech Platform is an NSF-funded research project, developed in collaboration with the Center for Design & College of Engineering at Northeastern University and Puma. This initiative aims to bring a transformative approach to understanding and analyzing shoe performance, leveraging the latest advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

* Note certain aspects of this project are in NDA, please reach out to know more.

The Ada Tech Platform is an NSF-funded research project, developed in collaboration with the Center for Design & College of Engineering at Northeastern University and Puma. This initiative aims to bring a transformative approach to understanding and analyzing shoe performance, leveraging the latest advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

* Note certain aspects of this project are in NDA, please reach out to know more.

The Ada Tech Platform is an NSF-funded research project, developed in collaboration with the Center for Design & College of Engineering at Northeastern University and Puma. This initiative aims to bring a transformative approach to understanding and analyzing shoe performance, leveraging the latest advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

* Note certain aspects of this project are in NDA, please reach out to know more.

Adobe XD
Balsamiq Wireframes
Figma
User Berry

Timeline & Status

I collaborated with the talented team at ADA to develop a cutting-edge AI software for shoe analysis.Here’s a sneak peek of my work:

I worked as an Associate UX Designer

OUR PRODUCT MISSION

MY CONTRIBUTION

I teamed up with a group of talented designers and developers to create a revolutionary software that harnesses the potential of machine learning and artificial intelligence to evaluate the performance of shoes created by Puma.

OUR APPROACH

Our innovative approach empowers designers & sales team to make informed decisions about a shoe’s design, functionality, and potential market success by leveraging data-driven insights and user-centric analysis.

IMPACT

This AI-powered tool is anticipated to increase Puma’s design and market analysis efficiency by up to 30%, fostering a 20% rise in innovation and efficiency.

Enhance success & strengthens Puma's market position in the footwear industry.

👨‍💻🎓 The team consisted of designers, engineers, and PhD students from Northeastern & University of Michigan.


👨‍💻🎓 The team consisted of designers, engineers, and PhD students from Northeastern & University of Michigan.


Advanced Design Augmentation (ADA) Team at Northeastern

Designers often struggle to know if customers truly appreciate their products.

However, by analyzing data, both designers and sales managers can measure a product’s success.

What if we could efficiently assess key factors like durability, comfort, and performance to identify improvements and ensure every product meets top-quality standards before launch?

PROBLEM STATMENT

WE DESIGNED

A software that analyses your product
to predict market performance.

Designing a helpful, software backed by AI to make impactful, user-friendly & informed decisions. The software will predict market performance by drawing comparisons with :


So how did we achieve this?

OUR PRODUCT MISSION

Breaking down the problem into solution buckets:

an Analysis Software that

Enable users to filter and analyze different shoes from an extensive database, generating comprehensive reports.

Enable users to filter and analyze different shoes from an extensive database, generating comprehensive reports.

Enable users to filter and analyze different shoes from an extensive database, generating comprehensive reports.

by Displaying Key Results

Implement a dashboard or visualization feature that presents key findings in an accessible and easily interpretable format.

Implement a dashboard or visualization feature that presents key findings in an accessible and easily interpretable format.

Implement a dashboard or visualization feature that presents key findings in an accessible and easily interpretable format.

which Predicts Product Performance

Leverage AI to forecast future performance based on historical data and current trends in shoe design and materials.

Leverage AI to forecast future performance based on historical data and current trends in shoe design and materials.

Leverage AI to forecast future performance based on historical data and current trends in shoe design and materials.

This approach would simplify complex data into clear visuals, aiding in the easy interpretation of trends and patterns in shoe performance.

This approach would simplify complex data into clear visuals, aiding in the easy interpretation of trends and patterns in shoe performance.

This approach would simplify complex data into clear visuals, aiding in the easy interpretation of trends and patterns in shoe performance.

We spoke to 10 people, both design and sales teams from PUMA to understand how the shoe production process works, in the current day and age and why is it special?

IDENTIFYING TARGET USER GROUPS

We developed this application utilizing a user-focused design strategy, performing comprehensive conversations with Puma's Sales department and footwear creators to completely comprehend their requirements and processes.

The two user groups identified were:
01: Footwear Product Designer

02: Product Line Manager

Footwear Product Designer

Product Line Manager

Footwear Product Designer

John Strak

"Design is about predicting the needs of the future!"

Needs

Special shoe design that would fit in the future

The shoe that performs well and looks good will own the market

Build a product that lasts long, catering to the user at the highest level

Frustrations

Unable to compare market trends and get feedback on shoe design

No clear insights from the customers and the market

Wants to feel confident about his design before market launch

Key Insights & Opportunity Areas

Feedback Vacuum

John creates 15-20 design concepts before

narrowing down, but receives structured feedback on only 20% of rejected designs.

Trend Analysis Paralysis

Spends 12+ hours weekly manually researching

trends across different markets and competitors.

Sustainability Constraints

Feels limited by available sustainable materials that meet both performance and aesthetic requirements.

