University of Toronto Phase 1

Overview

In 2016, I had the pleasure to work at the University of Toronto for the Faculty of Arts and Science as a UX Designer and QA Analyst. Originally hired to write ETL bash scripts and maintain a Data Warehouse, I pounced on the opportunity to do some initial QA on the website and later help with UX design. I worked extensively with my supervisor to audit the website to find any bugs or inconsistencies with the design and creating a low-fidelity prototype from the requirements gathered from our client. I worked with developers to implement the low-fidelity mockups as we gained more clients and gathered custom requirements for their websites. This later went on to become a templated website a few months later as Phase 2 for the project.

The problem

Due to a lot of developer churn, the departmental website was in poor shape in terms of usability (broken links, elements not having desired functionality etc.) and accessibility. The project was already delayed 9 months, and the client had been anxious to launch for the upcoming calendar year.

The goal was to quickly assess the state of the website, identify major bugs, prioritize them and start fixing them quickly to show improvements on the website to create trust. While that was going on we work with client to gather requirements and identify the scope for new features.

Requirements

This project had a very well defined set of requirements that were gathered before I started. These requirements evolved owing to the time frames and limitations identified as it progressed. Some of the requirements are below

Identify bugs, assign time estimate, and work with the client to prioritize them
Make sure there are no broken links on the website
Create low-fidelity mockups and obtain feedback from clients before implementation of new features
Propose a new information architecture for the website, which is not
Elevate the accessibility for the website to AA before launch

Final Design

I was responsible for creating the low-fidelity mockups for the website, with the new requirements. Also, I led the QA part of its implementation during my time there. Below are some screens from the mockup created.

Takeaways/learnings

This was my first design project, working in a professional environment helped me a lot things about working with developers and clients. Some of the key takeaways were

It usually takes longer than anticipated to implement designs when the technical feasibility is unknown
Testing the implementation of the design is an important step to make sure there are no inconsistencies
Getting to know how the developers work and the limitations of the the technologies being used helps smoothen the design process
Involving stakeholders and/or decision makers early and often is important to shorten design cycles

UofT DWRP Phase 1