Posts by Paul Mirocha

Personas: Student Life website

0 Comments read content strategy
persona experience framework for Kent State University students-Alexis

Research has shown that the non-academic aspects of student life play a huge role in attracting a prospective student, encouraging them to enroll, maintaining a satisfying experience while a student, and loyalty after graduation. The purpose of the Student Life section of the Kent State University website is to support students’ needs and desires outside of class. The Student Life and Campus Safety sections of the site are currently not well organized: a patchwork of links, images, and sections that could do a better job of meeting site visitors’ expectations.

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Mobile app strategy and user flows

0 Comments read mobile app
tumamoca app screen on iphone

Tumamoc Hill is a puzzle: a tiny piece of highly-protected wilderness surrounded by a growing city. Compared it to Central Park in New York, there would be only one path through it, the rest of it off limits, left as much as possible in it’s natural state–before Europeans colonized it.

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Web content strategy analysis

0 Comments read content strategy, Design research
mirocha-currentbyGE-content strategy assessment

The site (hub.currentbyge.com) is meant to be a content hub, a repository for informational articles about the switch to LED lighting. The goal is to promote Current as a thought leader in the field, and to create and track leads. A content hub can become the canonical place to find critical content on a particular topic all in one place. But, to achieve this, the content needs to be organized, structured, and have a consistent curated message.

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Usability presentation: how deeply do people understand the weather?

0 Comments read Information architecture, Usability, User research
Remote usability test slide deck title screen

Everyone talks about the weather–Weather Underground does something about it. Wunderground.com a beautiful weather and climate site absolutely packed with information. The site can be a bit intimidating for a new visitor or someone who is not a weather geek. This usability study looks at the experience of these new users.

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Information architecture for a small town library

0 Comments read Information architecture, User research
New site map used to create the wireframes

Upper-Sandusky Public Library

Project metadata
Project title Design research for a small town public library
Project summary summary
Company/client name  Public Library, Upper-Sandusky, Ohio / Kent State University
Project dates/time frame March-May 2017
Research Interviews, literature review
Deliverables personas, sitemap, wireframes
Tools used Balsamiq, Tree-test & 1st-click test by Optimal Workshop

I did this project in an Information Architecture class at Kent State University.

Project summary

Library sites are complex and small town libraries often don’t have to resources to hire professional designers. The Upper Sandusky Library site had become cluttered over time by the accumulation of new content without a strategy for organizing it. It was difficult for patrons to find information.

I analyzed the information structure of the current site and did a content inventory. Then I did a literature review of research on other library sites and interviewed several librarians. With this input, I designed a new site map, created personas, and tested the new navigation remotely with users. After revising the structure several times based on feedback, I created the wireframes shown in this report.

Analysis of the existing library home page to identify the problem areas.