CLIENT
User Experience Association
ROLES
Webmaster
COLLABORATORS
Web Sub-Unit
TIMELINE
18 weeks
OVERVIEW
As the Webmaster for UXA, my role involved the development and maintenance of our website. In the span of a week, I was able to quickly learn how to use Framer, the application I used to create and maintain the current UXA website. With my previous knowledge in design and information architecture, I was able to enhance the user experience and visual appeal of the UXA website. Another one of my responsibilities was event / interview documentation. Keeping the website up-to-date and continually developing it, I helped UXA maintain and grow its presence online.
As the face of UXA, we developed a platform from which we can further engage with students that are interested in Human-Computer Interactions academically, socially, and professionally.
CONTEXT
The UXA website was a place for the organization to document their events, interviews, and newsletter articles all in one place. It is a place where we could also inform the UXA community of upcoming events.
Before I joined the team as the second webmaster, I inherited the work that the previous webmaster had established. With the previous webmaster graduating and the school year starting, we needed to get to work maintaining and developing the website right away.
FRAMING
Upon inheriting the website project, I first drew out a site map to wrap my head around the architecture. I used rectangles color coded for each main portion of the site and started laying out a high level diagram of the information architecture.
THE DESIGNED SOLUTION
Navigation Bar
Page Hero
Content
Call to Action
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
IA Chart
WIREFRAME SKETCHES
Sketches
With the web sub-unit, we started honing in on areas of the website that required further iteration.
LO-FI
Low Fidelity
With the web sub-unit, we started honing in on areas of the website that required further iteration.
CONCLUSION AND LESSONS LEARNED
Unique Experience
The work I did with my team for this project was definitely a unique experience. In my previous years I have taken studio style courses that were more architecture focused, so I spent the majority of my time working closely with other architecture students. But in Interaction Design Studio 1, I was given the opportunity to work with students from diverse backgrounds which lead to innovative ideas and unique perspectives.
Critique
And as discussed with my team, we found the critiques to be very helpful and informative. Critique is a form of discussion I am intimately familiar with as it is a large part of studio culture in architecture. There are perspectives that you, the designer, cannot realize until other designers or users tell you.
Collaboration is Critical
Working through the project, I really enjoyed our parallel prototyping sessions. Part of what made architecture or rather design in general a passion of mine is the chance to collaborate with like minded people to create something amazing. I did notice in the beginning we encountered many obstacles, but through proper coordination we were able to overcome these obstacles and realize our goals.