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
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
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
Fall 2006 to Spring 2007 |
www.ipl.org
Overview
The Internet Public Library (IPL) is an online public service providing research and reference tools on nearly every conceivable subject. The website offers targeted content for teens and children through separate portals, Teenspace and Kidspace, respectively. I collaborated with the IPL team to update Kidspace education modules, conduct an analysis of the global website, and create and present design concepts for a renewed interface and improved user experience.
Project Goals
- Develop a more cohesive taxonomy, site architecture, and global navigation.
- Strengthen the IPL brand and provide distinct identities for Kidspace and Teenspace.
- Create a cleaner and more appealing aesthetic.
- Update markup and styling to conform with best practices and allow for more efficient maintenance.
Deliverables
- Conducted a comparative evaluation of similar sites in terms of aesthetics, functionality, and usability.
- Evaluated existing taxonomy and site architecture and provided potential solutions and recommendations for further consideration.
- Developed distinct, branded identities for the IPL, Kidspace, and Teenspace.
- Created design concepts for each of the three main sections that offered a global navigation, consistent page layout and aesthetic, and improved section-level navigation.
Screenshots
