Projects Porfolio & Archive

Eportly

Duration: WIP

Role: Product Design, UX Research, UX Design, UI

Overview: 

Eportly is a service application that helps faculty and students to organize and design their E-portfolio. It offers two service options: 

1. Do it yourself. (DIY). The user designs their E-portfolio with the guidance and advising of a designer.

2. Do it for me. The user hires a designer to develop the E-portfolio for them.

Problem: 

An E-portfolio (Education Portfolio) is a digital tool used by faculty and students to support academic achievements by highlighting work from a single course or overall experience. The collection of documents delivered in the Eportfolio allows educators and students to reflect on their teaching and learning process. Students are required to submit Eportfolios for graduate school and internships; and faculty are required to submit an E-portfolio for third-year review, tenure promotion, and position transfer/search. Despite the requirements of E-portfolios used in academia, and the importance of E-portfolios for professional growth, there is limited support for students and faculty to organize and create an E-portfolio.

Research

Research Methods

• Faculty Training and Workshops

  • Eportfolio Faculty Workshop, Xavier University of Louisiana, 2018, 2020-2021

  • Eportfolio Faculty Training, Global Citizens for Campus, Communities, & Careers, Association of American Colleges & Universities, San Antonio, TX, 2019

• Literary Review: News Articles, Google Scholar, JSTOR

• Informal & Formal Discussions/Interviews

• Course Assignment & Student Evaluations

Background Information: 5Ws

What is an E-portfolio?

An E-Portfolio is a collection of work (evidence) in an electronic format that showcases learning and teaching over time. It is a digital space for faculty and students to archive course materials and share their academic achievements with the local and global community. The Eportfolio can be created for individual courses or the gestalt of the individual’s academic experience. 

Who needs an E-portfolio? Why?

Students: The E-portfolio allows students to archive and reflect on their learning process. 

Faculty: The E-portfolio includes specific evidence of  work and reflections for three major areas required in a Faculty E-portfolio:

1. Teaching and educational development.

2. Scholarship and the advancement of knowledge and its applications.

3. Service to the university and the community.

Why an Eportfolio?

• Shows students’ achievements and academic growth.

• Shows faculty teaching and educational development. Scholarship and the advancement of knowledge.

• Shows service to the university and the community.

• Students are required to submit Eportfolios for graduate school and internships. 

• Faculty are required to submit their Eportfolios for annual faculty updates, third-year review, finding a new position, and tenure promotion.

Competitors Analysis

Summary of Competitor Analysis

• University Websites offer information and resources on how to create an e-portfolio.

• Eportfolios can be created in specific LMS products such as Brightspace and Blackboard, however, the systems are slow to upload content, are limited in design, and can not be accessed by the public. 

• Reference to building the Eportfolios in Squarespace or Google assumes the user knows how to use the technology to design an Eportfolio.*

User Research: Faculty

Statistics

Survey and interviews with 30 faculty.

• 16% had created an Eportfolio for professional use.

• 16% had incorporated Eportfolios into a course.

• 56% were open to creating an Eportfolio for professional purposes or incorporating it into a course curriculum.

• 86% stated that lack of time was the main reason for not creating or learning how to create an Eportfolio.
  

Faculty User Persona

Faculty Eportfolio Sitemap

Faculty Eportfolio Examples

User: Student

Makela User Persona

Makela Empathy Map

Makela Journey Map

Makela User Story

Student Eportfolio Examples

Design

Eportly Application Site Map

Eportly Website Site Map

User Flow: Project

User Flow: New Project

Wireframes

Digital Sketches

Wireframes Revise & Clean

Wireframe Components

Branding

Mood Board

Color Selection & Accessibility

Style Guide

Hifi Wireframes

Color Options

Revisions

Component Revisions

Next Steps

• Frames; Purchase, Planning, Message, Learning

• Color and Components

• High Fidelity Prototype

• Test, Evaluate 

• Revise

Artifacts

I Got This

Role: Product Design, UX Research, UX Design, Branding, UI

Overview:

I Got This is a habit app built for users to form good habits through community and motivation.

Background

• 61% of Americans are trying to break unhealthy habits developed during the coronavirus pandemic. 

