UX Portfolio
LEORA BROMBERG
MI ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ MMSt Candidate
ABOUT ME
Graduate student at the University of Toronto pursuing a Master of Information and Master of Museum Studies with a specialization in Book History and Print Culture
Toronto Academic Libraries (TAL) intern at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (left)
Undergraduate studies in the University of Toronto's Book & Media Studies program: followed the medium's message all the way to user experience design (UXD)
UX TRAINING
User-experience design training highlights from previous studies and work experience
B.A., University of Toronto (2014-2018)
Book & Media Studies major with minors in French as a Second Language and Classical Civilizations
CDN355H1F: DIGITAL TOOLS FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
Fall 2017
Assignments to explore and become familiarized with digital design tools including Voyant, ArcGIS/Esri, Twine
Designed Twine game: It's a Long Story ; interactive storytelling of how my parents met
Designed Esri StoryMap interactive digital exhibit, Refugees Refused: Canada and the St. Louis, 1939 as a contribution to class project on refugee stories in a Canadian context
SMC465H1F: MCLUHAN
Fall 2017
A Book & Media Studies (BMS) program senior-level seminar course
Applied Marshall McLuhan's media theory, methodology and aesthetics through collaborative design of a physical McLuhan board game
PROJECT INTERN: CANADIAN RACE RELATIONS FOUNDATION (CRRF)
2014-2017
Assisted with launch of eRACE Digital Book Club project: researched, contacted and interviewed Canadian authors
Involved in the project's design from its conception; designed eRACE logo (left) and other visuals including Snapchat geofilter for 2016 Inclusive Canada National Conference
The CRRF is a government crown agency
CASE STUDY: INCENTIVIZING SUSTAINABILITY
Team members: Annie McCarron, Haya Nasir Kazmi, Erin Guerette
BEEZ-WHAT?
Beezbooz: it means "waste" in Hebrew. I suggested this name because it's fun to say.​
A mobile app that connects busy post-secondary students to nearby coffee shops offering discounts to customers who bring in their own reusable containers.​ At the intersection of the retail sector and sustainable lifestyle, Beezbooz aims to challenge users to be more conscious consumers.
Logo design: Erin
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN...
October was an overwhelming time for environmental news following the release of a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which calls for urgent global action to combat the serious threat of rising global temperatures.
Our team wondered: are others as scared by this news as we are? Our habits clearly need to change, but where do we begin?
I took on the role of researching this news and specifically hunting for information on what individuals could do to make an impact. My research-oriented role persisted throughout this project.
THE PROBLEM
This secondary research paired with primary research using the methods of observation, surveying and interviewing, raised a lot of interesting data which I was tasked with organizing and analyzing, such as in affinity diagram above.
For the interviewing stage of our research, we asked 5 students about how the recent environmental news made them feel, and what sustainable habits they maintain, if any. The sustainable habits that students mentioned fell into 5 general areas: transportation, waste, water, energy and food choices. All interview participants mentioned that they try to carry a reusable water bottle and use reusable grocery bags.
This surfaced some major pain points that guided the rest of our design process. Across the board the main problem was clear: sustainable habits are (1) hard to follow consistently and (2) hard to measure accurately. These would become the most prevalent pain points that our design faced and aimed overcome.
EARLY VISIONING
This was our initial project rundown (statement and logo iterations created by Erin). Our vision was to face this big environmental challenge through designing an app that would gamify sustainability into a competitive and point-based app. But this felt broad and insufficient to overcome the major pain point: measurability.
NARROWING DOWN OUR MVP
click text area to pause slide change
USER NEEDS
Our persona LEAH (Leora, Erin, Annie, Haya) has a lot of needs...
As a busy undergraduate student, Leah often finds herself buying coffee and food on campus. She imagines their packaging to be a major source of waste she produces.
We wondered: How can we encourage Leah to carry a travel mug? and could we then count how many cups she saves?
THE PRODUCT
LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
Together, we sketched some rough ideas for the visual layout and functions of our app. These drafts largely revolved around a profile screen with a visual representation of the user's cup goal as well as a map and list view of nearby coffee shops and restaurants offering discounts for customers who bring in reusable cups. We envisioned that customers could scan a code at the counter when making their purchase which would allow the app to count the number of cups saved, rather than relying on user-generated input. This feature was added in effort to overcome the pain points of the lack of consistency and measurability in maintaining sustainable habits.
From here we divided and conquered to collect some usability testing feedback based on this paper prototype. Each member of our team interviewed one post-secondary student who fit the profile of our target users, as avid coffee drinkers or who frequently found themselves buying coffee on campus.
MEDIUM-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE: TOUR
Our paper prototype usability testing raised four main areas of feedback. Users expressed a need for:
Tools to mark and easily retrieve favourite coffee shops
A clearer way to measure goal progress
Tips/news that come to them rather than being seeked out
A way to access the map/directions even once the code is retrieved
Each of these items are addressed in our final medium-fidelity wireframe to the right, as well as improvements to the navigation pathway and the overall design.
Watch it in action as we navigate the process of accessing and checking the profile/progress screen, locating and saving a coffee shop as a favourite, retrieving the directions/discount code and finally, receiving further sustainability tips through a "BeezBUZZ Tip."
The design of this clickable medium-fidelity prototype was followed by another round of usability testing intended to gather feedback to inform the future steps and feasibility of our design.