Is that… Comic Sans?

Hi, and welcome! My name is Jah’rel, and yes, my profile picture illustrates how I look anytime I encounter that monstrosity of a typeface. I’m a 3rd year undergrad studying Human-Computer Interaction and an aspiring UI/UX designer with an affinity for aesthetics. The idea of contributing users’ digital experiences while aiming to maximize the joy they feel while using products excites me. Passionate about the relationship between humans and technology, one day I want to be able to share my learned experience with the world by making technology more accessible to underrepresented and underserved minority communities.

Proactive about seeking work experience, I’ve found many opportunities though on campus organizations such as Innovative Design and BARE magazine. While working as the lead designer for BARE, the premiere fashion and lifestyle publication, I able to showcase my design skills on print, which was a started out as a learning experience for me designing for print can differs from creating digital interfaces. My experience also comes from being a web developer on Innovative Design, producing pro bono work for on campus organizations. An example of my work with InnoD includes revamping the entire scheduler application for Computer Science mentors, and tutoring service for computer science students on campus.

On my free time, you catch me finding new shows and movies to watch, attending classical music events, or exploring new places!

Design Manifesto

The beauty of design is it’s subjective and curious nature — everyone has their own approach to design, and I believe there is no right or wrong way of discovering your individual design process. Here you can find some key points that I’ve learned overtime and things I keep in mind when I approach my design process:

Always think about the user:

When Designing, it’s easy for me to get carried away and make decisions on a basis of personal preference, however this can be problematic in many ways. Sometimes the user may want  or need something that you deem unnecessary, however, at the end of the day you aren’t designing the product solely for yourself. I think the goal of designing for users is to make them happy and retain their engagement with the final product. Always prioritize the user’s needs before practicing your creative liberty.

Build Empathy:

I think this is an important step when designing. Before one can implement or prototype, they should seek out what it is their users want and need. Lay out user profiles and find out what it is they think, feel, say, and do. You can’t design a program or come up with a solution without know WHO you’re designing  for. This point was very important to me in every module that we’ve done in class.

Brainstorm then coalesce: 

When working in a group I find it most helpful to brainstorm individually and then converge with teammates later on to aggregate ideas and narrow how you would like to approach a problem or solution. I found this particularly helpful in the need finding stage for each module. Brainstorming individually and then coming together is helpful because it allows us to think outside of the box from multiple perspectives, and it allows everyone to make a contribution.

Be open to criticism:

Remember how I said design was subjective? Something I design and a solution I come up with may look good and seem perfect to me, but someone else may have issues with it. What works for me may not work for someone else, and I think that it is important to keep this in mind. Being open to criticism and feedback not only makes you a better designer by gaining a multilateral insight to approaching things, it allows you to make changes to make changes that you may not have though about and may be vital in improving a final product. This process was especially helpful at the end of each module and allowed me to make a meaningfully reflection.

Reflect:

I believe reflection is a necessary step with any project you take on. This allows room to learn from any mistakes and take in any critiques you receive in order to implement changes accordingly. In this stage, I ask myself the following questions: what went wrong? What changes can I make? What would I have done differently? What worked? What didn’t work? [The list goes on]

 

[Design Document] Helping Tides

Idea:

My team decided to focus on volunteer opportunities for environmental preservation. This was a topic that was very relevant to us, and quite frankly to the the rest of the world. 

Target Audience (Users): 

• Looking for volunteering opp 
• In/out of school 
• People looking for volunteers (Non-profits)

• What do you do personally to protect the environment, if anything?
• Do you volunteer? How often?
• What would help you participate in environmental preservation?
• Where do you look for opportunities to volunteer now?
• What are some things you look for when looking for volunteer events? 
• Who are the people you like to volunteer with?
• Who do you usually volunteer with? 
• Walk us through your experiences when volunteering to help the environment
• What are some pain points when you look for volunteer opportunities?
• Is there anything about the volunteering experience itself that you would like to see improved?
• How do you find out about ways to protect the environment in general?
• What influences your decision to participate in a volunteer event versus another?
• Tell me about a time where you enjoyed a volunteer activity. What made it enjoyable?
• Tell me about the last time you volunteered. What did you like/dislike about the experience?

