Kavya - UX & UI Pathway

Self Assessment 1:

Technical Skills: So far, this internship has given me the opportunity to learn brand new skills that apply my previous knowledge. I have learned how to wireframe pages and make better sitemaps to accommodate the user’s preference. I’ve also learned how to gather research and apply that towards creating Personas to aid empathizing with a target group for which we are designing for.

Tools: In learning these technical skills, I also came to understand the tools we used to apply those skills. Design platforms like Mural and Basalmiq were a slight challenge to feel comfortable with, but after playing around with the interface and creating the personas or wireframes, I felt comfortable and confident in using it more. We’ve also begun to use Asana as a management tool for tasks. While I have not had much time to get a feel for it, I have seen the layout and believe I will be able to get used to it as it is similar to other management tools I have used in the past.

Soft Skills: Through conducting the interviews, I learned how to improve my interpersonal skills with others by asking the interview questions and gathering information from our stakeholder genres. I’ve also gained valuable insight into collaborating within a team on projects especially regarding communication about tasks and thoughts. The tasks and learning aspect have helped me gain a better grasp of managing my own time with the work I have as I collaborate. Creating Personas was a huge help in gaining that knowledge and ability to empathize with individuals or target groups one may not necessarily know that well.

3 Highlights:
Since the beginning of the internship, I have conducted many interviews which were a new experience for me. For my first time, I was able to conduct numerous interviews and gather the information that I could apply to the personas we created later on.
I also learned how to create an empathy map using the information we gathered from the interviews.
Another highlight was designing the low fidelity prototypes and sitemaps that implemented the design principles we learned earlier on.

List of Meetings: 6/1-6/5 & 6/8-6/9 & 6/11-6/12 & 6/15-6/16 (All meetings) + Extra interview example meeting 6/12

In the upcoming week, I would like to complete the wireframe for the additional pages with my task group and collaborate with the group creating the homepage wireframe to ensure similarity and consistency with certain aspects. I would like to maintain the workflow and productivity and even improve it, if possible.

Tasks Done:

First, I created an empathy map of a chosen stakeholder: Undergrad/ High school student. Initially, I was unsure about the mindset and how to be general to empathize with the all students, but after using the links and examples provided, I was able to create one to the best of my ability.
I also conducted numerous interviews after creating a list of questions to gather information from different types of stakeholders, mostly students.
I then used the information from the interviews to re-evaluate my empathy map and to create a stakeholder map.
The interview information also helped when I created the personas with my team. Initially, the information I had included was too general but after meeting with our leads, I learned how we could improve our personas to be easier to empathize with for the project. We remade the persona as a team using the new knowledge we had and I also felt that it was easier to understand the direction that a person was supposed to take.
Following this line of tasks, I created a simple sitemap and wireframe of the main site pages using Basalmiq that embodied the main elements that we were looking to improve. It was difficult initially to implement certain design elements, but after revisiting some information pages on Gestalts principles provided earlier on, I was able to complete my wireframe with ease.

Self Assessment 2:

Technical Skills: Using the pages we wireframed, we made a low fidelity design that could be sent out for usability testing. We also began using Figma to create our initial High Fidelity Designs. After making our first design to get to know the tool, we learned how to better improve our designs from the feedback from our initial usability test of the wireframe.

Tools: Our Low Fidelity was made using Basalmiq, which became easier to use after creating multiple pages. We also began creating our High Fidelity Design using Figma. As a new tool, the interface was slightly intimidating, but the videos provided by our leads helped me get through the hurdles of navigating and creating a design.

Soft Skills: In sending out our usability test survey, the interviews we conducted early on helped me think of more specific target questions to get better feedback on the Low Fidelity design. Working in groups continually has also continued to help me develop a sense of initiative and communication towards the task at hand.

3 Highlights:
I felt accomplished in being able to collaborate for a working Lo-Fi design with the pages we discussed for our sitemap. We also created a survey for usability testing using Google Forms and sent it out to gather feedback. Finally, I played around in Figma by creating an initial Hi-Fi design for the pages in the wireframe.

List of Meetings: 6/16, 6/19, 6/22, 6/23 (All meetings) + 2 small group meetings -> 6/17-6/18

In the upcoming week, I would like to complete the revisions of the wireframe using the first round of feedback from the usability testing. I would also like to begin/complete the Hi-Fi design based on those improvements and secondary rounds of usability testing.

Tasks Done:

I collaborated with my group to create a Lo-Fi design in Basalmiq that had the main pages of the sitemap we created. After this, I also collaborated in creating a google survey for the usability test of the wireframe. While this survey was out, I played around in Figma to get a feel of the interface and refresh my knowledge of Gestalts principles, since I wanted to use these principles to enhance the final prototype.

