Welcome to my portfolio
University Case StudiesÂ
Project Outline
I have been involved in various case studies during my BSc in Anthropology with a year in Data Analytics. One of the case studies focused on the Anthropology of Business, where I conducted qualitative interviews to explore cultural dynamics and their impact on Business practises. I also conducted a dissertation on personality preferences, examining different traits and their influence on individuals. Additionally, I worked on a quantitative project analysing sea levels using data analytics techniques to understand environmental trends. These case studies have provided me with valuable hands-on experience in applying Anthropological and data analytics knowledge, deepening my understanding of these fields.To access the research projects I conducted during my undergraduate degree, simply click on the pink buttons below.
Dissertation
Is temperament and self described personality traits influenced by word preferences?
To access the research case study I developed during my undergraduate degree in Anthropology, which involved the utilisation of SPSS, please click on the pink button.
Skills:Â
- Research Design
- Primary Research
- Data Collection
- Data Analysis
- Statistical Analysis
- Critical Thinking
- Writing and Communication
- Literature Review
- Time Management
- Problem-Solving
- Interdisciplinary Knowledge
- Adaptability
- Presentation
Anthropology of Business - Qualitative Interview
What is the impact of the relationship between individuals and organisations on organisational values, and how is this influenced by communities of practise?Â
Click the pink button to access the qualitative in-depth interview I conducted as part of my undergraduate degree.
Skills:Â
- Qualitative Research Skills
- Interpretive Analysis
- Primary Research
- Ethnographic Understanding
- Critical Thinking
- Communication Skills
- Empathy and Sensitivity
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Cultural Competence
- Collaboration
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Presentation
Quantitative Group Research Project
Is there a relationship between tide gauge data and greenhouse gases in New Zealand over a decade?
Click the pink button to access the quantitative R project that my partner and I conducted during our year in data analytics.
Skills:Â
- Research Design
- Literature Review
- Secondary Research
- Data Analysis
- Interpretation of Results
- Critical Thinking
- Communication Skills
- Problem-Solving
- Collaboration
- Presentation
Sixth Form Case StudiesÂ
Project Outline
During my time in Sixth Form, I engaged in several case studies as part of my BTech Business and A-Level studies. One notable case study was "Melodies," which focused on analysing the business aspects of the music industry. Additionally, I undertook an Extended Project (EPQ) case study spanning from 2015 to 2016, allowing me to explore a specific topic in-depth and develop valuable research skills. Alongside these projects, I pursued A-Level Media and BTech Applied Science courses, broadening my knowledge in different fields. Through these case studies and courses, I acquired a diverse range of skills and knowledge relevant to Business, Media, and Science. To access the research projects I conducted during my time in sixth form, simply click on the pink buttons below.
Extended Project AS-Level (EPQ)Â
How social media influences the types of bullying younger and older students face?
Click the pink button to access the research case study I created as part of my EPQ project during my studies in Sixth Form.
Skills:Â
- Research Design
- Literature Review
- Primary Research Methods
- Data Analysis
- Critical Thinking
- Communication Skills
- Time Management
- Reflection
- Problem-Solving
- Adaptability
- Presentation
BTech Business Case StudyÂ
Product Case Study
To access the product case study I developed during my BTech Business studies in Sixth Form, simply click on the pink button.
Skills:Â
- Market Research
- Competitor Analysis
- Product Development
- Setting SMART Objectives
- Survey Design
- Data Analysis
- Branding Strategy
- Understanding Consumer Behavior
- Secondary Research
- Identifying Market Trends
- Drawing Conclusions from Research
- Making Recommendations
- Pricing Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Product Line Expansion
UX Design Institute
In February 2022, I enrolled in a UX Design course with UX Design Institute. This course is designed to teach students the fundamentals of UX design and provide them with practical experience in the field. Over the course of the program, I completed 10 modules, each of which covered a different aspect of UX design, including user research, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing.
In addition to the modules, there was a 2-hour exam at the end of the course that tested our knowledge of the concepts covered in the program. The final component of the course was a portfolio that showcased the work we completed throughout the program.
This website serves as my portfolio for the course, where I've documented the projects I worked on during the program. These projects include user research, personas, customer journey maps, sketches, prototypes, and annotations. Through this program, I gained practical experience in UX design and developed the skills necessary to design user-centered products and services.
