Jessica Durham, MBA, UXC
CONTENTS
My Design Mind
Sketches & Mobile Designs
of This Website
Design Challenge:
Bakery App
Logo Design
1000 Floor Elevator
Console Design
Redesign of an
Ugly Website with Bad UI
Design
404 Error Message Design
My Design Mind
Human Centered Design
Effective User Research
Creating User Personas
Developing a UX Design
Concept
Prototyping and UX
Feedback
Evaluating Usability
In Basic Terms
For any design problem, I begin by researching. Then I organize and priortize via an user-centric perspective. Next, I brainstorm, then, translate those ideations into pencil and paper sketches . For UI designs, I then develope low-fidelity wireframes, using a softwware tool such as Sketch, Balsamiq, or Figma. I will try on many iterations for size. Once, I've discovered the best fit, I will set to work creating a high-fidelity prototype. Lastly, I test.
I created this chart to demonstrate how I use the Double Diamond Design process.
HATS
THINKING
SIX
This is my favorite thinking tool, which I first learned in my MBA program; but I now find very useful for UX Design.
Click
Click
My Conrnell Portfolio is extensive and detailed. Being new to the world of UX Design, I have included it in its entirety to showcase how much UX Design knowledge and experience I have gained. I did not include every assigment by far or any of the many tools which can be used on the job. I only inlcuded the final project for each course.
to Open Project
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PORTFOLIO
I conducted five Contextual Interviews and was required to submit the raw interview data and interview summaries for three of the five, which I have included in the Word Doc herein. The participants have been anonymized via allocation of a pseudonym and altered identifiers to protect their privacy and confidentiality.
Creating User Personas Project
-
Analyzing User Research Data
-
Analyzing Contextual Data
-
Creating Affinity Diagrams/ Card Sorting
-
Creating User
Requirements
At the end of this course, I demonstrated my knowedge and skills by presenting the attached project which scored the highest marks and recieved positive feedback from my instructor and peers.
Within this course, I engaged in quite a bit of peer collaboration to not only produce top-notch personas, but Affinity Diagrams, and User Requirements as well.
Effective User Research Project
Click to Open Project
-
Planning and Conducting User
Research
-
Developing a Contextual
Interview Plan
-
Developing the Contextual
Interview Protocol
-
Conducting a Contextual
Interview
Click
In this course, I learned the essentials of Effective User Reserch, and I got a 100% on my final project which highlights my newfound User Research skills.
Human Centered Design Project
-
Formulating an Innovative Concept for an Interactive Technology to Meet Human Needs
-
Distinguishing Between Good and Bad Design
-
Evaluating Usability and User Experience
-
Ideating a Project to Apply the Human-Centered Design Process
-
Preparing a List of Ethical Considerations When Interacting with Your User
Group
In this course, I learned the fundamentals of Human Centered Design and submitted a final project showcasing my sklillset, which I received a perfect score on and have included below.
Click
to Open Project
to Open Project
Click
Click
to Open Project
_PNG.png)
I created this persona card to go alongside the user persona I created for the above project. It was not required, I simply wanted to challenge myself and showcase my newfound skillset.
SKETCHES & MOBILE DESIGNS OF THIS WEBSITE
Developing a UX Design Concept Project
-
Sketching Ideas to Explore the Design Space
-
Defining Tasks
-
Capturing User Feedback
-
Creating a Design Concept
-
Storyboarding
-
Developing a User Interface Concept
-
Information Architecture
-
Wireframing
-
Designing for the
User's Mental
Model
Prototyping and UX Feedback Project
-
Conducting Heuristic Evaluation
Below is a silent short of a low-fi interactive prototype that I developed from an original UX Design concept.
Testing Usability Project
-
Creating a Usability Test Plan
-
Developing a Usability Testing Script
-
Running a Usability Test
-
Evaluating Usability Testing Metrics Data
-
Reporting on Evaluation Results
Click
Click
Click
to Open Project
to Open Project
to Open Project
Home Page
It was important for my portfolio website to have mobile capacity with good design. Thus, I designed each webpage with a mobile compatibility design.
.jpg)
First, I researched to determine what should be included in a top-notch UX Portfolio. Then I brainstormed and began sketching ideas that excited me. The homepage took a lot of graphic and vsual design work and several iterations before reaching the final version.My goal was to create something original, but simultaneously showcase that I can fit right in as a UXer. I aimed for good navigation and color scheme with a visually appealing interface and clean layout based upon Information Architecture a Gestalt Principles.
About Me Page
.jpg)
Like the homepage, the About Me page is a single frame design. Thus, it was not difficult to draft a mobile design. I simply had to rearrange the image and text columns from a horizontal to a vertical view.
I use sticky notes to notate changes or ideas that I make along the way.
