ART ABILITIES | Website UI / UX
OVERVIEW
Client Art Abilities, Pacific Grove, CA. A nonprofit offering art education and outreach for neurodiverse students.
Goal Redesign the nonprofit's existing website with a welcoming look and feel in WordPress to allow artists to share their work, make navigation and class registration intuitive, and simplify the client's back-end management.
Duration 1 Year
Website artabilities.org
CONCEPTING & PROTOTYPING
Initial concepting began with a group of design peers, focused on cementing core usability flows like finding and purchasing artwork or making donations. Client interviews informed core ideals promoting the bright color and joy of creativity and highlighting the nonprofit's neurodivergent artists.
With core usability flows established, work began on a Figma prototype depicting a welcoming visual look and feel. The existing brand identity was iterated to adopt a bolder, more legible sans-serif typeface and more vibrant color scheme with a golder yellow and a bluer black. Emphasis was also placed on imagery to highlight students' experiences and artwork.
WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
Building off of the Figma prototype and client usability feedback, a development WordPress website was created to provide a more comprehensive and functional picture of the final experience. Several plugins were introduced and copious page templates were constructed to begin making page building and back-end management more efficient and intuitive for client use.
After client approval of the development site, my design peers left the project. I continued work with the client to expand, launch, and maintain the new site, using external plugins and custom code to build a full e-commerce system for purchasing and registering to classes, an account and forms system for collecting artist information, curated artist and artwork galleries, and more.
DREAM DIAL | Mobile App UI / UX
OVERVIEW
Goal Design, prototype, and test an innovative app concept which solves an everyday problem.
Result Created Dream Dial, a collection of smart timer challenges supporting positive sleep and time management for students, workers, and the general public. Designed a sleek, simple logo and in-depth app prototype for user testing.
Duration 3 Months
HOLDING ON TO HOPE | Wayfinding, Environment
OVERVIEW
Client Holding on to Hope Family Justice Center, Monterey County, CA. An support organization providing abuse victims access to government and community support services.
Goal Based on an existing brand identity, design themed wayfinding and interior graphics which create a welcoming atmosphere and help make victims comfortable navigating an upcoming Family Justice Center location. Photography-based mockups and a physical model were also created to show the wayfinding system in action.
Duration 2 Months
CONCEPTING
Initial brainstorming began with a group of design peers and focused on two parts of the new wayfinding system: individual icons representing the center's many services, and an underlying directional navigation system which these icons connect to.
Key words and concepts for the center included hope, safety, inclusivity and community, so early wayfinding concepts used rounded, friendly forms to avoid threatening messages. Certain icons reflect the center's brand with hands and dandelions, while the wayfinding arrows use the logo's triangular shape to indicate direction. These arrows never point backwards to avoid implying that victims are "stepping backwards" to their past lives.
WAYFINDING SYSTEM
While the service icons and rounded arrow system were cemented early on, many iterations were required for the layout of signage. The final wayfinding system starts at a central sign with triangular "trailheads" for each service. A "path" line extends from each trailhead, leading to the sign for a specific office. Additional signage was also created for roadside and exterior navigation.
Each service icon is also categorized by color. Teal is a calming color for Counseling & Comfort services like court accompaniment and shelter referrals. Blue is trustworthy color for Information & Assistance workshops and document services like filing divorce paperwork and restraining orders. Purple is a luxurious color for amenities like the children's play area, parking, and kitchen.
SHOWSPACE | Mixed Reality App UI / UX
OVERVIEW
Goal Design, prototype, and test a gamified mixed reality app concept which increases students' learning engagement.
Result Created Showspace, an accessible 3D presentation editor allowing students and the general public to physically explore lectures and learning. Designed a modern, colorful logo and small app prototype for user testing.
Duration 2 Months
CONCEPTING
Initial brainstorming began with a group of design peers, using bisociation brainstorming to enhance boring parts of the classroom experience. This sparked the concept of transforming static slides into immersive digital learning worlds for students to explore. Every lecture could be its own interactive field trip adventure, accessible from the scan of a QR code in the comfort of the classroom.
Logo and icon concepting, as well as task flow storyboarding, began early on to cement a fun but modern and polished brand identity along with clear navigation systems and tools to help users learn to explore unfamiliar Mixed Reality environments.
ICON SYSTEM
Perfecting ShowSpace's user experience, both in the physical entrance to digital worlds (the QR codes and user interface) and the digital worlds themselves, was crucial, as the power of the ShowSpace may be lost to users if these areas were not enticing nor easy to navigate.
Each icon seeks to simply but clearly communicate its function, using rounded shapes and curves to appear more friendly. As these icons lie on a toolbar used throughout each presentation, it was also important that they struck the balance between being intuitive enough for frequent while also also minimal enough to not take focus from the larger digital experience.
ADDITIONAL DESIGN | Websites, Apps
