HasinAnik - UX & UI Pathway

[HasinAnik]

Self-Assessment 1:

• Concise overview of things learned. Break it up into Technical Area, Tools, Soft Skills
  • I have learned a lot from my team lead Antony and Saloni. I have a much better understanding of UX and its different components like getting familiar with the product (in this case the STEM-AWAY website), User Research (Empathy and Stockholder map, Persona ), and currently working on the Design (Low Fidelity Prototype: Wireframing).
  • I am also introduced to a Mural website for creating a Persona and a Balsamiq website for Wireframing.
  • I have also learned several soft skills like teamwork by working with the teammates on different occasion like creating stakeholders map,
    -Increased my social skills by interviewing some of the people interested in participating in the interview.
    -Time management to prioritize tasks assigned by the leads.
• Three achievement highlights:
  • Three achievements would be creating an effective Stockholder’s map with the team, a detailed layout of the newly redesigned website for the Steamway’s homepage and some of the linked pages, and conduct interviews to help us with creating Persona, low fidelity prototype and in the future final design of the website.
• List of meetings/ training attended including social team events
  • We met 5 times in the first week, 3 times in the second week covering UX Research, wireframing, and low-fidelity design.
• Goals for the upcoming week.
  • The Goal for this week is to finish the wireframing with the group using the Balsamiq and move to prototype design.
• Detailed statement of tasks done. State each task, hurdles faced if any, and how you solved the hurdle. You need to clearly mark whether the hurdles were solved with the help of training webinars, some help from project leads, or significant help from project leads.
  • Listed the stakeholders for the stakeholder map with the team to see who are our users are and who are we designing it for.
  • Brief redesign of the STEMAWAY website based on what I thought would be personally helpful for me.
  • Created an empathy map by empathizing with different stakeholders using the template provided by the team leads.
  • Initiated interviewing some of my friends and family members to receive some important data that we are using now to create a low fidelity prototype.
  • Using the information from the interviews updated the stockholders’ map and Empathy map.
  • Created a persona on my own. First, it was confusing but our leads helped us to understand by showing an example persona.
  • Created Persona with 2 other group members using the Murals website. 3 of us had to create 2 personas by incorporating components from our individual personas and interviews.
  • Created a detailed structure of the newly redesigned website using the Balsamiq website and utilized all the information from the past research.
• Request change of role if it applies. You may request to become a task lead. Or switch between participant and observer roles.
  • As I am a current participant, I feel very comfortable with the task that I am doing for the UX and I am confident that I will be applicable for a project level lead positions. I have also filled out the Team lead position application for the July session

[HasinAnik]

Self Assessment 2

Second self-assessment:

• Concise overview of things learned. Break it up into Technical Area, Tools, Soft SkillsTechnical Areas: This week we have worked together to finish the low fidelity prototype we
  created. We also started creating a high fidelity prototype. We are currently receiving
  feedback from other UX team members from the survey we posted on the channel. We also
  received feedback from the Debaleena and one of the Full-stack team regarding our low
  fidelity prototype. We keep updating the low-fi prototype to take everyone’s feedback into
  consideration. Within this week, we are most likely going to work on the High-fi prototype.Tools: We are using Balsamiq for the low fidelity prototype and Figma for the high-fidelity
  prototype. We are also using Asana to make sure all of us are on the right track and making
  sure all of us do our part as a team.Soft skills: Some soft skills that I learned this week is to present our work to the audiences and how to answer their questions effectively. I also learned how to ask more direct questions about our work using the survey we created.
• Three achievement highlights:
  • We finished with the low fidelity prototype.
  • Presented our low fidelity prototype to the mentor, Debaleena, and to the Full-Stack team.
  • Got to see what Full-Stack team working on.
• List of meetings/ training attended including social team events
  • I attended a 4 regular meeting and 2 small meetings last week. This week I attended a meeting with the Full-Stack team and I missed today’s meeting for a personal reason.
• Goals for the upcoming week.
  • Get to include everyone’s feedback in our Balsamiq project (For example, more interactive name for the navbars, add more space and pictures, important dates icon more accessible for the users, keeping in mind of the power users when designing the page)
  • Finish the low-fi prototype using Balsamiq.
  • Start working on a High-fi prototype with the team using Figma.
• Tasks done:
  • Worked as a team to create a low fidelity prototype using Balsamiq.
  • Posted the survey for the user testing with our prototype to receive feedback from the teams.
  • We started creating high fidelity prototypes in Figma on our own.
  • Working as a team to include all the feedbacks.

