Preliminary research and information gathering:

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• Communicated with the stakeholders to clarify the scope of the project and define expectations.

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• Conducted desk research to learn more about the  installation role within the AV industry, including potential career paths. This helped me gain empathy and a deeper level of understanding of what Abby's needs, interests, and challenges might be. 

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• Reviewed the content on AVIXA's website to clarify what AVIXA has to offer and how it might benefit Abby.

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• Performed a heuristics evaluation and accessibility evaluation of AVIXA's home page to evaluate the current user interface and identify opportunities for improvement.  

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• Downloaded a copy of AVIXA's Brand Guidelines to identify the logo, typography, and color palette needed to maintain brand consistency with the redesign.

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• Performed a competitor analysis to see how other organizations in the AV industry designed their home page and explained their offerings.

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​Bridging the research and design:

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• (This step is often overlooked, but it can be helpful to allow some integration time for the mind to make connections between the left brain research and the right brain creativity.)

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• Went for a walk, had a good night's sleep, did some movement practice and meditation.

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• Imagined myself as Abby (the persona) and allowed myself to feel what she might be feeling to empathize with her experience on a more intuitive level.

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• Did a visualization practice using the metaphor of a tree to allow my unconscious mind to come up with new ways of synthesizing the information.

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Design:

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• Sketched some ideas that came to me during the various integration practices.

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• Drew a low-fidelity wireframe on paper to quickly map out the hierarchy of content and basic functionality of the interface. 

 

• Created a medium/high-fidelity wireframe in Adobe XD to present to the stakeholders for evaluation and feedback.

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Next steps (if this process were to continue):

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• Iterate based on feedback from the stakeholders and product team.

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• Conduct a usability study to test the new design (wireframe) with users who fit a similar profile as Abby. 

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• Analyze the results, measure success, and communicate the findings and recommendations to the team.  

 

• If needed, continue to iterate and test the design before handing it off to the developers.