Speaking from Experience

This past week I have been back to my high school to teach the year 12 students how to use Adobe Illustrator. I have always enjoyed teaching, ever since I used to pretend to set homework and write on the blackboard when I was a child. I have been working with a small class of 6 students, teaching them how to bring their drawings to life on screen and the proper way to set up a document for print. I have also been training my old teacher on Adobe software so that she might teach the younger students how to work professionally. Not all of the students enjoy working on the computer, they feel more comfortable drawing and painting but, some of the students have taken to Illustrator very quickly. Next week I plan to go back into Todmorden High School and give a presentation about university and what each student will need to do to ensure they can get a place on a degree programme. I also plan to work with other students who are not interested in design. I feel that as I have lived through high school, sixth form and university I can shed some light on what it might be like for those students who are interested in further education. During my time in Sixth Form I was Deputy Head Student and also leader of the Student Council so it has been great to give something back to the school that gave me so much.

rentalcars UX Testing Experience

This post was taken directly from my university blog.

I met Lowri Davies during my placement at Numiko. She introduced me to some very interesting UX conventions and also introduced me to some UX researchers at Simple Usability. Lowri asked me to assist her in taking User Testing notes. Lowri is the senior UX specialist at Rental Cars which is a global company based in Manchester. This was an excellent opportunity to gain some knowledge about the topic I am covering in my dissertation, as there aren't any tutors at college from this background.

The job was for 5 days and covered desktop and mobile sites. I was able to watch 12 user tests and also participate in one for myself. Lowri gave me a walk through of how testing is carried out which was incredibly insightful as I would have found it difficult to fully understand the process otherwise.

UX Testing process:

Each test is one hour long, it is completely voluntary so the user can leave if they want to. The first half an hour of the test was fairly user-directed. Lowri gave each user some tasks and set them on the Rental Cars website as well as some direct competitors. The user then carried out their tasks whilst Lowri, myself and some of the team members from Rental Cars observed from the observation room. The second half of the test was then a play back of the user using each website and Lowri had them explain why they clicked on certain features and focussed on difficult times within the test. My role was then to take notes of this section and time stamp any key things each user said. Lowri will then look back at the footage and create an archive of research to pass on to the design teams to help them to improve the rental cars website.

The testing took place at Space Interactive Media Labs in MediaCityUK (Salford) which is an amazing facility dedicated to user testing. I enjoyed this experience and I have taken a lot of knowledge away from it. I also met some of the people that work at Rental Cars and I was able to ask them about User Experience Design as it is a new design methodology that not many tutors know about.

Gaming testing room:

Observation room:

User waiting room:

Testing room:

Testing in progress:

The London Underground Map

In 1933 a young engineer (Harry Beck) looked at the London Underground Map and identified a problem. The lines were tangled, woven and made it difficult for commuters to use. 

The original map, before Harry Beck. 

Harry Beck spent months working on a new design for the map and after many trial runs the new map design was implemented in all underground stations.

Harry Beck's map, 1933.

The current underground map has gone through modernisation but still uses Beck's original framework. Beck's map revolutionised transport maps worldwide as most underground services around world began using the design as a guideline for their own maps. 

The current underground map, 2015.

Why it's my favourite

This is my favourite piece of design as it reaches such a large audience and simplifies a service that millions of people use each year. I think this is a prime example of function before form as the map designed by Beck abandoned the geographical locations of each line in favour of a unified and simple aesthetic. I based two of my university projects around the tube map as I found it so interesting. I spent a lot of time researching the London Underground and Harry Beck and in turn I became very interested in way-finding and service design.