Wilson Wang’s Interview:

• What do you do personally to protect the environment, if anything?
  • I work on separate my recycling and compost from trash.
• Do you volunteer? How often?
  • Yes. I volunteer about twice a month.
• What would help you participate in environmental preservation?
  • Probably an easy and efficient way to find opportunities, sign up, and have instructions to easily get to that location for helping.
• Where do you look for opportunities to volunteer now?
  • Online mainly, there are a bunch of websites to look at.
• What are some things you look for when looking for volunteer events? 
  • Location, the cause
• Who are the people you like to volunteer with?
  • Friends or people in my community
• Who do you usually volunteer with? 
  • People in that community
• Walk us through your experiences when volunteering to help the environment
  • The bay area is not too focused on this area of volunteering so it’s often hard to find specific opportunities in one place on the internet. I think most of the time, it really depends on luck and patience.
• What are some pain points when you look for volunteer opportunities?
  • The vast amount of opportunities is overwhelming and sometimes, all these websites don’t have the right opportunity for me. Also a lot of websites are very poorly formatted and it’s hard to use the website. I also wish that it’s easier to keep consistency with volunteer groups. It can help with making friends.
• Is there anything about the volunteering experience itself that you would like to see improved?
  • Not really. As long as there is good leadership, the NPO will be fine.
• How do you find out about ways to protect the environment in general?
  • Online, mainly through the news.
• What influences your decision to participate in a volunteer event versus another?
  • Name of NPO, the location and people I will be volunteering with
• Tell me about a time where you enjoyed a volunteer activity. What made it enjoyable?
  • I really enjoyed helping with a non-profit called Berkeley Food and Housing project. The people were so nice and caring. I really enjoyed the entire experience, from finding the event in 2 web searches to learn about the do’s and don’ts of volunteering.
• Tell me about the last time you volunteered. What did you like/dislike about the experience?
  • The last time I volunteered was in the city for a non-profit called Lavamae. I really liked the cause, but disliked the lack of organization at the site. I think a lot of people were confused by the lack of information on the website.

My Interview:

• What do you do personally to protect the environment, if anything?
  • I usually invest reusable products that I know will last long, In the event that I need to buy any utensils or whatever I need, I’m sure to buy things that are compostable/biodegradable. I always sort my waste, and I usually keep my sorority sisters accountable for throwing items in the wrong bin such as landfill items in the recycling bin. 
• Do you volunteer? How often?
  • Yes, my sorority likes to stay pretty environmentally conscious, and we host a lot of philanthropy events in our community. In addition, I volunteer about 4 times a month with calpirg
• What would help you participate in environmental preservation? 
  • I think having an efficient system that allows people to be aware of things that are going on, such as community cleanups, awareness on local trash buildup, fundraising events, stuff like that would be really beneficial 
• Where do you look for opportunities to volunteer now?
  • I have a few friends in calpirg who share different things going on
• What are some things you look for when looking for volunteer events? 
  • I usually look to see whether the event is accessible and will be productive. 
• Who are the people you like to volunteer with?
  • I like volunteering with anyone who wants to make a change! The cool thing is that a lot of the girls in my sorority are very proactive about being environmentally conscious, so it’s nice to volunteer with them. 
• Who do you usually volunteer with? 
  • A few girls in my sorority usually
• Walk us through your experiences when volunteering to help the environment
  • I guess I can talk about one volunteering experience I’ve had. This was a beach cleanup I found on a facebook page once, I can’t quite remember which one, but I signed up through a google form and they emailed me the details. They really stressed punctuality which is something that I appreciated. Everything was organized and the organizers had equipment ready to distribute to everyone. The cleanup itself was a smooth process and was fun to do with my friends. We were assigned different spots at the beach to clean and were instructed to take before and after pics so that the organizers can post on their page. Overall, the experience was good. 
• What are some pain points when you look for volunteer opportunities?
  • What I look for is usually good leadership and organization. I like showing up to events where everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do. This makes the flow more efficient and enjoyable for sure. 
• Is there anything about the volunteering experience itself that you would like to see improved? 
  • About that particular experience, no. 
• How do you find out about ways to protect the environment in general?
  • I usually find out about different opportunities online like on facebook for the most part because I follow a lot of different pages. Other than that, I also hear about different opportunities through friends. 
• What influences your decision to participate in a volunteer event versus another?
  • Honestly I’ve never had an issue of multiple events coinciding. If I were to make a decision, I guess it would have to be a matter of online presence — how organized the event looks, time, location, etc. 
• Tell me about a time where you enjoyed a volunteer activity. What made it enjoyable?
  • The beach experience lol. I really enjoyed the people. Everyone had a positive attitude and it was a great way to meet others who care about the environment. I definitely like the community aspect in volunteering, and I wish there were more outlets to find stuff like that 
• Tell me about the last time you volunteered. What did you like/dislike about the experience?
  • The last time I volunteered was flyering and getting people to sign up for my friend’s save the bees campaign through calpirg on campus, which was fine because I met a lot of nice people who cared about the cause, but there were also a lot of people who were standoffish or just didn’t care. I wish there were more ways to entice people to stay active and caught up on this type of stuff. 

