Ayana Harai

Service Designer

Japan

Ayana Harai is a service designer at NTT DATA Japan. She began working at NTT DATA in 2012 and started out in the public sector sales division, delivering solutions for Air traffic control systems. After about 6 years, Ayana began to explore her career options and eventually settled into work at the consulting division in 2018. Her role is to support clients to enhance current products or to create new business opportunities through collaboration. She relies a lot on her ability to apply a Design Thinking approach to provide her clients with the best possible User Experience (UX) outcomes.

It’s the people who make NTT DATA great!

Tell us about an interesting project.

One assignment that I am currently involved with is called Mobicomma. Unlike other projects which serve individual clients, Mobicomma is a Mobility-as-a-Service solution for tourists, developed by NTT DATA. It is a solution that focuses on transportation experiences during travel. I am the leader of the design team responsible for UX and (User Interface) UI, and I conduct user exploration and UX/UI design. To achieve this, I collaborate with engineers and business consultants throughout the process. Together we create and implement the best UX we can, to eventually maximize the social impact on mobility infrastructures.

I am really excited about this project because of the vision it has for the future of transportation. We can see a future where autonomous cars will allow you to take your hands off the wheel to do other things like make a purchase or communicate with other passengers. We see Mobicomma as being at the first step on that journey of the autonomous driving experience. The product is a tour guide and works through tablets we’ve put into rental cars in Okinawa, the southern islands of Japan, that gives users local information in real time. They use this information to save time planning where to eat, what to see and where to go. I love the challenge of this project and I’m very excited to see how far we can take it.

Why do you like life at NTT DATA?

I can say that without doubt, the reason I love working at NTT DATA is the people. Everyone I’ve had the pleasure to work with has been professional in their respective fields, and proactive and passionate in their application of work. One huge motivating factor for me is through the support I get from colleagues that really reflects overall culture of NTT DATA.

A practical example of how people apply their skills and support each other is on the Mobicomma assignment. We have people of various capabilities who are experts in things like technology, agile development, business strategy, UX design, and team leadership. What makes Mobicomma exciting and drives the assignment forward is that we have a team of people dedicated to success who have differing viewpoints and perspectives. It has impressed me that we could launch a beta version of the service in Okinawa through utilizing each person’s professionalism, understanding of each other, and team collaboration. This really makes me happy to work at NTT DATA.

How have you grown at NTT DATA?

I’m really grateful that NTT DATA has given me the space and time to broaden my personal perspectives and to grow myself as a person and my career through great training opportunities and support from some wonderful managers. In my case, I came across UX design pretty late in my career. After looking into it I thought it would be a good direction to take my future career but had no idea how to tackle the subject or use it in my work. My manager at the time suggested that I study design thinking to help me understand UX design better and pointed me in the direction of some training that was provided by our company. I took the training, and it really inspired me to take that career change. As well as taking training I got a lot of mentoring and support from my manager to keep me going and to take more initiatives to improve myself. I have to say that NTT DATA really has provided me with a lot of room to grow, and I’m excited for the future.