Brief Video SummaryÂ
UX Design Project Process
I am deeply interested in user research and the valuable insights it can provide into how people interact with products and services. As someone with a background in anthropology and data analytics, I understand the importance of taking a human-centered approach to research, and I believe that user research is an essential tool for creating products and services that meet the needs and expectations of users. I am passionate about using research methods such as user testing, surveys, and interviews to gain a deeper understanding of user behavior, preferences, and needs. I am eager to contribute my skills and knowledge to a team focused on improving user experiences, and I am excited about the opportunity to work on research projects that have a meaningful impact on people's lives.
In these modules, I learned about the importance of research in UX design. I understood that strong, focused research is fundamental to understanding the problems we are trying to solve for users. I was introduced to a range of research techniques, including the core skill of usability testing, as well as methods such as interviewing, card sorting, online surveys, A/B testing, and heuristic evaluation.
Competitve Benchmarking
Utilising competitive benchmarking as a research technique can be highly valuable in gaining knowledge on the successful strategies of your competitors and learning from their mistakes. In this project, analyzing four websites or mobile apps can provide valuable insights to enhance the design of your own website or app.
Skills:
Strategic Planning: Selecting relevant competitors and defining evaluation criteria.
Research: Gathering information about competitors' websites and apps.
Critical Analysis: Evaluating website features, functionality, and user experience.
Attention to Detail: Capturing screenshots and providing detailed commentary.
Synthesis: Consolidating findings into a comprehensive presentation.
Communication: Clearly explaining noteworthy elements and their relevance.
Presentation: Organizing and presenting findings effectively.
Industry Knowledge: Understanding norms and standards within the hotel booking industry.
Problem-Solving: Identifying strengths and weaknesses to inform design decisions.
Adaptability: Being open to new insights and adjusting strategies accordingly.
Online Survey
This task is quite simple. I'll be creating an online survey and sending it out to my friends and colleagues. This way, I can gain a better understanding of what potential customers are looking for. The information I collect will help me make more informed design decisions in the future and will also give me an opportunity to practice analyzing survey data.
Skills:
Research Design -Â Crafting clear objectives and structuring questions to gather relevant insights.
Survey Development - Utilising Google Forms to create an effective questionnaire for data collection.
Data Interpretation - Analysing survey responses to derive meaningful conclusions and identify trends.
Communication skills - Articulating survey questions concisely to ensure participant comprehension.
Problem solving - Addressing potential limitations such as sample size and survey scope.
Time management - Establishing a realistic timeline for survey distribution and data collection.
Adaptability - Leveraging available tools and resources to optimize the survey creation process
Note Taking
As a UX professional, I've come to realize that note-taking is a fundamental skill that is often overlooked. Good notes play a critical role in the research process, helping me to identify key insights that will inform my design decisions later on. This project presents a valuable opportunity for me to develop my note-taking skills, which will be crucial in all subsequent projects. Although I'm free to use any tool I want, it's important to remember that this project is not about design. Therefore, my focus should be on prioritizing my notes and capturing essential information, rather than creating a visually appealing document.
Documentation: Organizing and documenting insights and observations for future reference and projects.
Adaptability: Flexibility in adjusting note-taking strategies based on the context of the usability tests.
Skills:
Attention to Detail: Capturing relevant information and observations during the usability tests.
Active Listening: Paying close attention to participants' goals, behaviors, and interactions.
Critical Thinking: Analyzing the usability test recordings to identify pain points and areas for improvement.
Note-Taking: Recording comprehensive and detailed notes efficiently during the sessions.
Communication: Summarizing and presenting the main points learned from the usability tests effectively.
User Experience (UX) Understanding: Recognizing the significance of usability testing in enhancing the user experience.
Problem-Solving: Identifying issues and suggesting potential solutions based on user feedback.
Usability Test
I strongly believe that usability testing is the most effective and powerful tool at a UX researcher's disposal. It enables us to gain valuable insights directly from the user, providing us with the information necessary to make informed design decisions and ultimately create better products.
In this project, I will learn how to set up, moderate, and record a usability test. Specifically, I will be conducting a comparative usability test with one user, and I plan to supplement this with an interview session to gather even more data.
Through this project, I aim to enhance my skills in conducting usability tests and improve my ability to gather valuable insights from users. Ultimately, the insights and data gathered during this project will be used to make informed design decisions and create more effective and user-friendly products.
Skills:
Research Design: Defining clear research objectives to guide the usability tests.
Recruitment: Using a sample recruitment screener to find suitable participants for the tests.
Interviewing Techniques: Utilising depth interview and usability test scripts effectively during the sessions.
Test Environment Setup: Preparing the test environment for both desktop and mobile devices.
