Kristen_Johanson - UX & UI Pathway

Self Assessment 1:

Things Learned

  • Technical Area: What UX is and its importance, Gestalt principles and their application to UX Design, How to perform quality generative research, Stakeholder lists, Empathy maps, Steps that make for a good interview, How to develop quality personas, The role of prototyping
  • Tools: Balsamiq to create a wireframe for a low-fi prototype, Mural to develop a collaborative persona, Asana for team project management
  • Soft skills: Working solely by remote for a group project, How to make an interviewee feel at ease

Achievement highlights

  • Developed an initial design for the STEM-Away homepage
  • Conducted three interviews for user research
  • Developed a persona for the older person returning to work

Meetings/Training

  • I attended all group events since June 1st except for 6/15/20 but I watched the recording of the meeting. I also sat in on an industry mentor’s sample interview.

Goals for the Upcoming Week

  • Become really familiar with Balsamiq
  • Use Asana effectively
  • Create a wireframe with my group for the STEM-Away homepage’s linked pages

Tasks Done

I developed an initial design for the homepage. It was helpful to see my ideas on paper. I created an empathy map for a visitor to the STEM-away site. I really enjoy trying to put myself in the user’s shoes. I performed three interviews of people looking at and using the STEM-Away homepage. One hurdle was that these interviews were conducted incorrectly, so Saloni and Antony were helpful and offered the chance to sit in on a sample interview done by an industry mentor. I created a user persona of someone returning to work. This one pretty easy for me since I’m in that situation. I appreciate the opportunity to do this internship and Saloni and Antony have been very responsive leaders.

Self Assessment 2:

Things Learned

Technical Area: Developing effective research questions for user feedback, Lo-fi and Hi-fi prototyping

Tools: Balsamiq to create a wireframe for a lo-fi prototype, Mural to develop a collaborative menu bar, Asana for team project management, Google Forms for user surveys, Figma for hi-fi prototyping

Soft skills: Working entirely by remote for a group project, Collaboration with the Full Stack team to share ideas

Achievement highlights

  • Used Google Forms to conduct user surveys
  • Revisions of Login and Sign-up pages
  • Mind Map for STEM-Away site navigation

Meetings/Training

I attended all group meetings including the combined meeting with the Full Stack team on 6/29/20.

Goals for the Upcoming Week

  • Finalize navigation menu bar for homepage
  • Continue to improve Balsamiq skills
  • Continue to use Asana effectively
  • Continue to improve Figma skills
  • Work on converting lo-fi Balsamiq pages to hi-fi Figma pages

Tasks Done

We met with the Full Stack team to discuss ideas on our work so far on the STEM-Away site. I revised the Sign-up and Login pages based on feedback from user surveys and Gestalt Principles. One roadblock was the limited number of user responses for our feedback questions. It would have been nice to work from a larger amount of input. On Mural we used Mind Maps to do a Menu Bar and Navigation brainstorm to solidify the navigation of the STEM-Away site.

Final Self-Assessment

Things Learned

Technical Area: What UX is and its importance, Gestalt principles and their application to UX Design, How to perform quality generative research, Stakeholder lists, Empathy maps, Steps that make for a good interview, How to develop quality personas, Developing effective research questions for user feedback, Lo-fi and Hi-fi prototyping

Tools: Balsamiq to create a wireframe for a lo-fi prototype, Mural to develop a collaborative menu bar, Asana for team project management, Google Forms for user surveys, Figma for hi-fi prototyping

Soft skills: Working entirely by remote for a group project, Collaboration with the Full Stack team to share ideas

Achievement highlights

  • Developed an initial design for the STEM-Away homepage
  • Conducted three interviews for user research
  • Developed a persona for the older person returning to work
  • Lo-fi protopying with Balsamiq
  • Hi-fi protoyping with Figma
  • Used Google Forms to conduct user surveys
  • Revisions of Login and Sign-up pages
  • Mind Map for STEM-Away site navigation

Meetings/Training

I attended all group meetings since June 1st (except for 6/15/20 when I watched the session recording) including the combined meeting with the Full Stack team on 6/29/20. I also sat in on an industry mentor’s sample interview.

Goals for the Upcoming Week

  • Finalize navigation menu bar for homepage
  • Continue to improve Balsamiq skills
  • Continue to use Asana effectively
  • Continue to improve Figma skills
  • Work on converting lo-fi Balsamiq pages to hi-fi Figma pages

Tasks Done

I developed an initial design for the homepage. It was helpful to see my ideas on paper. I created an empathy map for a visitor to the STEM-away site. I really enjoy trying to put myself in the user’s shoes. I performed three interviews of people looking at and using the STEM-Away homepage. I created a user persona of someone returning to work. Our team also met with the Full Stack team to discuss ideas on our work so far on the STEM-Away site. I revised the Sign-up and Login pages based on feedback from user surveys and Gestalt Principles. One roadblock was the limited number of user responses for our feedback questions. It would have been nice to work from a larger amount of input. On Mural we used Mind Maps to do a Menu Bar and Navigation brainstorm to solidify the navigation of the STEM-Away site. Currently I am converting the lo-fi login and sign-up pages from Balsamiq to hi-fi protoypes in Figma.

Thanks so much for this opportunity!