Ritwik Kumar

My Projects

Central Student Website for EB MANIT

Proposed the idea of creating a fully functional website for all 5500+ students of MANIT to act as a central repository of placement stats, upcoming events, alumni database etc.
Deadline for releasing the project is before the new academic year begins in 2021.

Excelsior 2020

Annual magazine of the institute. Created interviews, surveys, polls, handled social media handles and worked with a team of 24 designers, artists and editors.
Curated content and drew insights from data. Improved the read time of magazine by more than 110%.

Google Forms automatic theme suggestions

Ways to improve basic functionality and its applications elsewhere

Google forms offers automatic theme suggestions based on the color of photograph inserted in the header. Basic aspects such as theme, text font and weight etc. can be changed.
While this feature is very vanilla right now, it still helps users in making great looking forms.
Could a similar feature be extended to Google Slides/ MS PowerPoint where individual slide themes change based on images/graphics used.
This could be especially useful when users don’t want to stick to a monotonous theme throughout the presentation, but find it difficult to implement complementary colors, designs etc.

Eat-Qual packaging of Burgers by McDonalds

A subtle example of how product innovations can make massive impacts and bring about a social change.

McDonalds has introduced a vertical packaging for burgers which holds the burger upright.
This prevents the contents of the burger from spilling since the two buns are always held in place. This gives much better user experience.
Because of this unique design, burgers can now be eaten with just one hand. Hence the name Eat-Qual. The packaging is being promoted as serving equality, especially to customers who might face some mobility issues in their limbs.

Google maps bookmark feature and what more can be done

Transforming google maps from a good to have, to a must have app for travelers.

Whenever a user searches for places to visit online, several results show up on google.
Now they have an option to bookmark places they find interesting while exploring them on the internet. These bookmarks then get automatically synced with google maps.
Users can then find out these places when they actually go out. This prevents them from missing out on places that would interest them.
Google maps can also work around sending nudges if users are close to a bookmarked location. In case of outstation trips Maps could also plan a customized itinerary for the user based on this information. The possibilities are endless!

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How can gamification be leveraged by Uber to improve the app and increase user engagement?

The key customer segment will be daily users whose ride time is at least 30 minutes. Some pain points are:-

Gamification can be used to solve these pain points in following ways:-

Converting the entire ride into a mini game of treasure hunt using GPS where they can look out for clues etc. and earn scores, complete with friends on leaderboards etc.
Based on distance and position, create leaderboards to suggest new people for the cab pool.

How can Gmail be improved for working professionals?

The average worker receives anywhere between 75-120 emails daily. Certain pain points which can be addressed.

Features which can address these pain points are:-

Creating an inbuilt un-subscription tool to remove unwanted newsletters etc. This is because users have issues with third party apps regarding privacy.
A collection of standard mail templates which can easily be accessed to create a draft.
Allowing users to create customized tabs in their inbox for better organization of incoming mail.