Grants:Project/sek2016/Feature improvements to Wikimedia Programs & Events Dashboard/Midpoint

This project is funded by a Project Grant

Report accepted

This midpoint report for a Project Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/sek2016/Feature improvements to Wikimedia Programs & Events Dashboard.
You may still review or add to the discussion about this report on its talk page.
You are welcome to email projectgrantswikimedia.org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Welcome to this project's midpoint report! This report shares progress and learning from the grantee's first 1.5 months.

Summary

Redesigned the dashboard layout to improve the aesthetic experience, and provide better usability and user experience.
Upgraded the Front-end Documentation.

Methods and activities

I started with documenting the Usability Studies that I had done before the grant period. After documentation, I defined some tasks to solve the usability problems faced by the users and opened GitHub issues for them. Further, I worked on representing information in an easy to perceive manner on the "students" page. Then, I worked on improving the design of the navigation menu on mobile devices which helped enhance the user experience on small screen devices.

Midpoint outcomes

Accomplishments: Improved documentation and enhanced usability. Link to the code repository and Blogs:

Finances

I have received the funds for the 1st half of my project which I utilized to complete the work done during that phase. I have updated the table on the project finance page.

Next steps and opportunities

I did not get a chance to continue working on the project within the decided timeline. So, I have made an extension request.

The problem that I'll address:

Improve the usability of the dashboard on mobile devices
Improving the set of campaigns that are shown to a given user: Users have reported that it's hard to find the campaigns they are interested in the current dashboard layout. This is a usability issue which could be a cause of poor information architecture of the Dashboard.

Solution:

Mobile UX

Run Heuristics Evaluation on the current User Interface (UI) (Heuristics evaluation is a usability inspection method that helps to identify usability problems in the UI).
Create Wireframes for proposed changes in the UI (Wireframe is a screen blueprint which represents the layout of the website).
Create a low-fidelity prototype (lo-fi prototyping is a quick and easy way to manifest design ideas into tangible and testable interfaces).
Recruit users for usability testing.
Reiterate the designs and implement.

Improving the information architecture of the dashboard campaigns

Formulate a user study and recruit users.
Document the problems with the layout.
Improve the Sitemap of the website by using methods like card sorting and tree testing (Sitemap is a representation of the hierarchy of website content)
Create a low-fidelity prototype.
Recruit users for usability testing.
Reiterate the design and implement.

Once my extension request is accepted, I would have to apply for the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) employment authorization at my University.

I am currently specializing in User Experience research and design at the University of Washington and I see this project as a good opportunity to practice my skills.

Grantee reflection

I really liked the work culture of the Wiki Education Foundation team and enjoyed working with Sage. I faced some challenges in maintaining consistent workflow since I was working remotely from India.

I plan to use the grant funding for my graduate tuition.