• Gen Zers and millennials are most impacted by unhealthy pandemic habits, especially related to work-life balance and substance abuse. 22% of Gen Zers cite poor work-life balance, while 20% of millennials cite alcohol struggles.

• Screen time is the most common bad habit that both men and women want to curb.

Survey Results

Competitor Analysis

User: Susan

Site Map and Flow Charts

Wireframes

InterActive Lo-Fi Prototype

Mood Board & Color

Wireframes Revised with Color

UI Color Study

HiFi Prototype I

Hi-Fi Prototype II

Hi-Fi Prototype III

Interactive Prototype III

Pottery Barn

Requirements

Pottery Barn usability research study. The research goals for this study included:

• Ensure that users can readily find home furnishings for their living room (e.g., lamp, chair, rug)

• Confirm that users understand information about these items to make the best selection for their needs.

• Make sure that users can confidently begin the purchase process (i.e., add their selection to cart)

The client wanted to know:

• How well the site is doing on the goals listed above

• Recommendations for how to improve the experience both in the short term and in the long term. 

Script

User: Emily Norton

Emily is a Millennial and falls into the 25-35 age range. She is a Product Manager and lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with a roommate. Emily has her Bachelor of Science and considers herself middle/upper income. She identifies as White, European decent, and does not have an impediment that would create a challenge in viewing and using the Pottery Barn website.

Emily has a high level of technology literacy and use and shops online once a week. She is confident with browsing and shopping online. Her last online purchase was the prior weekend (10/2-10/3). Previous to the test, Emily had not been familiar with purchasing a product from the Pottery Barn website but had made purchases from Wayfair and Ikea.

Emily’s Experience

Emily was asked to select a couch she would like to purchase for her living room. She began her search by hovering over “Furniture” and selecting “Sofa & Sectional Collections” (first on the list) from the drop-down menu. She scrolled down the page to find what she wanted. During this time, Emily had a grin on her face and seemed to be interested and focused on what she was viewing. 

It appeared that Emily was having a difficult time making a decision to select a couch on the “Sofa & Sectional Collections”. She went back to the home page and typed “couch” in the search bar. On the page, Emily had 419 couches to select from. She opened the filters and checked the boxes to select the features she was looking for; namely, size and square arms. During this time, Emily continued to grin and appear interested and focused on finding what she wanted. 

Emily selected a couch from the York square collection but decided to go back and continue her search by using the filter list. Emily finalized her decision; a couch from the Big Sur collection and moved on to select the fabric she wanted for the couch.

Selecting the fabric appeared to be a challenge and Emily clicked on several choices before making a decision. When asked about this during the follow-up, Emily stated that she was confused by the organization of the fabric choices and found it difficult to understand the organizations and differences in the fabric styles. The information regarding the fabric style was provided when clicking the fabric selection, yet the information about the fabric was limited and the text was too small and hard to read. Emily did not use the fabric selection filter.

After Emily selected the fabric, she was ready to check out. Emily had no problem with this process and was able to check out fast and with ease.

Follow-Up Questions

Q. I noticed that when you first began, you chose to hover over “Furniture” and select “Sofa & Sectional Collections”. Why did you choose to make this your first step? 

1. “Sofa & Sectional Collections” was the first thing Emily saw on the list and she thought it was going to take her to a page of couches. She did not realize that she’d be taken to a page that showed the various Pottery Barn couch collections. After scrolling down the page and viewing the different collections, she realized that she wanted to type the word “couch” into the search bar instead to find what she was looking for.

Q. Why did you choose the product you did?

1. Emily wanted a couch that was the right size for her living room. She wanted a couch with wide square arms so that her cat can lay on the arm. When searching for a couch, Emily checked “square arm” in the filter but had a difficult time finding a couch with a square arm wide enough.

Q. What was the hardest part about your process?

1. Selecting the fabric was difficult. Emily was confused by the organization. At first, she looked at the amount of time that an order will take based on the fabric. She saw that one group would take 12 weeks to deliver and decided to go to the other group of fabrics, assuming the delivery date would be faster. She realized that the second group would also take 12 weeks and became confused about the differences in the fabrics. 

