CHALLENGE 
The initial version of this service was created as a master’s project by a member of my development team. It was decided that it would be adopted as an official Kent State application. However, since the service was developed by a single person in a short time-frame without a lot of input, I felt it was prudent to get user feedback before and make adjustments before a university-wide release. 

TEAM 
UX team: myself and two others
Development team: myself (manager), two developers, one designer 

MY ROLE 
I was manager of the development team and an equal participant on the UX team. 

ACTIVITIES PERFORMED 
The UX team worked together to develop and distribute two preliminary user feedback surveys. 
I used the responses to create a requirements analysis to steer usability testing. 
I conducted the usability tests in the Kent State University Usability Lab, which was equipped with eye tracking software and recording capabilities while my teammates and the primary developer observed from another room.
I led brainstorming and ideation sessions and collaborated on wireframes and structure planning. The development team took it from there while I returned to the role of art director and supervisor.

Note: I find it valuable to involve people who are not part of the UX team to be part of the process. Being told there may be an issue and witnessing a user stumble through a process inform the developer in very different ways.

CHALLENGE 
Carnation City Mall was struggling. There were not enough customers and stores were shutting down. They wished to redesign their web presence to attract more customers and businesses. This was a class assignment based on a real issue. 

TEAM 
UX team: myself and four others 

MY ROLE 
Per instructions, each team member was independently responsible for every part of the research and planning (competitor analysis, blueprints, wireframes, strategy document with recommendations). We then came together to compare notes and rework deliverables as a team to create a final report with recommendations.

I created all of the visuals shown here.

ACTIVITIES PERFORMED 
Each of us was responsible for conducting research in the form of a competitor analysis and literature review. 
We then made recommendations and presented them through a blueprint diagram and a series of wireframes. 
The team compiled our work into a final report and slideshow presentation. 

The competitor analysis reviewed websites for purpose, content, structure, labels, navigation, and layout to look for trends among competitors.

Note: I began this style of blueprint in the late 90s. This is how I like to think about websites due to their non linear nature, however, these diagrams can sometimes be time consuming to create so I often use a standard flow.

CHALLENGE 
Because not everyone has access to a usability lab, we wanted to perform a usability test on-site. The purpose of this test was to determine how user friendly and practical a touchscreen radio is in an automobile. Specifically, we tested the touchscreen interface used in Volkswagen models. 

TEAM 
UX team: myself and one other

MY ROLE 
We collaborated on every aspect of preparing and executing these tests. 

ACTIVITIES PERFORMED 
We determined about twelve typical interactions a driver may perform on their car radio. 
We recruited ten participants with no prior experience with this particular touchscreen radio and borrowed a vehicle from a local dealership. 
Prior to beginning the test, we asked participants a number of questions to determine their comfort level for driving and for using touchscreen technologies. We then asked each participant to perform these tasks (In a parked car) while we timed them and recorded the number of steps they took to complete each of them. We also had a video camera set up in the backseat to record the hand movements and audio for each participant. 
We followed up each test with a second set of questions to determine how they felt about using the touchscreen. 

We determined the fewest number of steps each task should take to complete, then reviewed the quantitative and qualitative data we had collected. Participants struggled to perform many of these basic tasks.

CHALLENGE 
I chose to tackle a UX problem in the physical, not digital world. The purpose of this study was to determine the primary issues around grocery shopping with children and some steps parents or grocery stores might take to make shopping with children less stressful. 

MY ROLE 
This was an individual assignment. 

ACTIVITIES PERFORMED 
I began with a few initial driving questions and assumptions then employed the following research methods: a literature review, observational/contextual research, parent interviews, and shadowing a family while they shopped. 

To devise a solution, I analyzed the research, brainstormed and conceptualized ideas, then refined one of them. 

One issue that I had was that my parent volunteers needed to reschedule the shadowing time. My concepts had already been viewable online and I was concerned the information would be tainted. As feared, the parents came prepared with one of my ideas, a visual shopping list to involve their child in the shopping experience. 

Instead of scrapping the whole trip, I adapted. I used the shadowing experience as a proof of concept for that solution. As it turned out, the visual list did help keep their child engaged during the shopping trip. 

Note: If I were to do this project again, I would include an interview with the store manager. 

We were assigned multiple “Design Challenges” for my Human Information Interaction course. We were given specific problems that we needed to solve, typically with an “anything goes” approach. 

PICTURED
Reinvent the kitchen timer. I devised an analog and digital solution. The analog version has pull chains to set the timer and the digital version has straightforward buttons and display. Both have visual indicators for the passing of time but not much else. The goal was to keep it simple. 

Imagine a “super bookmark” for library patrons to save their information. I assumed that not all library patrons would have their own tablets, so my solution was a device that would stay at the library with a key fob that would stay with the patron. Information would only be saved to the key. The size and sturdiness of the device, and the one way only key, were designed with children and less tech-savvy patrons in mind.

Devise a method to track a specific activity in your life. At the time, I was feeling that frequent distractions at work were affecting my performance, so I devised a method to covertly track interruptions with a simple start and stop timer disguised as a pen.

Reinvent the conference badge. I came up with a digital solution that fed users information with a combination of a mini display and a smart watch.

Tea Kettle Web Gallery. We were asked to design a search and display feature for a website gallery of tea kettles.

MY ROLE 

These were independent projects. 

ACTIVITIES PERFORMED 

I was responsible for all aspects of these projects, including any research, brainstorming, and design execution. 

Note: These are here as much for the sketches as they are for the ideation. While I know my way around design software and I have an iPad/Apple Pencil, I still typically prefer to start with paper and pen/pencil.