User Testing: Uncovering usability issues and identifying opportunities for the TruVu 360™ user interface 3 May 2021, 9:33 pm

Client: Ametek/Spectro Scientific, a company providing oil analysis solutions for the world’s largest oil, power generation, mining, and industrial companies.
Project: A usability test with customers using with the TruVu 360 platform.

TruVu 360 is an enterprise fluid intelligence system that streamlines the on-site oil analysis process, allowing managers greater visibility into the effectiveness of their machinery and equipment, leading to more effective decision making. The goal of this study was to identify potential areas of friction within the TruVu 360 experience and suggest opportunities for product optimization.

Methodology: 6 remote, moderated usability studies were conducted with current TruVu 360 customers.

Work for this project:

• Met with the product owner to review and confirm project goals.
• Became familiar with existing TruVu 360 user interface.
• Defined tasks and developed a usability test plan.
• Scheduled 1 hour test sessions with 6 TruVu 360 users, representing a range of customer types.
• Ran remote moderated usability test sessions.
• Analyzed findings across participants.
• Presented recommendations to key stakeholders.

Outcomes: Provided complete documentation of key themes, points of customer confusion or friction, opportunities for improvement, and design recommendations.

Game Design Studio: Engaging teens in designing games that promote perspective taking 3 May 2021, 8:19 pm

Client: EdTogether, a non profit empowering youth with disabilities to thrive in learning and life.
Project: Creation of workshop materials for co-design sessions with teens.

In this after school program at the Boys and Girls Club in Leominster, MA, teens engaged in a series of co-design sessions, designing a game that would allow adults to better understand their unique perspectives.

“Adolescence can be a stressful time. Teens are deeply engaged in identity development, while also working to navigate increasingly demanding academic and social experiences. It is, thus, a critical time to support social and emotional skills like gratitude, resilience, persistence and mindfulness. Game Design Studio is a safe, fun and effective space for teens to deeply engage in social and emotional learning in personal and meaningful ways. As teens play, analyze and design games using STEM competencies, we leverage strategies that fundamentally change the adult-teen relationship. Teens are experts of their own experience – Game Design Studio provides teens with the tools and support they need to be the drivers in their own learning. Our approach is Universally Designed for Learning so that everyone can participate in purposeful, resourceful and strategic ways. We are also working to amplify teen voice.

Teen work products from Game Design Studio can directly inform the development of games that can be scaled to support the social and emotional development of teens all over the world. Game Design Studio can also be used as a supportive context for adults and teens to work collaboratively on school redesign efforts.”

Credit: EdTogether

Methodology: In this project I applied principles from Design Thinking, the LUMA Design Toolkit, and ongoing teaching practice to the inform the development of workshop materials.

Work for this project:

• Ongoing meetings to plan after school workshop sessions.
• Design of workshop materials.
• Occasional facilitation of workshop sessions.
• Proof of concept for web platform containing co-design activities and instructions.

Outcomes: Activity toolkit for empathizing, ideating, and prototyping games that facilitate perspective taking. Proof of concept for hosting activities on a Game Design studio website.

Product Design Road Map: Simplifying the COVID-19 Pooled Testing Experience 3 May 2021, 6:23 pm

Client: Meenta, a COVID-19 testing platform for business-to-business and business-to-consumer use cases.
Project: Expert review and product design roadmap for agile product development process.

This ongoing work supports larger visioning efforts as Meenta pivots from an emergency COVID-19 testing platform to a more sophisticated and flexible business and consumer driven product. Services include design spikes, to be included in upcoming product development sprints and ongoing support of product development efforts as Meenta integrates a UX function into the larger product development process.

Methodology: Expert review of existing site experience from the perspective of individual consumers as well as business administrators, students, and/or employees who are taking part in pooled testing experience.

Work for this project:

• Weekly meetings to prioritize product design roadmap initiatives.
• Ongoing review/documentation of existing site experience, noting points of friction and delight.
• Analysis of other direct and/or indirect competitor experiences.
• Low-fidelity mockups of proposed site modifications.

Outcomes: Ongoing work to increase Meenta’s capacity for onboarding new customers (both B2B and B2C). Proposed modifications target a streamlined dashboard and increased clarity around workflow processes for all user groups.

Site Navigation: Improving findability for a more intuitive reader experience 3 May 2021, 5:47 pm

Client: MIT Sloan Management Review, a research-based magazine and digital platform for business executives published at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Project: Quantitative and qualitative research to inform navigation menu restructuring.

The purpose of this project was to set the goals and priorities for updating MIT Sloan Management Review’s (SMR’s) global site navigation, which included determining areas of focus and guiding the reorganization structure. MIT SMR’s reasons for restructuring the navigation included a desire to improve the user experience, incorporate usability best practices, as well as meet the business goals of the magazine while communicating the dynamism of the website.

Methodology: Mixed method research that included quantitative data collection (with upwards of 1,000 research participants) and qualitative interviews (with current MIT Sloan Management Review readers across the globe).

Work for this project:

• Met with the team to review and confirm project goals.
• Reviewed existing research and documentation.
• Provided guidance on appropriate research methods to address project goals.
• Coordinated a data driven approach towards navigation menu restructuring which included planning and conducting: a stakeholder survey, site survey, open card sort test, closed card sort test/qualitative interviews, and tree testing.
• Synthesized research data and presented recommendations to key stakeholders.
• Provided complete documentation of research data findings and wirefames of the proposed site navigation.

Outcomes: Recommendations and best practices for global, utility, and footer navigation menu restructuring that was based on behavioral research and usability test sessions. Special emphasis was placed on identifying where the existing site structure was effective and where it could be improved, while providing objective guidance on best practices for optimum user experience.

Remote on-boarding: exploratory research on the restaurant POS unboxing and installation experience 3 May 2021, 1:59 am

Client: Toast, a point of Sales platform, providing both hardware and software solutions for restaurant owners.
Project: Qualitative research interviews with customers who recently on-boarded via remote installation.

This research was conducted to uncover opportunities to improve the remote on-boarding experience, allowing customers to become more confident and independent both during and after the installation process. Improving the on-boarding experience for new Toast customers would allow the company to reduce the volume of support interactions, providing more opportunities for growth.

Methodology: 8 remote 45-minute interviews over GoToMeeting, with customers who conducted a remote installation using Toast hardware within the past month.

Work for this project:

• Met with the team to understand key research questions.
• Reviewed existing research and documentation.
• Created the interview guide.
• Coordinated research participants.
• Conducted interviews.
• Synthesized interview data.
• Created a summary deck of research data.

Outcomes: Presentation of thematic insights, detailed findings, and opportunities for a more successful remote installation.