Nice to internet meet you! My name is Meghan and I am an experience advocate for users and stakeholders.

Design Philosophy

 

UX is 10% design and 90% listening.

In a career field that is constantly shifting and evolving, it’s important to keep close the skills that help teams tap into underlying issues. Implementing Human/User Centered Design (HCD) practices ensures that efforts and design initiatives are grounded.

Transparency and inclusion are a must.

Some of biggest challenges in design are driving alignment between end users and stakeholders. Transparency and real-time communication is key for building trust, inclusive practices will go far in bridging the gap between the parties.

Thorough documentation will also prove to be a life saver, especially if there’s a high amount of churn on the project. But sometimes you have to call ELMO just move on.

Design Approach

 

  • Right out the gate, using various HCD activities and team workshops to articulate a basic understanding of project scope. It’s important to understand foundational requirements and establish user/product journey maps early on to ensure efforts moving forward are thoughtful, precise and more importantly effective.

    It’s important to include the wider team, from business partner to developer, from content strategist to compliance partner, connecting the respective areas is an easy way to foster trust and create transparency; solidifying the sense of team.

    Potential HCD Activities:
    Hopes & Fears, Journey Maps, Service Blueprints, Partner/Member Interviews, Prioritization Grids, Empathy Maps, Competitive/Industry Research

  • Whether it’s at the beginning of a project or at the end, there is no bad time to check in with your users.

    Depending on project scope, current experience testing early on may prove to be useful as a means to baseline for upcoming work. Conducting interviews to cross examine what partners and stakeholders want with what actual end users want; ensures the work is supported by data.

    Keeping that open line with users throughout the life of the work, even through post production, is vital to remain relevant in fleeting times.

    Potential HCD Activities:
    A/B Testing, Concept Testing, Card Sorting, User Surveys, Qualitative vs, Quantitative Research, Guerilla Testing

  • When it comes to actually sitting down and designing the experience, it’s important to fail early and often.

    Utilizing low fidelity for as long as you can get away with will also be beneficial in helping to nail down experience must haves. You don’t want to be distracted by the bells and whistles while your partners can’t decide what the minimum project requirements are.

    Potential HCD Activities:
    Low-Fidelity Prototyping, Rapid/Time Boxed Prototyping, Paper Prototyping, Partner Ideation Workshops, A/B Testing, Concept Testing

  • Just because you’ve handed the baton off to IT doesn’t mean design’s influence comes to a stop. Though it requires trust and buy in from partners, it’s important to keep the future of the experience in mind.

    Iterative refinement on experiences will ensure that the product and subsequent experiences stay relevant and continues to adapt for end users.

    Potential HCD Activities:
    Prioritization Grids, Discovery Workshops and Exercises, Journey Maps, Archetype Development/Analysis, Competitive/Industry Research

Career Motivations

 

Truly it’s the thrill of the hunt!

I love the challenge of creating both intuitive and efficient solutions that benefit end users and stakeholders alike.

You layer in all the compliance and accessibility parameters, existing company design strategies or the lack there of, any state deviations and man, you’ve got quite the situation to noodle over.

Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like fun….?

Wanna chat? Let’s get in touch!