Mark Thompson-Kolar | Portfolio

Graduate UX Design Project (U-M/Aplia)

As part of a University of Michigan UX/Design project, my team researched user needs, mobile contexts/use cases, and business requirements to develop a prototype learning management site for tablet devices. The full dynamic Axure prototype may be seen at this link. I gained experience in::

• User interviewing and business requirements gathering: Using rapid contextual design methods to interview and observe users and potential users, we developed primary, secondary, and tertiary personas and user scenarios. Discussions with current clients and stakeholders formed business requirements to drive the project.
• Design and dynamic prototyping: The team designed dozens of high-fidelity wireframes that were refined to become a dynamic Axure prototype. It was further refined after user testing and heuristic evaluation.
• User testing: The team conducted user testing sessions, during which potential student users were provided tasks to accomplish and recorded while performing them. Time and success data were collected, along with subjective impressions using a "think-aloud" protocol. Users were recorded with Camtasia.
• Style Guide development: I wrote and designed the Style Guide Deliverable, which provides site brand and formatting guidelines for marketing professionals, content developers, and web designers. Download PDF (1.2 mb).

Please view the full prototype at the Axure Share site (offsite link opens in new window): Aplia Axure Prototype.

University of Michigan School of Public Health Center for Managing Chronic Disease

As a part-time Web Designer at the School of Public Health, I developed dynamic prototypes for section primary pages and program pages on the Center for Managing Chronic Disease web site. Some specifics:

• Information architecture: Breaking information into structured, scannable clear visual hierarchies achieved the redesign goal of presenting more information efficiently in a manner easily scanned by site visitors. I developed the architecture.
• Wireframing and prototyping: I created several high-fidelity Axure wireframes and HTML prototypes to let SPH managers examine the redesigned page mockups without the necessity of any coding.
• Content development: I referenced existing page content and generated additional authentic content to exhibit actual health-related content that the redesigned pages could provide.

Please view the full prototype at the Axure Share site (offsite link opens in new window): SPH Axure Prototype.

Summer 2011 Internship at Fry, Inc. (A MICROS-Retail Company)

I worked in Fry's Product Development Department as part of the User Experience Design Team at the e-commerce services firm's Ann Arbor office. I gained experience in:

• Site wireframing and prototyping: I created hundreds of wireframes, specifications, and prototypes in Axure for proprietary customer-facing and store administration web applications.
• Improving interfaces: Using Basecamp and Axure, I made information architecture changes to improve sites' ease of use. This included several bug fixes and/or enhancements for upcoming releases.
• Quality assurance: Assisted QA team to ensure that interactivity of QA-site or Development-site builds matched wireframes and Axure prototypes.

Summer 2010 Internship @ Cengage Learning

Three existing Cengage Learning web sites I performed remote usability tests on during summer 2010. I also did heuristic evaluations on the sites. (Images courtesy of Cengage Learning)

I worked with the User Experience Department and the Product Management Team at the digital publisher's facility in Farmington Hills, Michigan. I gained experience in:

• Weekly usability testing: Following a form of Steve Krug's "Rocket Surgery Made Easy" testing process, I organized and moderated a remote usability test each week. I discussed goals with product managers and agile team leads, wrote the moderator's guides, recruited three test participants and one backup, invited stakeholders, moderated the sessions, led debrief meetings and ensured that the results documents were available across the company.
• Heuristic evaluations: Using Jakob Nielsen's "10 Heuristics for User Interface Design," I analyzed several Cengage web sites and wrote reports identifing potential usability problems and noting well-designed features.
• Contextual inquiry: I took part in several ethnographic interviews related to potential new product offerings, as well as sessions where interview notes were compiled to create scenarios.
• Ideation: I took part in group ideation discussions to develop ideas for significant changes to two existing products using a conceptual approach applying Peter Morville's user experience honeycomb.

Winter 2011 Usability Evaluation of UM Library Subsite

As part of a semester-long group project, I played a major role evaluating the usability of the University of Michigan Library's Online Journals & Newspapers List subsite. It involved the following:

• User interviews: I scheduled five hourlong interviews with current or potential users, took part in four of them as interviewer or notetaker, led analysis of the results, created an interaction map and wrote the report describing our methods, findings and recommendations.
• Heuristic evaluation: Using Nielsen's heuristics, the team and I examined the site; I wrote the report.
• Comparative evaluation: I compared the Journals List to a dozen competitor sites, researched relevant best practices, created a comparison grid, and wrote the report.
• Survey: I helped determine goals, develop questions, and pilot test a survey of current users, and produce the report.
• Usability tests: I recruited users; crafted the test plan, pre- and post-testing questionnaires, and observer logging forms; determined tasks; moderated sessions while recording them in Camtasia Studio; analyzed results; and wrote the report.