Bits & Pieces
These are bits of projects and single deliverables that show some process thinking.
Users: You Can't Always Get What You Want
But designers need to try. Talking to users about what they want and need is essential for designing personas. Here, users wanted to find documents, but were frustrated with both Google search and government sites. This formed the basis for our design direction.
Search word relationships
While watching users type search words into the search box, I noticed that people almost always started with two words that were meant as an exact phrase, like “copper mine”, “climate change”, or “water quality”. But the system did not read it that way.
What's it like to review a usability test?
This was an early prototype with known problems, and several concepts the developers wanted to test with users. So I expected problems for her to find. This 2.5 minute video snippet shows how densely packed with insights one usability interview can become.
EMIGRA: Being Fair to Migrating Species
The team was busy writing the grant proposal so they literally gave me a folder of 21 peer-reviewed science papers to read and said, “make a website out of this.” There’s no collaboration, but there’s always a creative process.
What Exactly is an Arduino?
That’s one of the problems throughout the site: it takes a bit of work to find out what each thingamajig, gizmo, widget, or doohickey does. Could information architecture help?
Site Audit: It's not going to be Pretty
It’s part of the creative process: culling out the bad ideas and the ROT (redundant, outdated, or trivial content) that always accumulates over time. First you have to find them.
Ordering Pizza: The Movie
Users expect a ordering pizza to be convenient, fast, and easier than the legacy late night phone call. This makes improving usability a major competitive strategy for the business. But, is it always simpler to order online?
Batting Practice with an iPad
If school kids like baseball, will they also like the math and physics of baseball? The Science of Baseball project thought so—if you make it a game. Real-world design is about learning from failure and moving forward.