MISHA BURGARDT

UX/UI Designer

Portfolio

About

I’m an extroverted visual designer from Kansas.

With a background in fine art and a career in customer experience; I love creating seamless user experiences that improve the lives of others.

Resume

Copyright © Ursa Minor Designs 2018

A social Austin food recommendation application. Find your new favorite restaurant - based on your location, tastes, and dietary needs - and share it with others.

What is the problem?

People prefer to get restaurant recommendations from those in their social circle, however, they often have trouble remembering and acting on those restaurant recommendations.

By offering an app that tracks those recommendations, as well as the personal eating habits of users, we could help users find amazing eats based on their tastes and location, and offer an accessible way to recommend and review those experiences for others.

Give the People What They Want

The problem is there, but how do you effectively focus on the correct pain points when the challenge is as juicy as a food app for Austin? Where do you even begin? Survey the hungry masses, of course.

Who are these foodie folks?

The target market I was designing for needed to have a voice in the design process.Thus, Trent Moore was born.

Trent gave the user a tangible backstory.

As well as thoughts, feelings, frustrations, and desires.

He set the stage to help envision the problem in context, by representing the user and their journey.

Journey Map

The current journey for the average user starts when they are in the negative, when they are hungry (or even hangry) and ends in a positive, when they have food and are enjoying the restaurant. There are many opportunities along the way to improve the users overall experience and the journey map allowed me to pinpoint these areas for growth.

For instance, I could anticipate the users needs by creating an algorithm that recommends a curated list of options in their area based on their tastes and budget. I could also provide directions, wait times, and menus for each location so that they can plan ahead in both traveling and ordering. There are also opportunites in utilizing filters to allow those with dietary restrictions to filter and find safe, delicious options.

To top it all off, I could create a social platform, allowing users to share their experiences with others, advocate for their favorite restaurants, and receive guidance from friends and family on where to go next.

Paper Prototype

A paper prototype of the app was constructed and taken on a test-run to local coffee shops and restaurants to see what users thought of the solutions.

Try Me!

Usability Testing Feedback

Flow 1: Onboarding

Flow 2: Curated

Flow 3: Friend Recommended

High Fidelity Prototypes

Flow 1

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Flow 2

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Flow 3

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Amazon

How do you improve on a giant like Amazon?
Read more about my tale of failed assumptions, pivots in new directions, and adventures in e-commerce.

What is the problem?

Amazon is a behemoth in e-commerce, with the largest selection of merchandize, broad price range options, easy price comparisons, and efficient delivery. However, the amount of options can be overwhelming if you are a shopper who doesn’t know exactly what you’re looking for.

For those who need a little more help than the search bar to find what they’re looking for, Amazon could benefit from creating efficiency features that provide a more seamless shopping experience by decreasing friction in the search process and narrowing down the selection to the items to those that truly fit the buyer’s needs.

How did I come to this conclusion?

The first step was pin-pointing these issues was to create a SWOT Analysis to better understand where Amazon excels, where they are lacking, and where opportunities to improve might be found.

Who is shopping on Amazon?

Well, everyone. However, based on secondary research, these are the avid Amazon shoppers.

What are they looking for?

Based on our SWOT analysis, our first thought was to make it a more personal, inviting shopping experience. We originally attempted to take a feather out of the cap of e-commerce sites such as Etsy, who provide a warm, charming, atmosphere to your shopping experience.
Would users take to an Amazon experience that gave them a similar feel? The answer is, absolutely not.

Amazon shoppers want to find what they want as fast as possible, for the best price available, with expedited delivery options at a reduced price.

User Personas

To stay on track, User Personas were then created based on initial interviews and survey results. At every point in the decision process, it was best to ask, what would Jake and Elaina do? When in doubt, W.W.J.A.E.D.

Journey Map

Personas established, the journey map that was then created was full of opportunities for growth, particularly in the area of search features.