Difficulty in Trend Comparison

Designers struggle with analyzing and predicting market trends due to a lack of comparative tools.

Opportunity Areas

Integrated Trend Analysis Platform

A unified dashboard that pulls trend data from multiple sources, saving designers

10+ hours weekly on manual research.

Rapid Prototyping & Feedback Loop

Digital tools to quickly visualize designs and gather structured feedback from

stakeholders and test groups.

Unified Product Performance Analytics

Centralized system that connects sales, inventory, and customer feedback data

to inform future design decisions.

Streamlined Approval Workflows

Digital collaboration tools that reduce decision bottlenecks by 40% and

accelerate time-to-market.

Footwear Product Designer

Product Line Manager

Footwear Product Designer

John Strak

"Design is about predicting the needs of the future!"

Needs

Special shoe design that would fit in the future

The shoe that performs well and looks good will own the market

Build a product that lasts long, catering to the user at the highest level

Frustrations

Unable to compare market trends and get feedback on shoe design

No clear insights from the customers and the market

Wants to feel confident about his design before market launch

Key Insights & Opportunity Areas

Feedback Vacuum

John creates 15-20 design concepts before

narrowing down, but receives structured feedback on only 20% of rejected designs.

Trend Analysis Paralysis

Spends 12+ hours weekly manually researching

trends across different markets and competitors.

Sustainability Constraints

Feels limited by available sustainable materials that meet both performance and aesthetic requirements.

Difficulty in Trend Comparison

Designers struggle with analyzing and predicting market trends due to a lack of comparative tools.

Opportunity Areas

Integrated Trend Analysis Platform

A unified dashboard that pulls trend data from multiple sources, saving designers

10+ hours weekly on manual research.

Rapid Prototyping & Feedback Loop

Digital tools to quickly visualize designs and gather structured feedback from

stakeholders and test groups.

Unified Product Performance Analytics

Centralized system that connects sales, inventory, and customer feedback data

to inform future design decisions.

Streamlined Approval Workflows

Digital collaboration tools that reduce decision bottlenecks by 40% and

accelerate time-to-market.

Footwear Product Designer

Product Line Manager

Footwear Product Designer

John Strak

"Design is about predicting the needs of the future!"

Needs

Special shoe design that would fit in the future

The shoe that performs well and looks good will own the market

Build a product that lasts long, catering to the user at the highest level

Frustrations

Unable to compare market trends and get feedback on shoe design

No clear insights from the customers and the market

Wants to feel confident about his design before market launch

Key Insights & Opportunity Areas

Feedback Vacuum

John creates 15-20 design concepts before

narrowing down, but receives structured feedback on only 20% of rejected designs.

Trend Analysis Paralysis

Spends 12+ hours weekly manually researching

trends across different markets and competitors.

Sustainability Constraints

Feels limited by available sustainable materials that meet both performance and aesthetic requirements.

Difficulty in Trend Comparison

Designers struggle with analyzing and predicting market trends due to a lack of comparative tools.

Opportunity Areas

Integrated Trend Analysis Platform

A unified dashboard that pulls trend data from multiple sources, saving designers

10+ hours weekly on manual research.

Rapid Prototyping & Feedback Loop

Digital tools to quickly visualize designs and gather structured feedback from

stakeholders and test groups.

Unified Product Performance Analytics

Centralized system that connects sales, inventory, and customer feedback data

to inform future design decisions.

Streamlined Approval Workflows

Digital collaboration tools that reduce decision bottlenecks by 40% and

accelerate time-to-market.

OPPORTUNITIY AREAS

Identifying Opportunities

Brainstormed the current state to identify opportunity areas

Current State (As is)

Designers and product teams lack efficient tools to measure a product sucess leading to:

Designers and product teams lack efficient tools to measure a product sucess leading to:

Designers and product teams lack efficient tools to measure a product sucess leading to:

Delayed identification of quality issues

Delayed identification of quality issues

Delayed identification of quality issues

Subjective decision-making process

Subjective decision-making process

Subjective decision-making process

Limited customer feedback integration

Limited customer feedback integration

Limited customer feedback integration

V/S

V/S

Opportunity Areas (To be)

What if we could efficiently assess key factors like durability, comfort, and performance to:

What if we could efficiently assess key factors like durability, comfort, and performance to:

What if we could efficiently assess key factors like durability, comfort, and performance to:

Enable data-driven design decisions

Enable data-driven design decisions

Enable data-driven design decisions

Improve product quality standards

Improve product quality standards

Improve product quality standards

Accelerate feedback integration

Accelerate feedback integration

Accelerate feedback integration

Key Features of The Software:

In our pursuit of a seamless user experience, we’ve integrated three distinctive features:

01: Concept Evaluation

Evalaute your designs by uploading pictures in the software

02: Customer Insights

Explore the vast shoe database, and filter down to get results

03: Inspire Me

Ai generated deisgns based on prompts and expreimentation to help get ideas

My role in this project

KEY FEATURES THAT I WORKED ON:

I designed key features for ADA, enhancing both functionality and user experience. My primary role was to map out user flows, create prototypes and leveraging research and UX best practices to ensure clarity and ease of use.