Ashley Nguyen’s Interview:

• What do you do personally to protect the environment, if anything?
  • He leads a Co-op who’s focus is to create a just and inclusive transition to renewable energy by enabling everyone to own and shape our energy future
• How much time do you put into the co-op?
  • It’s his full-time job. So he is constantly working on this project. He feels like some processes can be automated or that he is wasting time on processes because the technology hasn’t been built out yet. 
• What would help you get others to participate in your co-op?
  • The co-op is growing slowly which is good because the system they have right now is not sustainable for a larger scale. But when they get to that stage they want to be able to get the word out on many mediums so that eventually most people will be able to own their electricity 
• Where do you look for opportunities to volunteer now?
  • Currently, they are looking for locals to get involved in the co-op. Most people learn about the co-op by word of mouth. Sometimes they’ll invite local residents to a meet up so that they can learn more about the co-op and ask questions. 
• What are some things you look for in people joining the co-op? 
  • They are open to anyone who fits the requirements. Normally, it’s a long term commitment
• Who are the people you like to volunteer with?
  • n/a
• Who do you usually volunteer with? 
  • n/a
• Walk us through the process of onboarding a new member to the co-op?
  • They collect basic contact information from the person interested and then there are other legal papers they need to fill out to officially be part of the co-op. They can be a person that provides a place for solar panel or someone that wants to invest into it.
• What are some pain points when you look for volunteer opportunities?
  • The onboarding process is all on paper once they need more specific question. Scheduling for that can be difficult and manually inputting information can be cumbersome when we get a lot of people at one time. A lot is about 20 at a time. 
• Is there anything about the process you would like to see improved?
  • Automation. Easier for him and his co-lead
• What influenced your decision to create a co-op for this area?
  • Passionate about people owning their own power. It gives them more say over what happens to it. Big companies like PG&E can’t choose to deprive users of electricity whenever they want like what has been happening recently. 
• Tell me about a time where you enjoyed a volunteer activity. What made it enjoyable?
  • Loves to meet new people passionate about the mission as much as he is. 
• Tell me about the last time you volunteered. What did you like/dislike about the 
  • n/a

1. User needs to be able to find reputable environmental volunteering initiatives easily through a good, functioning, user friendly platform.
2. User needs to be able to join initiatives that are organized, so those initiatives need a better platform for organization.
3. User needs to be able to find a way to easily connect with old friends and opportunities in their area.

1. How might we create a tool that allows for people to easily find legitimate volunteer initiatives in their area?
2. How might we make people more likely to want to participate in volunteer events?
3. How might we bring out the social aspect of volunteer events to allow volunteers to maintain connections?

1. User needs an onboarding process that will be more efficient and quicker for the new members
2. User needs a way to be able to onboard many people with as little work possible. 
3. User needs a way to reach out to the community of individuals that would be interested in joining the Co-op

1. How might we create a tool that speeds up the onboarding process?
2. How might we allow organizations to easily onboard many people with little effort?
3. How might we allow organizations to reach out to more people who would be interested in the mission?

