Goal
Interview current users using the soft-launched Black Board application through the My Phoenix student portal. Gather and present the insights along with suggestions and next steps for C-suite executives. Our purpose was to determine if the application could be released as a solution across all of the University of Phoenix.
Interview current users using the soft-launched Black Board application through the My Phoenix student portal. Gather and present the insights along with suggestions and next steps for C-suite executives. Our purpose was to determine if the application could be released as a solution across all of the University of Phoenix.
Role
I was the lead visual designer on this project and one of the UX researchers.* I took all the key research that we, as a team, synthesized and made it into an easily digestible, aesthetically pleasing slide deck. This slide deck was presented by the VP of Experience.
*My formal position at University of Phoenix was: UX Designer. However, my vast design skillsets were utilized in many ways inside and outside of UX work during my tenure.
Product & Team Information
Designed in Adobe Illustrator. Tested in a state-of-the-art on-site testing lab.
I was the lead visual designer on this project and one of the UX researchers.* I took all the key research that we, as a team, synthesized and made it into an easily digestible, aesthetically pleasing slide deck. This slide deck was presented by the VP of Experience.
*My formal position at University of Phoenix was: UX Designer. However, my vast design skillsets were utilized in many ways inside and outside of UX work during my tenure.
Product & Team Information
Designed in Adobe Illustrator. Tested in a state-of-the-art on-site testing lab.
At the University of Phoenix, the UX team had the unique privilege of having a state-of-the-art user research and design lab. The lab had a collection of rooms that housed state-of-the-art tech to assist the team in making the most user-friendly solutions. There, we could use rooms that had floor-to-ceiling whiteboards to draw and brainstorm ideas. Multiple monitors where we could share our solutions. Both of these things helped when we used the lab for user testing. We could use one of the monitors to watch the camera looking at the user's facial reactions and another monitor to watch what they were doing on the desktop screen. We could use the whiteboard walls to record the most valued feedback we found from each test.
The lab had the most advanced technology to watch and test users. We have three testing rooms that were designed to collect the most information from the users. They had multiple cameras and microphones, one-way windows, and multiple types of desktops, tablets, and phones to conduct the tests on.
The team consisted of three UX designers and three full-time UX researchers. Despite having a full-time research team, the UX design team often did tests on their own. In one of the most rigorous testing cycles, the UX team tested 15 users in two-hour individual testing cycles over the course of three weeks.
After our research was completed, we would share our results and findings with the company. Having advanced skills in infographics, I would often turn the results into quick, easy-to-understand, eye-catching infographics. They made such a statement about the company that I was quickly being approached by higher leadership to create company-wide infographic presentations for any and all data sets. These infographics were shared through presentations or displayed on walls.
Ironically, infographic creation and UX design have a lot of things in common. The users and the viewers are both trying to accomplish a goal quickly and efficiently to get to the desired end result. In infographics, this means that the graphics need to be clear, easy to read, and quick to consume. Viewers should be able to easily understand the data displayed without any sense that they are solving a puzzle. It needs to be a quick, concise read that will give them the information they are looking for.
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For this project specifically, the research team, along with myself, were tasked to interview and user test current users who were given a beta-test or soft-launched version of BlackBoard inside the MyPhoenix student portal. Students were working 75% of the time on the Blackboard application, working with classmates, submitting assignments, and communicating with instructors. Our purpose was to determine if the application could be released as a solution across all of the University of Phoenix. After multiple rounds of interviews and testing, it was determined that Blackboard was not a user-friendly solution. I created this presentation on the team's behalf for the VP of Experience to present to the C-suite executives. This presentation showed our findings and emphasized that we did not recommend moving forward with launching the software across the university until many issues were fixed.
