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Author: vlaina

User Study: Berkeley Public Library

User Study: Berkeley Public Library

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Project Description:

A 4-week long, group, class project for “User Experience Research.” The assignment goal was to identify an app, website or service and conduct research to identify problems users might be facing, as well as potential solutions, combining insights from a variety of data sources.

Approach:

My team (Vaibhav Anand, Sida Wang) and I chose to study the website and offerings of the Berkeley Public Library. The Berkeley Public Library (BPL) has been recognized as one of the best public libraries in the United States (CBS SF, 2021) and has a great variety of resources that go well beyond books, newspapers, and workstations with computers and access to Wi-Fi. For example, they have a “tool lending” service which was recently updated to also offer culinary instruments and utensils (SF BAY CA, 2021) with the goal to enhance members’ experiences and renewed interest in cooking and baking because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to study how the impressive work and offerings of the BPL are perceived by the public, especially due to the changes from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We identified three areas we wanted to explore more: (i) activities that can help build a sense of belonging and community, (ii) easiness of accessing the resources BPL offers on their website, and (iii) activities and resources specifically tailored to families. We utilized surveys, interviews with members and staff of the BPL, and online usability testing.

Main Insights:

  1. Even though the BPL is really active and well-resourced, there is limited understanding of what different families need in order to feel connected and a part of the larger community.
    • This includes functions such as spelling correction when searching for book titles, services such as “show and tell” for youth to share the work they did in BPL workshops or reading insights from books they read, redesign of website and expansion of resources that are accessible to neurodivergent community members, and purposeful outreach efforts to connect with community members from a lower socioeconomic background.
  2. Tool lending services and eLearning services (especially for youth) seem to be particularly underutilized.
  3. Events held by BPL are highly rated, but only some of the study participants were aware of them.

If interested to find out more, here is the final slide deck for our project.

App development: Berkeley Community Alliance

App development: Berkeley Community Alliance

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Meaningful Advocacy Online

Project Description:
A semester-long, group, class project for “UX Design & Development:” identifying a problem with multiple stakeholders and creating a digital solution for it.

Approach:
My team (Ashten Bartz & Amrit Daswaney) and I chose to tackle a persistent community problem: bring closer together private citizens, government officials and influencers to support and encourage good and informed activism. Through an iterative process with user feedback on multiple stages, we designed a mobile app that (i) supported networking, (ii) offered educational opportunities, (iii) created a space for respectful discussion, and (iv) incorporated gamification features such as an accountability/rewards system for goal tracking.

Influencers: first prototype

Main insights:
–   Usability & style: Through the multiple iterations and continuous user feedback we managed to design an app that potential users said was meaningful to them and easy to navigate. However, because we tried to design too many features to serve multiple stakeholders in too little time and with inadequate user feedback, we struggled to balance having a modern design with the usability of the interface. Even in our last design iteration it was still clear how functionality, aesthetics and needs always compete for space in the development of an app.
–   Team collaboration: Having a team of collaborators from diverse backgrounds (designer, engineer & researcher) created some challenges, but eventually a very strong and fulfilling product development experience. Our diverse experiences and perspectives allowed us to tackle the problem from many angles and as well as have a richer understanding of the very different needs of our users. This respectful and collaborative teamwork showcased how diverse teams can learn from one another, overcome challenges, and in the process improve a product and a user’s experience.

Influencers: second prototype

Note:
–   Course instructor: Laith Ulaby, User Research director at Udemy

Building a typeface

Building a typeface

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Colorful Communication

Project Description:
A class project for “Interface Aesthetics:” designing a typeface using objects in our environment.

Approach:
I wanted my typeface to be lively and harmonic and chose to work with colored pencils. To offer continuity to my letters, I arranged the pencils based on gradient and then used them cyclically. Rather than using the pencils as lines, I chose to play with the materials and the white space. I used the orientation and points of the pencils to add as much color as possible.

Found type with colored pencils

Main insights:
Striking the right balance between color and functionality is challenging and requires thoughtful design and many iterations. Especially when it comes to the use and utilization of colors, a universal design approach is essential. Unfortunately I didn’t take those constraints into account when I created this project, but hope to do so in future ones.

Note:
My poster is currently being featured in the lobby area of the Information School at UC Berkeley.

Designing for sensemaking and engagement in mathematics

Designing for sensemaking and engagement in mathematics

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Puzzling Proofs

 

Project description:
An ongoing design-based research project that aims to support adolescents’ engagement in authentic epistemic practices in mathematics.

Approach:
With constant feedback from students, educators and learning scientists I aim to design a proving activity that (i) creates opportunities for students to “see” and engage in often invisible mathematical epistemic practices, and (ii) demystifies the process and goals of proofs in mathematics. I have conducted interviews and observational studies with low- and high- tech designs of a puzzle-like proving activity.

Design iterations for “Puzzling Proofs” project

Main insights:
Although research is still ongoing in this project, some of the themes that have emerged so far include:
(i) the influence of materials (i.e. physical paper vs. digital manifestation of papers) and workspace (in-person vs. online) in students’ experiences,
(ii) opportunities for collaboration that have the potential to create more equitable experiences even among students with different degrees of familiarity with mathematical content, and
(iii) drawing parallels between everyday argumentation and argumentation in mathematics that highlights structural similarities in building and supporting arguments can increase learners’ accessibility to mathematical practices.

Notes:
–   Poster presentation: Graduate School of Education Research Day 2018, UC Berkeley (prototype)
–   Poster presentation: Psychology of Mathematics Education Annual Conference 2019, South Africa (pilot study with physical design)
–   Invited talk: Short presentation in “Womxn in Mathematics (WiM)” student group, UC Berkeley

Working with interactive data visualizations

Working with interactive data visualizations

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DataSketch: Supporting Data Visualization Literacy in the Middle Grades

 

Project Description:
This NSF-funded project (award #1350282, PI: Michelle Hoda Wilkerson) aimed to support middle school students’ design and exploration of interactive data visualizations. It involved two interrelated strands: (i) the development and research of a tablet-based tool for students to create sketches and program them to respond to archival data input, and (ii) research on youths’ knowledge and skills needed to create, make sense of, and learn from interactive data visualizations.

Approach:
We used a collaborative-design approach with longitudinal tool interviews with middle school students and repeated input from educators, learning scientists, and designers of educational technologies. We worked with software developers and undergraduate students interested in UX design and computer science to implement changes based on feedback from the various stakeholders for tool use.

First DataSketch prototype

 

Second DataSketch prototype

Main insights:
When developing computational tools for learning, input from potential users should go beyond the design of the tool interface to include and address the diverse needs and goals users might have for using the tool.

Notes:
–   Poster presentation: 2016 Postdoc and Graduate Student Poster Competition, Tufts University.
–   2016 STEM for all Video Showcase: DataSketch: Data-Driven Visualization in Middle School, TERC.
–   Conference presentation: 2017 Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC 2017), Stanford University.
–   Paper presentation: 2019 annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA 2019); For the work presented here I was awarded the 2019 Robert F. Tinker AERA scholarship for innovative student work in the learning sciences and/or advanced technologies in learning.
–   Book chapter (under revision): Learning from “interpretations of innovation” in the co-design of digital tools