Institute for Human-Centered Design

Delightfully & accessibly modernizing a website. 

🖥  Web Interfaces.🖱 UX Design. 👩🏻‍🦽 Accessible Design.

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. 

Introduction

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. 

web-accessibility-poster

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. 

ihcd-old
Desktop-HD
ihcd-draft-cropped

Final Product

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

ihcd-new

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

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