Conducting Usability Tests: Running the sessions smoothly with participants and recording the interactions.
Documentation: Taking detailed notes during the usability tests to capture user feedback and observations.
Video Recording: Recording usability sessions for further analysis and inclusion in the portfolio.
Consent Management: Obtaining consent from participants for using the footage in the portfolio.
Analytical Skills: Analysing the recorded sessions and interview notes to draw meaningful insights.
In these module, I learned the importance of analyzing the research data that I gathered. I learned that analyzing the data was crucial for articulating the problems I was attempting to solve for the user. The module introduced me to several frameworks and techniques that helped me make sense of large volumes of raw data and allowed me to truly understand the problems that needed to be solved.
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Affinty Diagram
Learning how to run an affinity diagram session successfully was an important skill for me as a UX professional. These sessions allowed me to sort through large volumes of data and get to the root of our findings.
For this project, I reviewed all of the research from my previous work and created an affinity diagram to represent what I had learned so far. This work helped me with further analysis and design decisions in the coming projects.
Skills
Research Review: Ability to review qualitative research data and take detailed notes.
Affinity Diagram Creation: Skill in creating an affinity diagram to organize and structure qualitative data effectively.
Collaborative Analysis: Capacity to collaborate with team members or stakeholders to analyze the data and create the diagram.
Problem-Solving: Identifying and addressing issues encountered during the creation of the affinity diagram, such as failed attempts or errors in simplicity.
Adaptability: Readjusting and reassessing the affinity diagram design to improve its effectiveness.
Digital Tools Proficiency: Utilizing digital platforms like Miro for creating the affinity diagram and gaining confidence in using new software.
Hierarchy Establishment: Arranging the clusters into a hierarchical structure to prioritize important themes and patterns.
Critical Thinking: Reflecting on the diagram to identify surprises, patterns, or themes that were not initially noticed.
Decision Making: Using the insights from the affinity diagram to inform future design decisions and recommendations.
Portfolio Development: Showcasing the completed affinity diagram as a demonstration of skills and experience in collaborative analysis and data organisation.
Customer Journey Map
In this module, I learned that creating a customer journey map is a valuable technique for UX design. This project is a great addition to my portfolio and builds on the work I did in the affinity diagram. By creating a journey map, I put even more structure on the analysis of my research data.
I also learned that creating a journey map is not a purely objective process, but rather subjective. There may be gaps between the affinity diagram and the journey map, and I need to use my own judgement to fill those gaps.
Skills:
Research Translation: Ability to translate research data into a structured document, such as a customer journey map.
Document Structuring: Skill in organizing the customer journey map by defining high-level steps and documenting user goals, interactions, pain points, and behaviours.
Problem-Solving: Identifying and addressing issues encountered during the creation of the customer journey map, such as failure in detail or lack of clarity.
Detail Orientation: Recognizing the importance of detailing pain points and behaviours to provide better context to the customer journey.
Visual Design: Selecting appropriate color schemes and visual elements to enhance the clarity and focus of the customer journey map.
Emotional Mapping: Incorporating the map of emotions to provide insights into the user's emotional journey throughout the experience.
Critical Thinking: Evaluating each step of the customer journey to assess whether it was positive or negative and adding relevant customer quotes for context.
Portfolio Development: Showcasing the completed customer journey map as a demonstration of skills and experience in translating research data and understanding user experiences.
Flow Diagram
Now, I am starting to design my website. My main objective is to address the issues I have uncovered during my research, which I have highlighted in my affinity diagram and customer journey map. In this project, I will be defining a high-level flow for the desktop website, focusing on one primary use case. However, before I start designing the screens, it is important that I understand how users will flow through my design.
Skills:
Process Mapping: Ability to map out the high-level booking flow for a hotel website, from the homepage to the payment screen.
Problem-Solving: Addressing issues highlighted in the customer journey map by identifying potential pain points and bottlenecks in the booking process.
Detail Orientation: Ensuring that the flow chart contains enough detail to accurately represent each screen or state and each interaction involved in the booking process.
Sketching: Creating initial sketches of the user flow, with boxes representing screens or states and circles representing interactions, to visualize the flow before digital recreation.
Digital Tools Proficiency: Utilising digital tools such as Sketch, Figma, or Draw.io to recreate the flow chart in a digital format for clarity and accessibility.
User Experience Consideration: Considering the user's journey and experience when designing the flow chart, ensuring that it is intuitive and user-friendly.
Communication: Effectively communicating the booking flow to stakeholders and team members through the flow chart, facilitating understanding and collaboration in upcoming projects.
