UX: EMPATHIZING WITH OUR USERS

Students in Des 3131: User Experience in Design come from various degree programs, ranging from engineering to journalism to art. That which unites this class is an empathetic design process, one that is focused on identifying the goals of, prototyping solutions for, and evaluating the results with our users. Clients that partner with our class are required to commit to this iterative process and assist with access to real users of their intended designs. The following is a selection of resulting coursework.

Data Collection app (SPRING 2014)

CLIENT: Check & Connect: K-12 student engagement intervention program

Students tested the usability of Check & Connect's current (paper) documentation system and recommend prototypes and features for a new tablet app. This included a heuristic analysis of the existing documentation system, directed storytelling with remotely located users, creating affinity diagrams to identify themes and personas, developing and conducting remote usability testing with wireframes, and writing a recommendations report to support their final interactive prototype.

Final prototype (Max Lindorfer, Ross Neumann, Nicole Tester)

Recommendations report (Max Lindorfer, Ross Neumann, Nicole Tester)

EMS Student & Preceptor Scheduler app (Fall 2012)

CLIENT: FISDAP®: Online tools for EMS & healthcare education

Students engaged in a parallel prototyping project with local educational company, FISDAP, to design an app to help emergency medical service (EMS) students, such as EMTs, keep track of their shifts. The iterative process included a deep dive into the EMS field, contextual inquiry at local community colleges with EMS degrees, wireframing, usability testing, and in-class critiques with UX professionals. 

FISDAP project staff (a developer, content strategist, and user experience designer) shared their existing personas, provided access to the existing web-based Scheduler interface, and participated in numerous in-class feedback sessions to inform the design.

Design process book (Lizz Feldt, Carissa Enevold, Craig Nelson)

Final prototype demo (Mari Mihai, Si Shi, Dylan Zhang)

Improving the UX of Downtown Minneapolis

CLIENT: Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID)

This project charges students with applying what they know about UX to a more spatial problem: the experience of downtown Minneapolis. Students are encouraged to look at the space through the lens of their specific discipline and propose a way to improve the experience (or the perceived experience) for a particular audience (i.e. commuters, tourists, people experiencing homelessness). Students start by conducting photo studies, helping them to identify a particular issue they find compelling. This is a rapid turn-around project, but does include multiple feedback sessions with the client. User feedback is solely the responsibility of the student, due to the individualized nature of the projects.

Walkable Downtown Minneapolis
Final pitch video
Taylor Long, GIS graduate student (Spring 2014)

Informational bus posters
Process portfolio
Corynn Chan, Graphic Design undergraduate (Fall 2013)