Process

During my time as a UX Designer in the technology sector, multiple projects I worked on fell under the customization to configuration umbrella. Two of the most impactful projects included a net new feature (Call-To-Action Widget) and enhancing an existing feature (Links Widget). Both of these projects would ultimately put the power of design into the user’s hands instead of relying on developers to create HTML/CSS and inject it into the overarching theme of a workplace, or expecting users to remember specific codes (or classes) in order to achieve the designs they desired. These two features transformed the laborious process into a streamlined design that could be achieved instantaneously.  

The process for the Call-To-Action (aka CTA) and Links projects was similar:

1. Existing customizations were synthesized in to similar style groupings through a card sort activity.

2. Interviews were conducted with visual designers, internal development teams who executed these customizations, and customers who use the features regularly around challenges.

3. Designs were created of output styles and configuration interface via Sketch.

4. Multiple iterations were created as design critiques and developer meetings influences the designs.

5. Finalized designs were accepted for development via Zeplin.

6. During the development phase, some design changes needed to be made due to unforeseen technical issues.

Delivery

Both of these projects successfully made it to launch with MVP versions that were eventually built on to. Users were provided with fully functional drag-and-drop widgets to easily create Calls-To-Action and Links in the digital workplace without having to interact with HTML/CSS coding.

Iteration

Both CTA and Link widgets were developed simultaneously with different features being released in different cycles. We were able to make iterative changes over the time of release to immediately improve on small features. We were able to allow soak time with users and conduct additional testing to implement additional improvements.

Process

This project came as a re-design to modernized the user experience from an original PeopleSoft interface to an update UI and experience that matched the newer implementation of other areas of the software.

The first step was to review various calls and notes the product manager had taken around the current experience.

Next, I explored the software myself using a variety of accounts to experience what a manager would experience in their workflow. A few interesting design challenges came up, such as what I call “modal inception” where the manager would end up with 4 modals overlapping. This was an opportunity to streamline the experience based on how managers worked.

After that I spent time asking several additional questions to the client to deepen my insights on the end user and a few scenarios that I was unsure about or curious about.

Upon designing, I worked closely with the product managers and developers to do design reviews and iterate on the designs. Most of the designs were created from existing design library components with a few net new cases.

After several iterations, the designs were approved by the client.

Delivery

The Manager Alerts project was fully implemented and released within the software with a few adjustments made to small elements. The managers were most satisfied with the usability and appearance.

As you can see in the “Send Notifications” we were able to create an experience that only used a single modal by following common UX patterns such as type-ahead search as most managers knew who they were sending emails to!

Iteration

To date, this project had small iterations that were made through the development process based on available components, but was well received by the client.

Process

This Nutrition Tracking App was a capstone project for the User Experience course at Brainstation. The purpose of this project was to be able to apply the process being taught in class immediately to a project.

The Nutrition Tracking App was solving the problem of tracking macro percentage intake daily to determine what an individual is eating vs. their nutritional goal. It would be flexible depending on their choice of nutritional lifestyle (paleo, keto, etc). Users could manual input their percentages and track food towards that. Users would also be able to receive notifications to enter meals, motivational encouragement, and enhance their experience with a social connection to friends.

The end-to-end process of designing this app included:

1. Creating a script of interview questions and conducting interviews with a varied group of people.

2. Synthesizing user interview into theme insights.

3. Creating user personas for three users of the app.

4. Creating the entire information architecture of the app.

5. Refining the architecture to show user flows.

6. Hand-sketching one of the user flows into individual screens.

7. Running a series of testing via sketches uploaded to POP app.

8. Revising screens based on feedback from user testing.

9. Creating wireframes within Sketch.

10. Creating a clickable prototype via InVision.

11. Providing this link to various test users, gather and synthesize feedback.

12. Creating a User Interface Style Guide.

13. Reflecting on lessons learned from the project.

Delivery

An understanding of the end-to-end process of user experience design and a capstone project ready for development.

Iteration

This project was presented back to the cohort and instructors for feedback. Beyond that, once an app is developed, I can think about new features and functionality that can be added in addition to updating existing features and functionality users may find not intuitive once they are using the app on a regular basis.