For the final version of the About Me page, I added colorful abstract circles for a modern design which draws the eye to the photo and to the text. The design also symbolizes my bubbly personality and creative nature. The circles remind me of children's blowing bubbles which embue joy and imagination.
UX Design Portfolio Page
Designing a mobile portfolio presented a design challenge, because my portfolio is extensive. Rather than comprome on design, quality, or detail, I decided to offer a website portfolio and a PDF version.
Contact/Resume Page
I wanted this to be a single frame page with a simple layout and obvious calls to action for viewing my resume and leaving me a message.
I was also presented with the perfect opportunity for designing and creating a "Contact Me" page with a submittable form. The horizontally designed webpage was easy to convert into a vertical mobile design.
Unicorn vs. The World Page
This design was inspired by graphic novels and aims to provide a fun format for sharing my design style and where I fit in as a UX Designer.
My Books Page
This design was inspired by book stores and book shelf displays. I also included links to purchase.
Other Design Creations Page
I created this page to showcase a few of my other design creations. It was fairly starightforeward to convert the webpage design to a mobile design.
What does any of this have to do with UX Design, you might ask? For me, I not only pactice design principles and processes when it comes to UX/UI design. I live it! I am an artist/ creator by nature and the process comes natural to me. No matter what design creation I'm working on, I research, empathize, ideate, develope, and test.
This also was a golden opportunity to design a photo slideshow.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Bakery App
I created this mock-up for the landing page of a website for a made-up bakery. The challenge I gave myself was to design the page and produce a static Figma prototype in 60 minutes.
First, I took 5 minutes to research existing bakery apps to see what others are already doing and to get answers to questions I had, such as, "What information needs to be included?" I took another 5 minutes to sketch a design idea. Then I worked in Fimga for 40 minutes, creating this UI design. Next, I tested the design by taking another 5 minutes to garner user feedback. I used my remaining 5 minutes to quickly improve the design based upon the feedback I received. I did come back later and replaced the logo placeholder with the logo you see now. Please see my logo design process below.
UI Design for 1000 Floor Elevator Console
DESIGN CHALLENGE: To design an elevator console for a 1000 floor building in 60 minutes.
I started by pulling up craigslist. Then I rapidly brainstormed ways to organize and streamline this cluttered and non-user-friendly UI. I applied affordances via metaphors and used basic UI design principles toward my design concept. I was able to produce this low-fidelty wirefame, from start to finish, in about 10 minues.
Redesign of an Ugly Website with Bad UI Design
craigslist.org
Craigslist Current Landing Page
.png)
Redesign
The design challenge I gave myself here was to redesign Craigslist in as little time as I could via a pencil and paper sketch with post-it note ideas attached.
Within this course, I gained the skillset needed to develop a successful UX design concept. which I demonstrated via the final project, attached below.
Logo Design
I desigend this logo for the made up bakery above.
While I love developing a UX Design Concept from start to finish, my favorite part is creating journey map comic strips and empathy maps.
I took an initial 5 minutes to research to discover answers to questions I had, such as, "What is the highest traveling elevator?" and "How tall is the Empire State Building; and how many elevators does it have?" Since the record goes to a mine shift that transports passengers 7,000 feet (700 floors), and the Empire State Building has 103 floors and 73 elevators, I decided to design a console for 1 of at least 80 elevators that travels back and forth from the ground floor to the 700th floor. I quickly sketched what a floor plan for this might look like (immediate left). Then I spent 45 minutes in Figma designing this static prototype for a digital touchscreen console (far left).. I tested the design by taking another few minutes to obtain user feedback. Lastly, I took 5-10 minutes to improve the design.
I developed this Balsmamiq mid-fi prototype as an assignment for my UX Prototyping and Feedback course. It is based upon an orignal UX design concept for an app to assist patients with maintaining compliance with their healthcare treatment plans.
*Balsamiq project link available upon request
Within this course, I learned all about low-fi, mid-fi, and hi-fi prototyping, which I showcase in my final project attached below.
I developed this hi-fi interactive prototype in Figma as part of the final project for my UX Prototyping and Feedback course, as described above.
*Figma project link available upon request
Click images to open in a separate doc.
Click images to open in a separate doc.
404 Error Message Design
_PNG.png)
DESIGN CHALLENGE: Design a 404 Error Message in Figma in less than an hour.
I had a lot of fun creating this design! This idea popped right into my head. I created the graphic design of the dryer and sock monster in about 45 minutes via Adobe Photoshop. Then it took me about 30 minutes more to create this completed design in Figma. I didn't make it in less than an hour, but I think the extra 15 minutes of work was well worth the outcome. I have received many positive responses on this design.
Thank you!
© 2021 Created by Jessica Durham