Wireframes

Wireframes for both web and mobile were then created for the following:

Sign-up

New Search Feature Concepts

Check-out

Wireframe Usability Testing Results

Number of Users Tested: 8

Ages: 21, 25, 28, 30, 32, 40, 54, 61

Genders: Male, Female, and Non-gendered

Locations: Thunderbird Coffee, HEB, Brentwood Social House, etc.

Feedback:

Users wanted the process to be fast, efficient, and with as few distractions as possible

They wanted it to be clear, up front, what the process is and how many steps there are.

They prefer to have the option to go straight to shopping and not be required to set up an account before they can.

Would prefer to have more pages and less information on each page through full experience.

Everyone hated the process of going through 2 Factor Identitification. Older Users didn't understand why it was necessary.

Prefer not too have too many products/product information on one page as it becomes overwhelming and confusing, but still want the information to be available easily if needed.

Style Guide

Iterated Prototypes

Web Prototype

Try Me!

Mobile Prototype

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Design Solutions for Aceable Students

Where was the starting line?

This project began as a hack-week proposal to expand my growing range of UX skills, but also as an opportunity to allow other entry level designers to work for the first time on a project that revolved around substantial real-world problems.

This was a chance to work on design solutions for a company with real users and measurable pain points. The data for these pain-points, as a senior member of Aceable Customer Experience, I had access to. In combination with the great team to work with and a hack week to work toward, I began researching the highest contact driving issues reported by users.

Below, we'll cover one such issue, as an example of the work that was done.

What were students really struggling with?

How did we know this was such a large issue?

With research, data from the Customer Experience team showed that this issue resulted in 28% of all driving related course calls for Customer Support.

Just for scale, that amounts to over 43,000 calls within the last year for Parent Taught Drivers Ed alone.

Who are the students struggling with this?

Where is this user getting stuck in the process?

What are the possible solutions at glance?

After reviewing the existing product, these were the areas where improvements to feedback could be implemented.

Usability testing was done with 4 teens, 2 male and 2 female, in the age range for teen drivers ed. They reviewed the existing course to give feedback and then went through the wireframed flows with proposed updates.

Usability Testing Feedback

Main Take-Aways

Would like a designated certificates icon in menu.

Color changing Icon was a hit! Would prefer it to turn gold, as they associate gold with success.

Preferred push notifications to email. Rarely check email.

Number notification in menu was also a successful indicator of change.

Students wanted language update. What we think is youthful, they found to be condescending.

All written text info should be short, bold, and to the point.

Iterated Mobile Prototype

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Iterated Web Prototype

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Usability Testing Round 2

Scout

A mobile app with a goal to help pet owners prepare for, and navigate through, emergency situations.

What is the Problem?

When an emergency situation arrises with a pet, there isn’t a clear way to address the issue immediately at home, locate nearby emergency veterinarian, notify them that you’re on your way, or send them all the necessary information, such as vet records, insurance, or payment information.

In a time where people view their animals as members of the family, a mobile application should exist with services to store necessary information, contact urgent help to calm pet-owners, alert veterinary professionals for prompt care, and ultimately, save lives.

Research

What they said:

Who would count on Scout?

What do they experience?

What is already out there?

Accessibility Testing

When interviewing and surveying potential users about the colors they associated with the app concept, an additional challenge was revealed. When asked what color they associated with an emergency, they unanimously chose green. When asked what color they associated with calm and positivity, the unanimously chose green. A red/green color palette is problematic for the accessibility of the app for those who are color-blind. Therefore, additional research, testing, and careful planning was done to ensure the app was inclusive.

Additionally, a product manager, with red-green color-blindness was asked to go through a prototype of the app to ensure the design was accessible:

"The CTAs are clear and there are visual indicators beyond color to tell me what the ask is."

User Flows

Style Guide

Interactive Prototype

- Demonstrates Emergency Flow
- Built using HTML, CSS, & Bootstrap