1. The user needs to be able to join initiatives that are organized — everyone needs to know what they are doing, and the facilitators of the events need to be knowledgeable with solutions to problems. Having a collective platform with flushed out information on volunteering opportunities is a necessity. 
2. The user needs a platform that is social and where everyone has a positive attitude. This makes the experience more fulfilling and is a good opportunity to make new friends. 
3. Accessibility is necessary for the user. She needs to be able to easily access events on the platform, and needs the application to be easy to use. 

1.  How might we build a sense of community for our users in the process of volunteering. 
2.  How might we maximize communication between event organizers and volunteers to ensure everything goes smoothly and as planned. 
3. How might we maximize accessibility for all users in creating a seamless user flow

1. Sign Up Form
   1. What would you change?
   2. What is one thing you enjoyed about the process of filling out this form?
   3. What is one thing that frustrated you about the process of filling out this form?
2. Finding a Project
   1. How long would you continue tapping ‘retry’ if you didn’t get a result you wanted?
   2. [IF THEY DID NOT TAP RETRY] Why didn’t you tap retry?
   3. What if your results looked like this instead [SHOW ORIGINAL VERSION]?
3. Application to Apply to Project
   1. Do the fields of the application allow you to give the most information you want to give?
   2. What other questions would you want to answer? (As a Volunteer)
   3. What other questions would you want to answer? (As an Organization Owner)

Usability Test 1:

1. Sign Up Form
   1. What would you change?
      1. Maybe add some recommended interests to help with choosing interests.
      2. [About the One Page Signup]: There is a lot of information on this one form and that’s very overwhelming.
   2. What is one thing you enjoyed about the process of filling out this form?
      1. It was nicely sectioned off.
      2. [About the One Page Signup]: I liked having to see all the things I have to do.
   3. What is one thing that frustrated you about the process of filling out this form?
      1. I wish there was a progress bar to see how much is left.
      2. [About the One Page Signup]: Scrolling was very inconvenient while filling out the form.
2. Finding a Project
   1. How long would you continue tapping ‘retry’ if you didn’t get a result you wanted?
      1. Maybe a minute longer.
   2. [IF THEY DID NOT TAP RETRY] Why didn’t you tap retry?
      1. The results were fine. I wanted to try something new.
   3. What if your results looked like this instead [SHOW ORIGINAL VERSION]?
      1. I like having more choice in my volunteer opportunities. If there were more options, it would probably be pretty overwhelming though.
3. Application to Apply to Project
   1. Do the fields of the application allow you to give the most information you want to give?
      1. I think that the fields are pretty good. I understand the decision to only include 3, but I think you should add some examples of what to write for more guidance.
   2. What other questions would you want to answer? (As a Volunteer)
      1. I feel like the describe relevant experience is too broad. Can you make it multiple sections?
   3. What other questions would you want to answer? (As an Organization Owner)
      1. Have you had any criminal history?
      2. Have you applied to one of our events before?

Usability Test 2: 

1. Sign Up Form
   • What would you change?
     1. Interviewee wishes there were options that she can choose from for the interests instead of a free form input.
     2. Wonders if there is a way to save the progress in case they want to take a break. 
   • What is one thing you enjoyed about the process of filling out this form?
     1. Likes the multistep form. 
     2. Less overwhelming 
     3. Likes to be able to see the progress of the form and how much is left.
   • What is one thing that frustrates you about the process of filling out this form?
     1. Not knowing what type of interests and skills are necessary or the interviewee thinks is necessary to put it on their profile. 
2. Finding a Project
   • How long would you continue tapping ‘retry’ if you didn’t get a result you wanted?
     1. They would tap till they find the one that interests them the most or until they get tired.
     2. Wished they could go back to previous projects
   • [IF THEY DID NOT TAP RETRY] Why didn’t you tap retry?
     1. n/a
   • What if your results looked like this instead [SHOW ORIGINAL VERSION]?
     1. Likes this a lot more because then they can see it all at once and not lose their history.
3. Application to Apply to Project
   • Do the fields of the application allow you to give the most information you want to give?
     1. The basic information is covered. 
     2. Sometimes for different projects specific skills are necessary and being able to customize the application would be helpful on the organization side.
     3. Need to confirm the applicant can commit to the time when applying
   • What other questions would you want to answer? (As a Volunteer)
     1. Asking for more specific questions regarding the project. Way of adding experience without making it free form. Aka using a fill in experience form. 
   • What other questions would you want to answer? (As an Organization Owner)
     1. Commitments 
     2. Information verification
        1. Criminal 
     3. Legal documents