Iterative Design: Acknowledging failed attempts and refining the flow chart through iterative design processes to achieve the desired outcome.
Interaction Design
In this project, I continued the design process and sketched the screens for the desktop booking process. My case study reflected booking flights, a hotel stay, or a rental car. In subsequent projects, I planned to convert these sketches into a prototype and wireframes. At this stage, I transitioned from understanding and articulating the problem to the solution mode, where I aimed to solve the identified problems.
Iterative Design Process: Embracing an iterative design approach, understanding that initial sketches may require multiple iterations to achieve the desired outcome and functionality.
Attention to Detail: Noting any issues or inconsistencies that arise during the sketching process and addressing them in subsequent iterations to improve the overall flow and usability of the app.
Skills:
User Flow Translation: Ability to translate the flow diagram into a series of screen sketches, considering the user's journey through the desktop website.
Problem-Solving: Addressing issues and user goals identified in research and analysis through the design of each screen, ensuring that the app meets user needs and expectations.
Sketching Proficiency: Utilising sketching as a tool for problem-solving and design exploration, allowing for rapid iteration and refinement of screen designs.
Screen State Consideration: Recognizing the importance of capturing different screen states based on user actions and interactions, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the app's functionality.
Pre-Prototyping Preparation: Recognizing the importance of sketching as a vital step before prototyping or digital wireframing, laying the groundwork for more detailed design iterations in subsequent stages of the project.
Prototype
In this project, I will be creating a medium-fidelity prototype for my desktop app, which is focused on booking a hotel stay. I have already defined much of the solution with my flow diagrams and sketches, and now I will be adding more detail in the form of interactivity, while also learning some powerful tools along the way.
Skills:
Prototyping: Ability to create a medium-fidelity prototype using Figma, demonstrating proficiency in translating design concepts into interactive digital interfaces.
Detail-Oriented Design: Ensuring that the prototype contains sufficient detail in terms of screen layouts, text, and basic interactions to accurately represent the high-level flow of the application.
Interactivity Implementation: Incorporating interactive elements into the prototype to allow for user testing of basic interactions and navigation within the application.
Proficiency in Prototyping Tools: Demonstrating competence in using popular prototyping tools such as Figma to create functional prototypes that simulate the user experience.
Web Export: Successfully exporting the prototype to the web, enabling easy access and testing by stakeholders and potential users.
Portfolio Development: Generating material for the portfolio by showcasing the created prototype as evidence of design and prototyping skills.
User Testing Preparation: Creating a prototype that is ready for user testing, facilitating the evaluation of the high-level flow and usability of the application by potential users.
Collaboration: Collaborating with team members or stakeholders to gather feedback and iterate on the prototype, ensuring alignment with project goals and user needs.
Annotations
As I continue working on my case study for booking a hotel stay, the next step is to create annotations for my desktop app. This involves adding extra details to my sketches and prototype that will provide clarity to the developers tasked with building the final product. By adding annotations, I can ensure that the app is built accurately and to my specifications. This is an important step in the design process, as it helps to bridge the gap between design and development.
Validation and Input Handling: Including details about input fields, validations, and error handling, ensuring that user inputs are properly managed and validated to enhance the overall user experience.
Celebratory Elements: Incorporating celebratory elements such as animated emails for order confirmation, contributing to a positive user experience and reinforcing user actions.
Wireframe Quality: Ensuring that wireframes are of high quality and utility for the development phase, providing developers with all the necessary information to effectively build the application.
Collaboration and Feedback Incorporation: Acknowledging and incorporating feedback received, showing openness to suggestions for improvement and commitment to refining the prototype.
Testability Consideration: Considering the prototype's testability with actual users, recognising the importance of gathering insights into its functionality through user testing.
Skills:
Detailed Annotation: Ability to provide comprehensive annotations detailing each page's functionality, layout, and interactions, ensuring clarity for software developers tasked with building the application.
Understanding User Flow: Demonstrating a deep understanding of the user flow from exploring options to confirming orders, and effectively translating this into annotations for each page of the prototype.
Clarity and Conciseness: Communicating annotations clearly and concisely, ensuring that software developers can easily understand the requirements and implement them accurately.
Review and Reflection: Demonstrating the ability to review and reflect on the prototype's quality and completeness, acknowledging areas of improvement and considering feedback for refinement.
To conclude I will share some of the projects that I'll completed from the UX Design Institute to structure this blog. From this course I hope to have a broader understanding of the user experience field and gain practical skills to help me flourish as a prospective researcher.