[HasinAnik]

Final Self Assessment:

• Concise overview of things learned. Break it up into Technical Area, Tools, Soft Skills

  • Technical Areas: We learned a detailed overview of UX Research, Designs, interviews, and wireframing. We learned about Empathy map and Stakeholder’s map, which helped us to put ourselves in their shoes to understand our users better and make the website user friendly for them. Interviewing helped us to know them on a personal level and their thinking process when they are using the website. We created personas to have a common user that we are creating or updating the website for. We worked on the Low fidelity prototype using Balsamiq. We also posted the user usability survey on the STEM-AWAY website to have a better understanding of how the power users would like our designs and if any changes that will be useful for them. We are working on a high-fidelity prototype using Figma and looking forward to presenting our work.

  • Tools: We have used several tools after starting the internship. We have done
    the Empathy map, Stakeholder’s map and the Persona using Mural (it was helpful
    for sharing ideas in a post-it format and had a different format for the Personas.).
    We used the Balsamiq for the low fidelity prototype and Figma for the high fidelity
    prototype. Most importantly, we used Asana to make sure we all are doing our part on time.

  • Soft-skills: Some of the soft-skills that I learned are creating user-friendly designs (in this case a website) and the importance of the user’s point of view. I became more comfortable interviewing people and overall increasing my social and communication skills. Working as a group in different tasks like creating Personas, low-fi & High-fi prototype strengthened my teamwork skills and also leadership skills. Also, increased my presentation skills and answering tough questions more effectively. Lastly, collaborated with another Full-stack team.

• Three achievement highlights:

  • We have completed the Stakeholders map, Empathy map, and Personas in Mural.
  • Using the information collected from the interview, we were successful in wireframing and creating a low fidelity prototype using Balsamiq.
  • Working on the high-fidelity prototype and also updating our designs. Thanks for everyone’s feedback.

• List of meetings/ training attended including social team events:

  • On average, we met 4 times per week. Also had special meetings with the mentors and 1 meeting specific to collaborating with a Full-stacks team.

• Goals for the upcoming week:

  • Finish our assigned page.
  • Discuss with a group and come up with a design that will have a similarity between each of our pages.
  • Present our high-fidelity prototype on Friday.

• Tasks are done:

  • During the start of the first week, our team lead went over a detailed overview of UX Research and other components of it. We also started getting ideas on ways to find audiences and understanding them through methods like Empathy map and Stakeholder’s map. Within the second week, we started interviewing audiences from different backgrounds (someone completely new, someone has some experiences and someone who is using the website currently). I interviewed 5 people to get a better understanding of how they feel about the STEM-Away websites and what improvements can we make. We updated the more specific version of the empathy and stakeholder’s map using the information we extracted from the interviews. In 3rd week, I created 2 personas by myself and shared all of our ideas together to come up with 2 personas for a whole team. Later that week, we started working on the Low fidelity prototype on Balsamiq by ourselves to get more comfortable with it. At the start of the 4th week, we were divided into 2 groups. I was part of the homepage. After a discussion as a team with all the participants and the leads, we were successful in creating a low fidelity prototype and posted it on the STEM-Away website including the user usability survey to have a better understanding of how the power users would like our designs. We got great reviews from the survey and helpful feedbacks that have helped us ready for the high fidelity prototype. Currently, we are working on that and just like the low-fi prototype, we were divided into 2 groups. This time I am responsible for the landing pages, specifically General Support page which will contain about us, FAQ, and STEM-Away overall onboarding.