How I design for the Users
Research
To me, research is critical. Not necessarily because the hypothesis that we put together, that is the design, is wrong, but because it’s often incomplete as it is extremely difficult to understand the users completely—what they think what they want, and what they do.
For this reason, I always try to use various methods throughout the design process—from looking at user behavior data, reading up on secondary research reports, auditing and compiling competitive analysis, to conducting surveys and usability testings.
I find solid research fundamental to the success of the immediate outcome but also the agility and nimbleness of a team and its product in the ever-changing digital world.
Generative Research For Crescent
2021, Bloomberg
After releasing the new design system in March 2021, the Crescent team at Bloomberg wanted to understand how the users of the new design system felt about the new system to inform the strategy for the next phase—adoption. We conducted a survey as part of a generative research to inform the next phase for the team—adoption support.
I participated in the designing and analysis of the initial survey, and led the team to create user personas and user journey map.
Usability Testing: the Documentation Page Navigation Pattern design updates
2021, Bloomberg
As new components/patterns are designed, or existing components/patterns are updated, the Crescent team conducts various tests to ensure that the updated designs solve the users’ problems and meet the business’ expectations.
This was a survey study I conducted with the support of a research ops person for an updated design for the existing documentation page navigation pattern.
* Details available upon request.
Discovery Phase Content Strategy and Design Validation
2019–2020, IBM
As part of the effort to modernize IBM.com with the new design system, Carbon, the IBM.com team needed to learn how the existing pages in the discovery phase of the users’ journey were performing.
The team had dedicated researchers, a content strategist, and designers. The team conducted several rounds of usability testing with focus on users’ content consumption behaviors and navigational behaviors on some of the early discovery pages including the learn pages, solution pages, and Products and Solutions ecosystem pages.
* Details available upon request.
