I believe that design should be a series of well-informed, intentional decisions towards an outcome. Good UX design can only be possible if it's grounded in research insights from real users, and a well thought-out strategy with defined outcomes. My approach is inspired largely by Jesse James Garrett's The Elements of User Experience, Jeff Gothelf's Lean UX, and Joshua Seiden's Outcomes over Output.
I leverage a hybrid Lean/Agile and User-Centered Design process to maximize the return on investment of the initial research and planning stages ,and minimize rework and overhead to ultimately create products with value for users.
I aim to empower all cross-functional team members to become active participants in the design process and define success outcomes as a team.
Discover -During this stage the team collects existing or new user research (typically qualitative) and usability benchmarks (typically quantitative). Then the team builds proto-personas and hypothesis statements to guide the work.
Co-create - Once the available research has been analyzed, the team holds series of workshops with members from cross-functional teams, as well as business stakeholders, to create a shared vision for the product and define its success outcomes.
Ideate - After the strategy and vision have been set during the previous stages, the team ideates to create rapid prototypes and test them fast in order to decide which solution will get us closer to the desired outcome.
Evaluate - When the solution is live, the team collects and analyzes contextual and behavioral data about the use of the product over time, to determine the success of the solution and to inform the next iterations.
During the Pew Research Center's website redesign, I performed interviews and collected survey information to better understand the needs and behaviors of the site's priority audiences. The personas below are the results of this research.
I developed this visualization to clearly communicate expectations with federal customers regarding the complexity and steps involved in user research in the federal government space.
I've successfully implemented a Dual-Track Agile Sprint model on multiple projects. This graphic shows the flow/handoff between design and development teams. It allows for initial ideas to be vetted through research before they end up in the development backlog.