Michigan Flora Website

Summary

Role: Web Migration Analyst Intern
Time frame: 4 months
Tools: Sketch, InVision
Methods: Brainstorming, User Research, Market Research, Contextual Inquiry, User and Stakeholder Interviews, Sketching, Storyboarding, Agile Iteration, Reflective Design, Prototyping, Wireframing, User Centered Design, Design Defense, Survey Design

Michigan Flora Website is the one of the largest repository containing information about plants in the state of Michigan The outcome of the project was as follows:

Provided an impactful recommendation by coming up with the best migration path for the website by keeping the requirements given by the client in the picture
Conducted stakeholder and user interviews to dig deeper into the problem
Performed thourough market research to know about existing websites and the best practice to be inherited by this website
Designed Prototypes using Sketch of the new design of the website including the features requested by the client which would enhance the experience of the non-tech savvy users

Problem

Michigan Flora Website is home to thousands of plants but the website is very difficult to operate for non-tech savvy users. The website has a lot of secuirty issues and is not responsive. There are a lot of features in the website which need enhancement to cope up with today's world. The website is widely used which is why needs it needs migration to address all the requirements of the user and stakeholders.

Team

Individual

Design Process

Discovery

I was completely new to this website so I started by discovered all the exisiting resources.
I performed the following activities to understand the website in a better way:

Interviewed Stakeholders and Users

Looked for competitive websites

Analyzed the code of the website

Understood the requirement of the clients by keeping close contact with them

Visited the Michigan Herbarium to understand plants and what information is being displayed on the website

This detailed collection of information was really helpful in moving forward in the process of improving the website design.

Analysis

After collecting all the relevant information, I started analyzing to understand the key painpoints and areas of improvement. I came across the following findings based on my analysis:

Current asp.net version was too old leading to security issues

ASP.NET was restricting the design of the website as well as some features that the clients wanted

Website wasn't responsive as it wasn't making use of bootstrap
To understand better, I researched online and performed surveys to understand some of the best practices in market that addressed some of the problems that the website faced. I tried to find the major problems through the information I had collected in the discovery phase which needed to be given the most priority. With the use of technical skills, I tried to find the defects in the current code of the website. Based on this information I came across three migration paths that the website could follow making sure the security as well as the features requested.

Recommendation

I weighed all the findings that I came across and prioritized it based on the client needs. I analyzed the different solutions that I had found before and tried to connect it with the findings I also took into consideration the important features that the clients wanted in the new website.

Based on all this information, I recommended to keep the website in ASP.NET. This recommendation solved the most important problem of security and made sure that the website would be migrated within 2 months which satisfied the time requirement. This solution also supported the features that the clients wanted and mainly supported Bootstrap that made the website responsive. I also created prototypes of the website with new features that would help the developer develop it and make the website user friendly.

Takeaway

It was a great experience working on redesigning this website. The clients were so happy by my recommendations that they have decided to go ahead with my recommendation. Currently, the clients are hiring developers to implement the recommendation given by me and the entire migration would be completed in around 3 months. It was a great experience working with different stakeholders and making sure my recommendations matched up with everyone's expectations