User Experience
User-centered approach ensures that every design decision is grounded in a deep understanding of specific audiences and their unique needs. By applying genre-appropriate formats and considering the context of use, I mastered evaluating experiences that are intuitive and effective. I learned skills that critically engage with research methods to ensure ethical, inclusive, and insightful outcomes.
User design is an element of technical communications that is so deeply overlooked but can captivate an audience. Netflix’s “skip intro” button is a great example of how feedback can change a user’s whole experience on a website. However, the presentation of how easily navigable your website is will also make or break potential clientele.
I teamed up with my hairdresser to figure out what her booking website was missing. She felt like the website was good enough but could use a more personalized experience.
When I conducted the usability test, we focused on several things: how welcoming the website is, how easily an appointment can be booked, and how helpful finding information was. I made our tester go through several steps to figure out what changes could be made.
We concluded that we needed to make the website more welcoming by adding more personality to the page or simplifying the options. It was also found that descriptions of services would have helped significantly. Also, to attract a better clientele base we need to strengthen branding.
Public-facing websites are the first impression that newcomers/researchers look for information about degrees. ASU’s College of Professional Studies website was like every other college’s but lacked something to set it apart. It was difficult to navigate, and some information felt thrown in when you clicked on a degree.
I decided to display my technical editing skills in the use of chunking, reducing wordiness, grammar, and layout.
This was also the first project with a live customer to learn about teamwork and how to collaborate with the consumer of a product. I was extremely nervous as I was just handed the information due to having people cancel on me.
I conducted specialized research on how other departments laid their information out and mirrored that while also reducing redundant information that may turn candidates away.