User experience advisor on an agile team working on The Better Publishing Experience for ato.gov.au.
I worked collaboratively using Google Hangouts video conferencing for our daily stand-ups as well as for planning days. This enabled me to have a more personal relationship with members of the team in other locations. During the stand-ups I would share my work, seek feedback, implement the feedback and then show the team my updated work via MOC later in the day. Trello was used to keep track of features, user stories, and tasks.
As part of designing an improved publishing process I analysed the current processes and built journey maps in Adobe Illustrator. This showed all the user flow steps for each publishing/web management process. From this map the risks of removing each step or element were identified.
Publishing stakeholders were interviewed to work out their requirements of the current system and to identify any issues.
During a planning day, I proposed a new process based upon tasks. This would meet the requirements of the publishing staff and address some of the current issues. It would also re-use existing systems and current business processes. The risks previously identified were taken into account for the design of the new process, and opinions were sought from subject matter experts about the technical feasibility.
To test the new process, user testing was performed. Firstly I created a user-testing plan, which outlined the aim of the testing and the questions to be asked of the participants to meet the aim. I then built a functional prototype using Adobe Illustrator and InVision App. I ran and facilitated two rounds of user testing. The participants were sent a link to the InVision prototype, at the same time as conducting a MOC screen share. I asked the participants questions and I observed them as they interacted with the prototype. By observing their on screen actions as well as their verbal responses I gained understanding of how they interact with the system and what improvements could be made. Between the two rounds of testing I made improvements to the prototype based upon feedback from the first round.
Observations from this user testing then helped influence the design of the future system.
The outcome of this PI was a demo to the rest of the teams as well as the product owner. I helped develop the documentation and presentation. This included the definition of the problem, the intent, the outcome of interviews with publishing staff, a map of the current systems and processes, the outcome of user testing, the prototype of the proposed design, documentation for the proposed design, issues and risks, and a blue sky design.
I also helped deliver the presentation. I spoke over video conference to all the other agile teams around the country, approximately 50 people. I outlined the user testing that I had conducted, the results and our proposed new design for the system. During planning days I facilitated and helped the design process by reinforcing the key issues, to help drive the future design.
Before working on this team I had very limited knowledge of the publishing process, so I started off as a blank slate. I learned very quickly, with help from my team. My knowledge of user experience design helped me solve problems and inspire my team. I often provided advice to my other team members as well as other publishers about the optimal user experience. Often the way publishers complete their work isn’t the easiest, or most effective method.
