I worked at the Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD) over the summer of 2018. One of my main projects was to redesign the IHCD website. I designed the site, and the head of the digital lab, Woody, implemented my designs. The website is now live at https://www.humancentereddesign.org! My other responsibilities included ADA surveys and assessing the accessibility of the MBTA with vision-impaired user experts.
Accessibility was our top priority, especially since user/experts with a broad spectrum of abilities would need to easily navigate the site. I made a poster to summarize my thought process on how to make the IHCD site accessible.
I kept the design minimalist. Adding a pale blue background and spacing out content created a less cluttered experience, which is especially important in terms of accessibility. The following images are the original homepage and two drafts of my initial designs. I also significantly edited the text of the website; a good portion of the site explains the history of accessible design and the Americans with Disabilities Act. I used my experience as a writing assistant, writing tutor, and opinion writer to slim down paragraphs, reword convoluted sentences, and reorganize hierarchies.
Because we expected to ship the site out within two months, my designs were developed immediately after I produced them. I loved observing how sites are actually put together and learned CSS & HTML; as a result of my newfound understanding website development, the final designs were much more simplified. Check out the site at: https://www.humancentereddesign.org!
Connect with me!
If you're a student who wants to know more about product design, a small team looking for a freelancer, or just another poodle-owner, hit me up on Linkedin or shoot me an email at theia.y.qu@gmail.com.