Pulling it all together...

Indian Health Services' Division of Oral Health (over 3000 staff members) has an extensive nation-wide Continuing Dental Education (CDE) program. The CDE program was essentially administered by hand via email, faxes, Excel, and Word. This proved to be a daunting task, not only for the CDE Administrator but also for the Division's staff fielded across the country. The CDE Administrator requested a web based application that would automate the "CDE Process", simplify class registration, and provide real time access to the CDE for the staff of the Division.

Automation? CDE Process? Simplify? I had jitters when I heard the requirements -- good jitters! I was excited because I had an opportunity to go into the toolbox and apply many of the design techniques I had been learning: contextual interviews, mental model creation, domain analysis, business analysis, information architecture, interaction design, site maps, wireframes, usability testing, etc... I was able to pull of this together into a solid design that created a sound User Experience. My task wasn't over, I was also responsible for the programming of the application.

  • Mental ModelThe mental models were created from the results of a task analysis. The task were sorted, consolidated, and labeled by the development team into likely groups using post-its. These groups became key areas of functionality and also helped to redefine the CDE Process to increase automation. (Thanks to Adaptive Path for the nifty mental model diagrams.)
  • PersonasI created a persona for each user group, five in total. The personas were based upon the User Research. I also created scenarios for each persona, which were help full in determining task flow.
  • Task FlowI created this diagram to visually explain the task flow and subsequent registration and course status changes.
  • Site ArchitectureI utilized JJG's Visual Vocab to create detailed architecture diagrams. A fair amount of iterative design work was conducted on the white board before the creation of the architecture diagrams.
  • WireframeI detailed over 30 screens. The wireframes also were utilized to created paper prototypes utilized in field usability tests.
  • Catalog PageThe finished product was launched six months after the project kickoff. The project sponsors and the end users were very pleased with the results -- the business and user goals were met!