Usability test 3

1. Sign Up Form
   1. What would you change?
      1. wouldn’t change anything, likes the fact that you can include your interests and build a profile that is catered to you this makes the platform seem more personal. 
   2. What is one thing you enjoyed about the process of filling out this form?
      1. liked how easy it was. had no complications going through the sign up process, and again liked the fact that you can add your personal skills and 
   3. What is one thing that frustrated you about the process of filling out this form?
      1. Didn’t really find anything frustrating about filling out the form 
2. Finding a Project
   1. How long would you continue tapping ‘retry’ if you didn’t get a result you wanted?
      1. Would keep trying until they got tired. can see how this process would be tedious and a little frustrating if you kept having to click retry to find the suitable result. 
   2. [IF THEY DID NOT TAP RETRY] Why didn’t you tap retry?
      1. N/A
   3. What if your results looked like this instead [SHOW ORIGINAL VERSION]?
      1. would be more practical 
3. Application to Apply to Project
   1. Do the fields of the application allow you to give the most information you want to give?
      1. most of the basic information is covered 
      2. would be better if there were more fields so that whoever is reading the application can gain a more holistic review 
   2. What other questions would you want to answer? (As a Volunteer)
      1. not sure, would would want to answer fun questions so that you can feel more connected to the organizers 
   3. What other questions would you want to answer? (As an Organization Owner)
      1. criminal records/history 
      2. compatibility working with other people from different backgrounds 
      3. identity verification and legal documentation 

Onboarding: 

• [H4 Consistency and Standards] Forgot your Password and Create account should be blue to represent a link and not just text. Boldness does not help with creating distinctions. [S1]
• [H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] Maybe some more spacing? It looks a little cramped. [S1]

• [H4 Consistency and Standards] Asterisks should be red [S1]
• [H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] Maybe some more spacing? It looks a little cramped. [S1]

• [H10 Help and Documentation] There are no examples of skills to help users. [S3]
• [H5 Error Prevention] No prevention of incorrect values. You can type whatever text you want. [S2]

• [H4 Consistency and Standards] Asterisks should be red [S1]

• [H4 Consistency and Standards] Question marks for help are hard to see. [S1]

• [H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] For a confirmation screen, there is a lot of text. Maybe make it less consistent (add variability to allow for distinct sections clearly) [S1]

User Dashboard: 

Profile and Browse: 

• [H3 User control and freedom] There should be a button to change the view of how the projects are listed. I.e. a button to switch between card and list view
• [H5 Error prevention] Specify what the user should type in the search bar so that they correctly populate the projects they want. 

• [H4 Consistency And Standards] Changing the type of input of skills to a multichoice input would give the user more direction in the type of skills they can choose from instead of making it free form 
• [H9 Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors] adding a validation error message to each input incase the type of input the user gives is not valid

• [H2 Match between system and the real world] Making it more obvious that the user should not click or apply to the already filled projects 
• [H8 Aesthetic And Minimalist design] Making it easier to read All spots filled 

 

Overall Lessons and Takeaways

Overall, I found this class useful as it introduced me to a plethora of methods for design, and I feel I have a more firm grasp of interactive design processes. I learned to look at things from a different angle and it was interesting being able to work with different people to need find and come up with multiple solutions.I value the feedback received from both instructors and peers, and it has definitely made me a better design thinker.  I will definitely take a lot of the lessons I’ve learned in this class and implement them in both my research and work experience. Thank you! <3