Self Assessment 3:

Technical Skills: Continuing our work on Balsamiq to wireframe a better design, we also jumped back into Mural to plan and organize a mind map to help better understand the flow and structure of the STEM Away site and how we were going to change it.

Tools: Our mindmap is being made in Mural, but we are continuing to use Figma and Balsamiq more and more. Asana is another tool we’ve been using for a while to organize and maintain our tasks as a group.

Soft Skills: Having a collaboration call with the Full Stack Team was a great insight to the interwoven aspects of the different virtual internships. It was also good practice into explaining our progress to another team who has not been there with us throughout our thinking process, so we could answer questions and help them understand the choices we made.

3 Highlights:
I felt accomplished in being able to collaborate for a working Lo-Fi design with the pages we discussed for our sitemap. We also created a survey for usability testing using Google Forms and sent it out to gather feedback. Finally, I played around in Figma by creating an initial Hi-Fi design for the pages in the wireframe.

List of Meetings: 6/20-6/24, 6/27-6/28 (All meetings)

In the upcoming week, I would like to have a better understanding of the flow we are trying to achieve with the navigation on the homepage and improve the wireframe designs further with the feedback from the Full Stack team and the first round of usability testing.

Tasks Done:

I played around on Balsamiq more to work on adding in suggestions and considerations from discussion to some of the wireframe pages. I also have continued to get a feel of Figma to have a better idea of how we would go about the HiFi design. At first, I did not think the testing and feedback stages would be this long a process, but I understand why it needs to be in order to have a better end result that is usable and appealing to all.

Final Self Assessment

Technical Skills: From the beginning to now, I have learned many fundamental aspects of UX Research & Design. I learned how to create wireframes from pages, sitemaps to understand the flow, and how to gather information through empathy maps and personas for empathizing with our stakeholders. Just as we wireframed for the Low Fidelity design, we designed for the High Fidelity Prototype. I also learned how to create a usability test to gather feedback on the Lo-Fi Design to make the Hi-Fi Design. I also learned how to better understand and organize the prototype by understanding the structure and flow from a mind map of the site.

Tools: Basalmiq was used to develop the Lo-Fi Design. Mural was used to develop the Personas, sitemap, and Mind maps. We used Figma as the platform to create a Hi-Fi design. Asana is the management tool we have been using to organize and keep track of the tasks that need to done by different groups and people.

Soft Skills: Conducting interviews has helped me learn more and improve my interpersonal skills. Collaborating throughout this entire five-week period has taught me a significant amount on communication and initiative. I have especially been able to develop a better sense of managing my workflow and responsibility for tasks. Creating Personas helped me work on my ability to empathize with individuals or target groups I may not necessarily know that well.

3 Highlights:
Conducting interviews with various people was an exciting process of gathering information and insight from many different types of stakeholders.
Creating personas was a new experience, especially as someone who is not the best at empathizing with audiences that are different from what I know.
Creating a Lo-Fi design for usability testing was especially enjoyable because I was able to collaborate and creating a working prototype we could send out for testing and feedback.

Attendance: All meetings + extra interview demonstration + 2 side meetings with smaller groups

Goals for the upcoming week: I hope to finish the High Fidelity Design so we can get feedback and adjust as necessary.

Tasks:

  • I created an empathy map of a chosen stakeholder: Undergrad/ High school student. Initially, I was unsure about the mindset and how to be general to empathize with the all students, but after using the links and examples provided, I was able to create one to the best of my ability.
  • I also conducted numerous interviews after creating a list of questions to gather information from different types of stakeholders, mostly students.
    I then used the information from the interviews to re-evaluate my empathy map and to create a stakeholder map.
  • The information from the interviews was used to create personas based on said stakeholders. I learned how we could improve our personas to be easier to empathize with for the project. We remade the persona as a team using the new knowledge we had and I also felt that it was easier to understand the direction that a person was supposed to take.
  • I created a simple sitemap and wireframe of the main site pages using Basalmiq that embodied the main elements that we were looking to improve. It was difficult initially to implement certain design elements, but after revisiting some information pages on Gestalts principles provided earlier on, I was able to complete my wireframe with ease.
    - I collaborated to create a working LoFi prototype by designing a virtual internships page and a few other side pages.
  • I also helped create a usability test form on Google Forms to gather feedback on the prototype.
  • I collaborated to develop the button pages on the Hi-Fi Design in Figma