The information about the fabric was limited and the text was small and difficult to read. She could order a swatch, but it did not say how long it’d take the swatch to arrive. She was concerned that if the couch would take 12 weeks to deliver, she didn’t want to have to wait longer for a swatch to arrive and then place the order.

Q. What could be done to improve your search experience?

1. The filter can include other features to help find what a person is looking for. The site has a “small spaces” selection, but what does “small spaces” mean? It would have been helpful to be able to choose “wide arm”. 

2. Reorganize the fabric section so it is easier to select the fabric you’re looking for. The needs to be more information about the fabric and the text needs to be larger and easier to see and read.

Key Takeaways: Goals

1. Ensure that users can readily find home furnishings for their living room.

This was achieved after a long search starting at “Sofa & Sectional Collections”, then going back home, typing “couch” in the search bar, and using the filter to locate the couch Emily was looking for. 

2. Confirm that users understand information about these items to make the best selection for their needs.

Emily was able to obtain the information she needed to find the couch she was looking for that best suited her needs, yet she struggled when trying to select the fabric because; 1. The extensive list of fabrics that were not properly organized. 2. Not noticing the “filters” for the fabric. 3. Not be provided with enough information about the fabric. 4. The information provided on the fabric was written in text size that was too small.

3. Make sure that users can confidently begin the purchase process (i.e., add their selection to cart)

There was no problem adding the couch to her cart and making the purchase. This was done in minimal time.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Additional filters should be added to simplify the couch selection.

• Need for better fabric organization to make the fabric selecting process easier.

• The fabric filter button needs to be more obvious to the user. 

• Provide more information about the fabric and increase the type for easier readability.

• Need for shorter delivery time. 12 weeks is too long.

Pulse

Duration: 3-5 days

Brief: Design the Brand Identity for Pulse, an NFT marketplace. 

Pulse is a digital financial app offering banking features, digital assets, and NFTs.

NFTs

Competitors

Ideas

Sketches

Color & Type

Logo Variations

Selected Choices

Tippi

Evaluation & Mockup

UX Research & Design: Shayna T. Blum

Sprint: 3-5-hours

Questions

• Why would hairstylists want to use this app?

• How does the money go in? Does the hairstylist give her phone/iPad to the client?

• Does the client have the app?

• Is the app connected to the main /computer register?

SWOT

User

Interview Notes

“I’d like an app that will let me receive tips directly from the client, not through the salon.”

“I want to be able to reschedule clients from the app.”

“I work long hours and see up to 20 clients a day, The app needs to be easy, simple, and fast.”

“I think the brand should be vintage. The colors should be blue, red, and white to reflect the barber pole.”

User NeedS

Journey Map

Situations the User Wants to Avoid

Journey Map

Situations That Work For the User

Heuristic Evaluation

Complete Product

Heuristic Evaluation

Individual Frames

Sketch

Digital Sketch

Wireframe

Color Options

Wizely.io Work Management System (WMS)

Wizely.io is a work management software that uses a funneling process to increase a business, organization, and individual’s productivity and efficiency. Wizely.io is reliable in reducing waste through data-driven decisions; promoting consistency and collaborative insights.

Scope of Project

Site Map of Wizely.io website

Home Page: Wireframe & Prototype

Selected Project Deliverables

Project: Virtuhouse

Market & UX Research

Duration: 3 Weeks

Overview:

Virtuhouse is a real estate service helping users to relocate by viewing properties virtually. The research examined the market competitors and users; young professionals, recent graduates, and university students.

Project Brainstorm & Organization

User #1

User #1 Location

Why college towns? 

87% of students live off campus.

Owning a property near a university and accepting student renters mean reduced vacancies and competitive rents. 

Renting to University Students

• High Demand: 

  • Many universities and colleges do not offer students four years of housing.

• Higher Rents: 

  • Constant demand for housing. 

• Third Party Payment: 

  • Common for a student attending college to have their rent paid by someone else. Often, parents are the ones who are paying the rent, and they will serve as co-signers on the lease

• Word of Mouth Fills Vacancies: 

  • Students may view certain rental properties as very desirable.