By applying data-driven insights, I developed user-friendly solutions that improved the overall experience.

Home Screen

Common Functionally

Customer Insight

Concept Evolution

Data Visualization

Dashboards

I planned the initiation and main display to simplify the design's navigation.

Designed the final layout products and visual dashboards to showcase the results from simulation runs to audiences and customers.

Designed the shared features which incorporated user profiles, authentication interfaces, support, info pages, etc.

Focused on the Client Discovery sections to construct diverse panels from the current footwear database and exhibit data in an organized format.

Develop diverse data illustrations and instructions on visualizing the data by generating bar graphs, graphical elements, and radar charts.

Worked on the workflow for concept to understand clear flow for analyzing a new shoe in the market.

Below is a list of the core functionalities and design elements I contributed to alongside my team.

We created a series of Information Architecture and fast iterations of wireframes initially to breakdown the complex functionalities.


IA & WIREFRAMING

The complex information architecture was designed with interactive states in mind, ensuring accurate lo-fi wireframes.
We created an app for Puma’s Sales and Design teams, using rapid iterations and feedback to refine designs, address pain points, and align with user needs.

⭐ We used the IA to further modify our lo-fi wireframes into a structured web flow.

CTA

Input fields for user (text & selection)

Filters & Dropdown

Search

Result & Product Card View

Footer

Primary Navigation

Inner Pages

Conditional Journeys

Three distinct, original workflows
and dashboards to be established,
which would be accessible from the
homepage and the top navigation
panel, substantially aiding in crafting
a streamlined user journey, while
avoiding redundancy and ambiguity.


  • Unique user flow

  • Home Page

  • Nav Bar

  • Understanding user journeys

  • User Pain-points

  • Assumptions


NAV BAR

Left

Logo

Customer insights

Concept Evaluation

Design

About Us

Right

Login/ Profile

SIDE NAV

Left

Logo

Customer insights

Concept Evaluation

Design

About Us

Right

Login/ Profile

HOME PAGE

CONCEPT EVALUATION

CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

DESIGN

LATENT INSIGHTS

Select Style

Enter the project name here

Image Evaluation

Upload the images for evaluation

Suggestions

Submit

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

Suggestions

Submit

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

Add a Description

Select Style

Enter the project name here

Image Evaluation

Upload the images for evaluation

Suggestions

Submit

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

Suggestions

Submit

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

Add a Description

SIDE NAV

New Concept

Other Projects

Allbirds V1

New Balance v3

Search

Search form the shoe database

Filters

Price / MSRP $

Brand

Type

Subclass

Sort Order

Sort By

Gender

Reset Filters

Men

Women

Kids

Unisex

Latent Insight

Project Name

Enter the project name here

Image Evaluation

Upload the images for evaluation

Suggestions

Submit

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

Add a Description

Product Image

Sentiment Analysis

Select Brand

Select Type

Select Subclass

Filter by Attribute

Need Finding & Opinion Summary

Color

Cushion

Durability

Fit

Heel

Impact Absorption

Permeability

Shape

Stability

Traction

Product Comparison

Latent Insights

Sentiment Detail

Create File

Enter the project name here

Sentiment Analysis

Spider Chart

Edit Description

Genearte Again

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

Image Evaluation

Write Prompt

Enter the AI prompt

Generate

Inspire Me

Suggestions

With lacing around the foot

Comfortable sole

New Concept

Other Projects

Allbirds V1

New Balance v3

👀 Sneak Peek into the low-fidelity wireframes created for the web app! (it's blurry for a reason..)


👀 Sneak Peek into the low-fidelity wireframes created for the web app! (it's blurry for a reason..)


👀 Sneak Peek into the low-fidelity wireframes created for the web app! (it's blurry for a reason..)


I have had the privilege of working with an amazing team.
While I am bound by Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) that require confidentiality, I am excited to share some of the valuable skills, experiences, and outcomes I achieved during my tenure at ADA.

**For more information on this project feel free to reach out..

While I would love to give more details..

THERE IS MORE..

NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT- ADA TECH

Every design challenge is an opportunity for growth.

Here's what I learned while creating solutions that balance user needs with business objectives.

Designed for established platforms

Designing a first-of-its-kind software is a challenge, but we ensured every decision was backed by research and user-driven data to create a strong, effective solution.

User Research

Data-Driven

Platform Integration

Uncovering Edge Cases

Designing for a large database revealed key insights as we built wireframes and connected the front end to the backend, uncovering critical edge cases.

Edge Cases

Data Base

Information Arch

Finding balance between business and user needs

As product designers, we're taught to prioritize user needs, but it's equally important to consider how design decisions impact a business's growth and longevity.

Business Value

User-Centric

Platform Integration

Looking back on the journey

LEARNING & REFLECTIONS

Here's me presenting the final prototype to the PUMA team based in Boston. This project exemplifies my approach to collaborative design and stakeholder management.

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