- User interviews with 6 participants (age 25-40, due to this age range being our stakeholders' target audience and main current church members).
- Including an introduction, interview questions, and task performance on the original website.
- Color-coding the interview transcripts helped identify important findings, frequent mentions, and notable quotes, leading to interesting observations.

Using affinity mapping, interview codes and interesting quotes were categorized into 5 groups, revealing key pain points such as difficulties in finding announcements and making online donations. Surprisingly, the lack of an English page emerged as a common concern, even among Chinese speakers, emphasizing the need for a broader international focus. Therefore, it became crucial to ensure the accommodation of dual languages and improved accessibility for different geographical regions. Additionally, negative sentiments expressed by interviewees were tied to the perception of the website being outdate, leading to a lack of trust and negative first impressions. Improving the user experience by addressing outdated perceptions became a crucial objective.

Heather, a current church member seeking information, announcements, and upcoming events on the website. Heather’s persona embodies the pain points of usability and information organization derived from the interviews. Now, let’s introduce Dylan, a tech-savvy individual whose primary goal is to watch sermon videos online. Dylan’s persona encompasses concerns and goals expressed by both the interviewees and stakeholders.

I created two user journey maps based on the personas. The first map follows Heather’s journey to find new announcements and upcoming events on the website. The second map illustrates Dylan’s journey to locate a Sunday sermon video. These maps highlight their key interactions and steps in achieving their respective goals.

As my first project, it provided valuable real-life experience in navigating the design-to-development handoff process and collaborating within a team comprising the stakeholder, project manager, and developer. I learned the importance of proactive communication with the developer for design-related queries, conducted regular meetings with the stakeholder to ensure alignment with their vision, and kept an ongoing spreadsheet for tracking questions and comments to discuss with the project manager. This approach facilitated progress tracking and allowed me to learn and grow from every iteration.

One fascinating aspect of this experience was designing for a global audience, which involved addressing two key considerations. Firstly, catering to a multilingual audience, including Chinese and English speakers, required designing a layout that accommodates both languages effectively. Secondly, our target audience extended beyond the United States, encompassing individuals from countries like Taiwan and China. Considering the limited accessibility to certain internet platforms in China, such as YouTube, it was crucial to develop designs that could accommodate diverse user needs and preferences.

Contrary to what I learned in courses, working on real-life UX/UI projects revealed that the process is continuous and cyclical. I often found myself going back and forth between research and design to make even minor adjustments. Through review feedback and user testing, I embraced the mindset of consistently improving the quality of my designs. I realized that perfection is not a fixed endpoint but an ongoing journey of adaptability, observation, and striving to bring the design closer to the team’s vision.