Design a web-app where higher-ed researchers can build complex research projects and create surveys with branching functionality for data collection.
My Role
Develop Design Plan, Write Functional Requirements, Competitive Analysis, Design High-Fidelity Wireframes, Usability Testing
Tools
Sketch, InVision
Duration
2 months
Mission
Design a high-fidelity web application where higher education researchers can manage a variety of components for complex research projects with multiple sampling methodologies and branching functionality for survey creation.
Discovery + Research
After completing the mobile app companion, I set to work on the Virtual Operations Center (VOC), the web application of this research collection project.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I researched a variety of survey creation tools to understand the standard capabilities, user flows, features, and the question types offered in the commercial setting, such as Qualtrics and Survey Monkey.
PERSONA
Based on assumptions and our target demographic for this tool, I created a provisional persona and identified clear goals and pain points to focus on throughout the design process.
Dr. Gupta, Research Scientist at Oxford
“I need to collect both quantitative and qualitative data using a variety of sampling methods for various research projects and I need to be able to stop the investigation once I’ve collected enough data to save time and money for my project as I have limited funding.”
Pain Points:
Using different sampling methodologies for research via apps
Collecting data in an area w/ no wifi
Collecting referrals from respondents mid-survey
Knowing when sufficient data has been collected
GOALS:
Collect qualitative and quantitative data
Use different sampling methodologies
Ability to add sampling methodologies in the future
Automatic syncing from the mobile app to collect data rapidly
Provide limited training to research assistants (the surveyors) on the mobile device
User Experience
USER FLOW
Crafting the user flow was critical for this project as I was working to understand and shape how a researcher sets up a research project (investigation) in order to collect survey data collection in the field. I worked with a SME to validate the work flow, which includes creating a survey, uploading workers to manage the survey in the field, uploading a respondent list, selecting a sampling method, and pulling all 4 of these components together in order to successfully launch an investigation.
Research Scientist User Flow, 3rd Iteration
Design Process
Using Material Design, I created the first round of sketches on paper and then brought them to life in Sketch. At this time, I also took the lead on writing the functional requirements. This was highly informative and allowed me to dive deeper into the interaction for the 2nd iteration of designs.
Usability Testing
I performed guerrilla usability testing with 2 SMEs and several colleagues to get feedback on the user flow and overall functionality.
web app Demo post development
Web App User Flow Demo Post Development
Results
We successfully met our phase 1 deadline for internal QA. For this, I created a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) spreadsheet for both the web and mobile apps to validate the functionality against the requirements for quality assurance with 4 participants. Moving to phase 2, an in-house field study, I had our 2 SMEs test the web app and they were able to successfully complete all tasks and launch an investigation live.