Jr. User Interface Designer | Jr. UX Researcher

Skills

• User Research Assistant
• Workflow Creation
• Persona Creation
• Wireframing

Programs

• Omnigraffle
• Microsoft Word

Deliverables

1. At this time, no deliverables may be shown. Sorry

Project: Areteworks

Due to NDA, I am unable to show any deliverables at this time. Therefore, I will give you a brief overview of our process.

Intro

At Areteworks, we were tasked with redesigning a client's flagship web based application. We were also told to design a mobile product that would accompany their desktop product.

The scope for this project included research, design, and development. Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III respectively. However, I was only involved in the research and design phases. I just want to make it clear that I did not do any coding on this project.

Phase I: Research

At Areteworks, we think it's important to listen to the user. That's why we make it a priority to involve them in our process. We start by learning as much as possible about our users. We do this through contextual inquiry.

First, we define the users':

1. Goals
2. Needs
3. Intents (i.e. when the user performed some action, why; what were they trying to accomplish; what did they expect to happen)
4. Pain Points
5. User Frusrations (including any frustrations experienced outside of the software)

And second, we capture:

1. Actual work practices
2. The context in which the work was done (i.e. what's the work environment like; is it collaborative, is it hectic, is it time sensitive, etc.)

My Role

To get this data, we had to do some extensive travelling. In 5 weeks, we went to Utah, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and California. During this time, I focused on capturing as much detail as humanly possible, which wasn't too difficult, since I'm pretty awesome at taking notes. 18 users and many coffee breaks later, I had a notebook filled with rich detail. It was now time to make sense of the data.

I worked on consolidating my notes and formatting them into a presentable document that would be presented to our client and our own design team. However, notes are still notes, and in order to transition into the design phase, we need to make our notes digestable. Thus, my next tasks were to create workflows and personas.

Transitioning: Brainstorm Session

After coming up with the user workflow and personas, we get ready to transition into the design phase. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of design, we find it good practice to hold a brainstorming session where we bring together our client's team (executives, project managers, IT, field operations, sales team) and our team (designers and developers). We push for a brainstorm session because we think it's important to hear everyone's feedback on our workflow.

By talking to all parties involved in the project, we ensure our workflow makes sense and is correct. Anything missed gets added, and if there are any major flaws in our workflow, then this is the time to correct them. In a way, this session serves as the final safety check before we dive full throttle into design. We like to think of it this way, it's better to postpone the design phase, than to start designing and then realize our workflow is wrong. We strive to align our design with the user's workflow, it's what makes our designs intuitive. Therefore, it is imperative that we get the workflow right, or else we risk designing something that may fail.

Phase II: Design

In this phase, we focus on establishing feature requirements, ideating solutions, and creating wireframes. This is our time to get creative. One way we get our creative juices flowing is by holding a two-day brainstorm session with our design team. Sticky notes, markers, whiteboards, snacks, and inspiration abound during our meetings. First, we work alone to hash out our ideas and concepts. Then we get together and bounce our ideas off of each other. We don't believe in stupid or crazy ideas, so everyone is encouraged to think outside the box. In the end, we come up with multiple design solutions and a few different concepts. Our next step is to then start working on the wireframes.

My Role

In our case, we came up with two concepts. I was given the choice to work on either concept 1 or concept 2. I opted to go with concept 2, and in the next several weeks, we all spent time designing our wireframes in Omnigraffle.

Transitioning: Usability Testing

Many design reviews later, iteration after iteration, and even more coffee breaks later, we make any final preparations to our design before commencing the usability sessions. By this time, our designs have already been made into prototypes. It is now time to put our design to the ulitmate litmus test.

For usability tests, we are looking to see how our design holds up against our users. We are testing the usability of our product, and we are especially concerned with determining how intuitive it is. If a certain button or feature doesn't make sense, then it needs to be changed. We also pay attention to incorrect terminology, bad typography, and improper button placement. More importantly, we determine whether our workflow makes sense to the user. Even though we are redesigning the user interface, it is not our intent to have the user change the way they work. What we try to do is optimize the way they work, not have them change in order to use our design.

We find this to be one of the best times to gather feedback from your users. A time to make note of what features users are most receptive too and which features they dislike. It's also the best time to find out what's wrong with the design and make the appropriate revisions. It's not out of the ordinary to make some minor changes following a usability test. As a matter of fact, we expect to change some things. We'd be worried if there was nothing wrong with our design.

My Role

To get the best results, we tested our design with current users. We even had the opportunity to test our design with ex-users. For testing, we flew to three states in 5 days. During the trip, I was tasked with taking detailed notes. And after the trip, it was my job to consolidate my notes, and summarize the most relevant findings.

Transitioning: Phase III

After usability testing, the first thing we do is make any necessary revisions. These can range from small changes, like increasing the font type to bigger changes like re-ordering the navigation. Then we work on finalizng the feature set. This list of features will be the laundry list we use to ensure we've included every feature and functionliaty in our design.

At this point, my involvement continues to decrease. As we get closer to development, it becomes time for our awesome developers to shine and do what they do best. At this stage, our priority becomes finalizng our wireframes so that we can hand them off to the dev team. Things usually get hectic around this time, it's what they call crunch time.

Closing Remarks

So there you have it, a brief overview of what I did at Areteworks for this project. Granted, I skipped over a lot of the meetings, and a lot of the reiteration that goes on. Much of our work is always living and breathing. It's almost never done in one take or one-go. Our feature list, for example, has been a work in progress for months now. And our wireframes were constantly adapting and changing.

And lastly, there is never a one process fits all type thing. Each project is different. Each project has its own process. And in the end, the best part for me is that I love every second of it.