Duration: May 2023
Team: Allison He, Ariana Zhu
Role: UI/UX Designer, UX Researcher
Tools: Figma, Fig Jam

Designed and ideated at my first ever designathon, UCI 2023 Designation, Workshop ✏️ prioritizes long-term mentorship, collaboration, and accessible settings for writing communities!

Won Honorable Mention & scored the third highest overall out of 60 submissions in design rubric.

——— EMPATHIZE

Problem

The UCI Designathon prompt meant a lot to us: as designers who can create and inspire change, how can we amplify and empower cultures of community and inclusivity in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and beyond?

Our approach was inclusivity in writing communities. Sure, we have writing workshops, collaborative writing platforms, mentorship opportunities for writers… but are there any platforms that combine the three? Much less for writers at all levels?

There is a need for an online web platform… and community… for aspiring writers.

So how do we help writers:

Understanding The Problem

After brainstorming and scoping out the project’s purpose, we decided to focus our user demographics on the following:

I specifically took charge over research on writers with reading or writing disabilities, identifying the following trends that those with learning disabilities struggled with with traditional writing platforms. Given the lack of time and resources, I mainly focused on reading scientific articles or online testimonials/direct quotes from active dyslexic writers!

For able-bodied demographics, we interviewed n = 6 creative writers who all expressed a passion for creative writing or pursuing it as a career. We found that:

All of these aspiring writers have a passion for creative writing, highly value feedback, and recognize the value of mentor-led workshops.

However, none of them even considered a platform that offers the following resources to them as a choice. There isn’t one readily available.

Comparative Analysis

There are not many well-established writing mentorship platforms in the market. When it comes to writing tools, tools can be scattered all over the place (e.g. Google Doc, FigJam, Google Drive). Mentorship platforms like ADPlist exist, but the information architecture is overwhelming.

——— IDEATE

Key Features of Workshop

After deep diving into some user research and analyzing what existing platforms have done right, we decided on the following features to include in our beloved Workshop:

I primarily worked on the Accessibility Settings, Collaboration Document, tutorials feature, navigation bar, and branding.

Again, biggest shoutout to my wonderful team: everyone contributed so much to the project and all of these features.

Lofi

Before we even got started with the hi-fi wireframes, my team and I kicked off with some lo-fis! I’ve quickly added some below.

Hifi

After settling up the lo-fis, we moved onto the hi-fi wireframes! I’ll quickly show the hi-fi wireframes below.

However, please note that not all of the hi-fi wireframes are below and not all of these wireframes were in our final prototype. This is just a glimpse of the work we did!

User Testing & Iterations

So… what did I learn?

I’m obsessed with collaboration!!!!! In my previous experiences, I almost always relied on myself when it came to designing. Working with two other (amazing) designers was incredible, and it was so heartwarming for me to see how well we worked and how much we accomplished together. I really feel as if I wouldn’t be able to accomplish all this myself, and we’re still good friends to this day!

Research is a game changer. My previous design experiences didn’t have any emphasis on user research, so being able to deep dive into what users want was very fulfilling to me. Really recognized how important user research was here.

Be realistic about the designs I make. I was too ambitious and proposed a more comprehensive “accessibility” feature for our users — even for blind users (I know, I know)! However, given the time, the task, and the amount of resources we had, I had to stop myself and stay realistic with my ideation process. It was better that way — I was able to focus more on the features that we did stick with.

Workshop ✏️: The Final Prototype