PROCESS

RESEARCH

To start this project, each member of the team focused on a different organization. The task was to understand the current user experience of how a student interacts with online course material. At this time, I started to make notes of what I knew to be pain points (seeing as I had a great deal of time prior to understand the NASM user through other assignments). I was able to capture and catalog every step the user takes in the current experience while also annotating when needed. This would come into play later as we filled out documentation specific to each business.

INTERVIEW

The next step was to get a further understanding of any technical limitations we may encounter as well as confirm any user behaviors. To do so, interviews were conducted with the product team members as well as those in charge of course creation. These interviews and discussions served as a confirmation to what was expected to be user pain points. These interviews also provided a greater understanding of course specific details and requirements that needed to be taken into account when developing for this particular business.

RESEARCH SYNTHESIZATION

After my research findings were complete, I returned to my UX team to present what I had gathered. Once each team member presented their results, we had to find where our individual business units experienced common ground. This could be a pain point, a user goal, a requirement etc. This is where the design started to take its initial shape. Although there was no actual pen to paper designing, the team was able to begin to visualize solutions that would work for each business.

LOW FIDELITY DESIGNS

With our research synthesized, I began an iterative process of wireframing with fellow teammates. We would separate for a few days and return with low fidelity screens and prototypes of what we believed would work for our business unit while also considering the potential needs of others. This process served to show us exactly where our paths diverged, but that wasn’t a bad thing! This gave the team visibility right up to the exact moment when an alternate feature or state had to be used. Due to this, we now had a base course “shell”. We knew how this course would behave and how to interact with it, right out of the box before any business unit added on any bells or whistles.

HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS AND PROTOTYPES

With the flows solidified and content ready to be placed, the next task of the team was to develop a library of reusable assets to be shared across the business units. Does that meant that every course looked the same? Of course not! Thanks to the functionality of Sketch (application), we developed a library based in material design that could be updated to match the brand guidelines of every business unit. This not only meant that the high fidelity prototyping could be done incredibly fast, but it also meant that future courses could be built using the same assets. Each business unit then created their high fidelity version of a sample course, which was then passed off to development.

It’s worth nothing that although our primary objective was completed, we still maintained regular communication with the development team for build updates and further questions as needed.