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
Overview
The University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment (SNRE), located on the Ann Arbor campus, seeks to contribute to protecting the environment through education, research, and outreach. In Fall 2006, they sought to research the criteria, implementation, and design of an emergency continuity plan. Working with staff of SNRE, a group of students, the ProActors, worked on identifying the critical factors essential to disaster planning. Through project planning, affinity diagramming, contextual inquiry, and a number of other methodologies we honed in on a several key findings and recommendations.
By respecting the organization and culture of SNRE, we recommended a number of solutions we felt would be easily integrated and adopted by SNRE staff and faculty. We made use of existing personnel and resources in order to minimize the cost and disruption to the organization while still providing a sound and cohesive continuity plan. Additionally, we offered a tier response contingency for varying degrees of severity. These tiers utilized the existing fire marshals, a new call tree, website and email notifications, and onsite communications.
Tools and Methods
- Project Planning
- Contextual Inquiry
- Consolidated Sequence Model
- Physical Model
- Affinity Diagram and Walkthrough
Screenshots
Fall 2007 |
MiTalk Prototype (Optimized for Firefox)
Overview
MiTalk, a product of the University of Michigan, is a university-wide initiative that seeks to provide students online mental health resources and education. As part of a semester-long project, a group of students, the MiTalkers, sought to understand, evaluate, and ultimately recommend solutions for the mental health education modules component of MiTalk.
Project Goals
- Identify and understand the unique user groups of the product.
- Develop a model that ensures the privacy and trust of the user.
- Create an interface that facilitates administrative needs such as tracking completion, user demographics, and feedback.
Solutions
To view the complete project, visit the MiTalkers website (optimized for Firefox.)
- Through contextual inquiries we identified three archetypes: students, student leaders, and administrators. For each of these user groups, we developed personas and scenarios, which highlight their unique needs and goals.
- Pulling from the data collected during contextual inquiries, we identified the key functions of the website.
- Through brainstorming sessions we developed lo-fi prototypes and an information architecture for the website.
- Building on our understanding of the product, we designed and produced a hi-fi protoype using Javascript, XHTML, and CSS.
- Utilizing the hi-fi prototype, we developed and conducted several usability tests with each of the three identified user groups.
- From each of the processes above, we concluded by presenting our findings and recommendations to the client. The deliverables provided by our project are actively being used in the development of the MiTalk website.
Tools and Methods
- Contextual Inquiry
- Personas and Scenarios
- Lo-Fi Protoype
- Hi-Fi Prototype
- Comparative Evaluation
- Usabiity Testing
- Affinity Walkthrough
- Information Flow Diagram
- XHTML, CSS, and Javascript
Screenshots
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
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
