cathie toshach polaroid picture

The following represents my current body of work. It may seem a bit eclectic at times, but I see it as a rather rounded approach to understanding and designing for people. People like you and me who crave information and don't want anything holding it up, hiding it, or overly complicating it. It can be pretty or even fun just as long as you give it to us straight.

You can also take a look at my résumé if you are so inclined.

Back to Top

Ann Arbor Rotary Club

2007 to 2008 |  www.rotaryclubofannarbor.org

Overview

The Rotary Club of Ann Arbor is a local chapter of Rotary International, which works with the community on a number of projects fostering quality of life, cooperation, and understanding. Wishing to update their online presence as well as member features, the Club has commissioned me to redesign the visual interface as well as migrate it to the open-source, content management platform, Drupal.

Project Goals

  • Design a contemporary and standards-based visual interface that represents the vision and identity of the Rotary Club.
  • Restructure the navigation and organization of the website to be more accessible and friendly.
  • Migrate to the Drupal platform for better content management and to support distributed responsibilities among members.
  • Allow for the weekly newsletter, The Harpoon, to be easily assembled using website content.

Status

The redesign of the website is currently in production and is expected to be launched later this year.

Tools and Methods

Screenshots

Ann Arbor Rotary Club Design Concept - Home Page

No Comments | Categories: Information Architecture, Web Design, Work
Back to Top

Fry, Inc.

Fall 2007 |  www.fry.com
Fry, Inc.

Overview

Fry, Inc., headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a leader in eCommerce solutions. Their multi-channel integration accounts for all aspects of commercial websites by strategically aligning business goals, technology, and consumer expectations. During Fall 2007, I worked with the User Experience Group on a number of client and in-house projects.

Projects

The full deliverables for these projects are confidential and so I am only able to provide a cursory overview.

  • Collaborated in the analysis of a multi-site client project for invitations and personalized paper goods. Developed an innovative taxonomy based on a chronology of actions in place of a traditional product-based organization. The new taxonomy is currently being incorporated into the redesigned websites.
  • Developed a usability testing plan and materials to be used quarterly in gaining insights into consumer behavior and shopping trends.
  • Created conceptual designs based on research and competitive analysis that seeks to support different shopping behaviors such as browsing, comparison shopping, and recurring purchases.
  • Produced functional specifications, wireframes, and flow diagrams for various client projects.

Tools and Methods

  • Taxonomy Analysis
  • Competitive Research
  • Wireframes
  • Conceptual Design
  • Functional Specifications
  • Flow Diagrams
  • Usability Test Development
No Comments | Categories: Information Architecture, Usability, User Centered Design, Work
Back to Top

Ross School of Business, Kresge Business Administration Library

Winter 2007 |  www.bus.umich.edu/kresgelibrary/
Kresge Logo

Overview

As part of a semester-long project, a group of students evaluated the Ross School of Business’ Kresge Business Administration Library website. We evaluated the website in terms of the navigation and infrastructure with the goal of providing recommendations that would ultimately ease the burden on students in locating resources necessary for their coursework, employment search, and other common tasks.

Project Goals

  • Identify and understand the needs of users of the website.
  • Perform an organizational analysis to assure our recommendations are implementable and beneficial.
  • Assess aspects of system performance including information search and retrieval.
  • Identify strengths and weaknesses of the website and propose changes to improve the user experience.

Outcomes

Numerous key findings were identified and presented as recommendations to the library website staff. Of these recommendations, the high level themes included: better integration, simpler and more defined navigation and organization, and improved search functionality.

The full report is available for review as a PDF (1.4MB).

Tools and Methods

  • Generalized Transition Network (GTN)
  • Contextual Interviews
  • Personas and Scenarios
  • Comparative Analysis
  • Surveys
  • Heuristic Evaluation
  • Visual Analysis
  • Usability Testing
No Comments | Categories: Information Architecture, Usability, User Centered Design, Work
Back to Top

University of Michigan, Shapiro Undergraduate Library

Fall 2006 |  www.lib.umich.edu/ugl
University of Michigan, University Library

Overview

During the Fall of 2006, I collaborated with reference librarians at the University of Michigan’s Shapiro Undergraduate Library to research, evaluate, and make recommendations on implementing an online “ready reference” tool for students. To gain better insight into the functions and services of the reference desk, I shadowed reference staff, completed online training, and ask questions to staff and students about how they viewed reference materials and services. Pairing this information with that learned through visual analysis, heuristic evaluation, and comparative evaluation, I concluded by making a number of recommendations on what essential components are required to implement a successful online reference tool. Additionally, I produced a hi-fi prototype of how the reference tool could be structured and integrated into the existing website.

Key findings from this study are available in a brief summary.

Tools and Methods

  • Online and On-site Research.
  • Visual Analysis
  • Heuristic Evaluation
  • Comparative Evaluation
  • Hi-fi Prototype
No Comments | Categories: Information Architecture, Usability, Web Design
Back to Top

New York Public Library, Digital Gallery

Summer 2007 |  digitalgallery.nypl.org
NYPL

Overview

In March 2005, The NYPL launched the Digital Gallery, providing free access to over 275,000 images, effectively acting as a digital gateway to world-renowned cultural and historical documents. Nearly three years later and another quarter million images, the Digital Gallery has taken a look inward as well as forward in preparing for the next big stage in its evolution.

During July 2007, I joined the Digital Library Program to co-conduct an evaluation of the website to identify its strengths, weaknesses, and future goals.

Project Goals

  • Evaluate the website taxonomy and organization for strengths and weaknesses.
  • Conduct a comparative evaluation to identify conventions and standards within online digital collections.
  • Review current Web 2.0 trends and new technologies for potential inclusion in the website redesign.
  • Design and implement a series of on-site usability tests to identify key strengths and weaknesses.
  • Develop personas based on archetypal users for use in future design iterations.

Outcomes

The full report can be accessed on the NYPL Labs website.

What’s Going Well

  • Usability testing revealed users find the website to be a good resource for visual documents.
  • The comparative evaluation of similar online resources showed the Digital Gallery excels in content, presentation, and functionality.
  • The comparative evaluation also showed the Digital Gallery as having a faster and more searchable database.

What Needs Improving

  • Users feel the website is complex and somewhat difficult to use for directed searches.
  • The Search tool does not support current conventions for handling pluralization, misspellings, and natural language queries; this conflicts with the expectations of users who are accustomed to using Google, Yahoo!, and AskJeeves search engines.
  • The layout and design has caused some unintended scoping issues for global vs. section-level navigation.

Looking Forward

  • The website should begin to feature more contextual tools such as the Collection Guides. Lesson guides for teachers is an effective way to conduct community outreach and build a user base.
  • Being an early adopter of web trends that are likely to become conventions will keep the Digital Gallery at the forefront. This includes folksonomy (tagging) and social and collaborative networking.
  • Supporting user behavior to reuse the website’s content on their own websites, in the classroom, or for various arts and crafts projects will foster community involvement and interaction. Making the collections portable via RSS is one potential solution for enabling this user behavior.

Tools and Methods

  • One-on-One Usability Tests
  • Comparative Evaluation
  • Functionality Matrix
  • Persona and Scenario Development
No Comments | Categories: Information Architecture, Usability, User Centered Design, Work
Next »