UX Designer
Writing Toolkit
Web Product Design
Overview
BACKGROUND
This project will create an online toolkit for new and under-resourced writing program administrators (WPA'S). Hosted on a disciplinary platform, it equips administrators to confidently navigate uncertainties like pandemics and budget changes. The toolkit offers crisis planning, assessment advocacy, outreach strategies, and fosters adaptable writing education programs. It empowers administrators to proactively tackle challenges, streamline solutions, and share best practices across diverse contexts.
PERSONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
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Conducted user interviews
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Designed low-fi and mid-fi prototypes
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Conducted primary and secondary research
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Team presentation and documentation
Project Info
TEAM
Me
Gianna Maihofer
Matt Weaver
Madison Bralie
Greta Sergert
Duration
Fall 2023
≈14 Weeks
Skills
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User Interview
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Sketching
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Wire-framming
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Mid-Fi Prototype
Why are Writing Program Administrators important?
Provide Resources
Supervise
Support
English Department Faculty
Problem Space
How can we propose a web toolkit design that addresses the needs of WPAs, taking into consideration all the resources they currently utilize?
Main Goals
Create a resource that supports WPAs in their current work
Streamline resources to help facilitate crisis management
Increase/improve/facilitate communication between WPAs
Research
We started by studying the National Census of Writing to grasp the roles of writing program administrators, then examined our sponsor's dissertation table to identify challenges, leading us to create a user journey map highlighting current gaps.
User Journey Map
The goal of this user journey map was to highlight gaps in our stakeholders’ journey to help our team further grasp what WPAs do on a given task and in which areas we need to learn more.
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Explored scenario: WPA contacting another WPA, identified gaps in engaging with resources and uncertainties in extending the experience.
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Used insights to develop interview protocol focusing on communication, strengths/weaknesses, and crisis management.
User Journey Map to identify any gaps
Interviews
We first conducted interviews with current WPA's, our goal behind our interviews was to investigate how our stakeholders communicate with other WPAs, navigate challenges, and fulfill their roles while also highlighting current strengths and weaknesses in their current role.
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Goal: Drive our user journey and understand their current process of how they connect and supervise
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Conducting: Throughout our interviews, we inquired about their current communication methods, day-to-day processes, and strategies for overcoming challenges.
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Insights: Our 3 interviewees share similar pain points but have different ways of addressing their needs
Main Takeaways
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No sustainable way of communication between other WPA’s
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There is no one single source that houses all resources for WPAs
Task Analysis
We conducted a task analysis to comprehend how our users currently complete tasks and identify potential pain points in their workflow.
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Main issue: Communication gaps among WPAs.
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Overlapping tasks: Professional development and studying writing and rhetoric.
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Designing questions and identifying gaps in WPA mentorship prompted the creation of our priority matrix workshop.
Mentorship for new WPA’s
Troubleshooting and crisis management
Resources for instructors
All of our tasks were leading back to the main overarching problem
involving communication between WPA’s
Prioritization Matrix
We conducted a prioritization matrix activity with three of our stakeholders WPA's. In this activity we had our stakeholders rank different activities, features, and tasks that we found through our research as high value, high urgency, low urgency, and low value. This allowed us to see the importance of certain features for our prototype.
Me conducting this activity with one of our stakeholders
We color-coded each feature to help easily distinguish how sticky notes of the
same color vary across the chart from both stakeholders
Key Findings
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Quadrant I (High Urgency & High Value):
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Priority features: Crisis Communication Plans, Advocacy, Streamlining resources.
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Emphasizes the need for immediate inclusion in the design.
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Quadrant II (High Urgency & Low Value):
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Urgent but low-value: Troubleshooting one-on-one needs.
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Acknowledged but not prioritized in favor of high-urgency, high-valued aspects.
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Quadrant III (Low Value & Low Urgency):
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Low priority: Explaining programs, external links, FAQ.
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Deemed least important with no immediate implementation needed.
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Quadrant IV (High Value & Low Urgency):
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Valued but not urgent: Communication forum, mentoring tool.
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Recognized as high-value, requiring time for development.
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Creating a Solution
In our first sketch session, inspired by insights from interviews, our team generated ideas, evaluated sketches on Figma, and started wireframing based on design questions and ideas raised by group members
Sketching
Wireframing
Key insights from wireframing:
Our wireframe provided a clear layout and organization for our toolkit website, guiding the placement of buttons and interactive features, addressing potential issues like the inclusion of a sign-in page and incorporating advocacy into the design space, ultimately shaping a well-organized prototype from our ideas.
Sitemap
Initial Prodotypes
We created initial prototypes which we changed based on feedback we
received from our sponsor and data collected in ideation sessions.
Final Prototypes
Final Reflection
Overall we created a website prototype that solves many problems that WPAs face. The main pain points that we created a solution for were:
1. Provide security for users
2. No main method of communication between other WPAs
3. Hard to find new connections
4. Current platforms are unsustainable
We addressed these challenges with a platform facilitating communication among WPAs, fostering connections, enabling resource uploads to assist fellow WPAs with uncertainties, and providing a resource-viewing feature for enhanced knowledge.