• Satisfied With Less: 

  • Most college students are not looking for the most high-end finishes.

User # 1 Survey

User #1 Market Competitors

Roomrs: This product is similar to Virtuhouse in marketing to students and young professionals. The product is an online rental platform focusing on rentals and rental assistance for university students and young professionals. They offer short-term, flexible leases, individual and roommate rentals, and community.

College Student Apartments: has search tools that help college students find the perfect apartments, houses, roommates, and sublets. With the proprietary Smarter Housing Search, you can find student housing based on the closest distance to campus, best price, and preferred amenities.

Uloop: student marketplace for your college.

College Rentals https://www.collegerentals.com/

Academic Housing https://www.academichousingrentals.com/

Handshake: https://joinhandshake.com/

User #2

User #2 Location: Atlanta, GA

User #2 Market Competitors

Rentberry: An online rental marketplace bringing landlords and tenants together, eliminating the need for real estate agents in the rental niche. This alone has not only sped up the process for both landlords and renters, but also minimized costs and maximized profit for both groups. Landlords and renters can negotiate the rental rate directly, reaching a mutually acceptable rate.

Bungalow: An aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly site, uniquely focused on rentals and roommate location. Like Roomrs, Bungalow provides rental advice and community. https://bungalow.com/ 

Zillo: identifies rentals as a large market opportunity since renters move more often than homeowners and property owners have to spend money on advertising and lease concessions.The network includes Zillow products; Trulia, Hotpads, MyNewPlace, AOL Real Estate, and MSN Real Estate. Industry also listed Zillo as a leader, as well as Apartments.com and Zumper.

Course Revision Brainstorm

XCOR 3010 Design & Technology in Global Culture

Brainstorming and mind mapping is a free-associative process where individuals and teams record ideas through a conscious and subconscious process. Introduced initially through the work of Sigmund Freud, the free-associative process is often understood as a "stream of consciousness," where the mind is capable of thinking freely to form ideas.

As an essential tool for creatives, the free-associative brainstorming and mind mapping process allows thoughts to flow by connecting words or phrases. The visual outcome of a brainstorming session is a chart-like structure of lines and concept nodes linking two or more thoughts: "semantic units," or units of meaning." 

The brainstorming process was used in the initial stages of revising the XCOR 3020 Design & Technology in Global Culture course for online learning.

Selected Dashboard Images

Project Shield

Scenario

The client has had their website (Project Shield https://projectshield.withgoogle.com/landing) up for some time but is not getting the conversion metrics that they had hoped for. There are two types of users that come to the website (Developers + Non-technical visitors). While the site is currently tailored for developers, research has shown that non-technical visitors are tasked with vetting out products like these and the team feels like the site may not be serving this user group in the most ideal way. 

Business Requirements

The website should arm non-technical visitors with the ability to answer fundamental questions such as: 

• What is Project Shield? 

• What will this software do for me? 

• How can this improve protection on my site? 

• Where do I start to get this implemented? 

Answer the following questions: 

• Does the information on the website meet the needs of the non-technical visitor? 

• Do they understand how it works? 

• What expectations do they have after they request access? 

Moderator Script

User

User Test & Interview

Follow-Up Questions

Q. Having gone through the site, do you feel you understand what the product does and how it works?

1. Yes. The support page provided enough information to let the user know how the software will help against a DDoS attack.

Q. When you went to apply for the service, did this make sense to you?

1. Not really, because I got stuck. I was surprised when it asked me for my Gmail account. 

2. I’d like to know more about if I qualify. At the bottom of the Home page, there is a list of who is eligible to use the product, but I’d like to know more. I think I am eligible because of what I do, but I’d like to know about the steps for applying. This looks to be (a site) for someone who is applying; not a site for someone who is looking for more information on why/how to apply.

Q. I noticed that when you began your search, you went directly to the FAQ. What was the reason you chose this as your first step, rather than scroll down the page?

1. I did not know that you could scroll. I did not see anything that would indicate this. I did not see a scroll bar. The hero fit the whole screen. I thought (the edge of the hero) was the end of the screen. I thought it was a splash page and did not know I could scroll down.

Heuristic Evaluation