Context
UT Austin’s Design Lab wanted to update the Rob Roy Kelly website to reflect the digital representation of our wood type.
The Rob Roy Kelly collection is an archive of over 150 wood block typefaces, ornaments, and decorations, organized with 4 different styles. I was hired to rethink the site navigation, engaging features, different user flows, and new high-fidelity screens to add to the website. My deliverables were a high-fidelity prototype showcasing new features and improved website hierarchy, along with my organized research. I collaborated with the head of the Design Lab, lab technicians, professors, and students to make this happen.
Initial Ask
The new website needed to be an accessible resource to boost the use, understanding, and relevancy of the wood type
In initial talks with our main Design Lab lead, I learned that excitement for the wood type had grown over the past few years. There is also a huge collection of work done with the RRK wood type hosted in the lab. Even with all this pride, there were also an increasing amount of students who felt using the wood type was too difficult and not relevant to their workflow. We were very interested in introducing features that helped users understand how the wood type could be incorporated into an increasingly digital design world.
Competitive Analysis
I looked at websites for digital type foundries to understand its digital representation
I was also curious about what the site navigation going from a large number of typefaces to an individual typeface page looked like for different sites. I also examined different typography projects that showcased detailed design processes from beginning to end. I thought this would be useful because I could potentially use similar navigation methods to showcase the community who’ve done projects with the RRK wood type.
User Interviews
My goal was to understand how people interact with the type.
I thought if I focused on how these different groups interacted with the type in a physical space, I’d be able to create digital resources that would heavily enable them in their everyday usage. Henry and I (our lead lab technician), made a plan to interview professors, students, and other lab technicians who gave me great insights on RRK digital and physical usage, how it's organized, and what it means to the larger student and Austin community.
Observational Study
Observing student work revealed how students use digital scans
I conducted an observational study where a student took me through her process of letter pressing with the wood type. It doubled as an interview, as she talked me through her whole printing process. She showed me the Digital Archive Scans, the downloadable TIFF versions of the wood type typefaces. She helped me realize how essential the digital resource could be!
Key Insights
Sorting and grouping notes gave me four key takeaways
I took notes for all 6 of my interviews in Mural and tagged interesting points as pain points, pride points, or opportunities.
Important Takeaway
Digital Archive Scans need accessibility
There are digital scans for every typeface, and could be a powerful bridge between digital design and the physical wood type
Important Takeaway
Highlight the community, not just the type
Giving an outlet for users who don’t have the mental energy to try any exercises
Important Takeaway
Students are scared of machinery and letter pressing
Bringing light to that inner voice that feeds into negative thought patterns helps us confront those patterns.
Idea
Students need help with scale
Users send each other affirmations to store in a “compliment box”
Ideation
My ideas centered on digital scan accessibility and student work
Cognitive behavorial therapy and dialectical behavorial therapy have great methods for coping with negative thought patterns. Both Headspace and Mindshift applied behavorial therapy practices in their features. I wanted the user to engage with these methods as much as possible.
Idea
Coping Cards with positive phrases
Coping cards are meant to inforce positive phrases. The user learns positive phrases and practices believing them.
Idea
Just Breathe
Giving an outlet for users who don’t have the mental energy to try any exercises
Idea
Naming your inner voice
Bringing light to that inner voice that feeds into negative thought patterns helps us confront those patterns.
Idea
Receiving external
validation and praise
Users send each other affirmations to store in a “compliment box”
Task Flow
Translating my ideas into task flows helped me understand the finer details of different sections
My ideas around coping cards, breathing, and external validation felt like different possibilities for different sections of the app. Translating them into tasks associated with emotions helped me define the finer points.
Iterations and Feedback
Showing others early wireframes helped flesh out visual irks, like unclear type hierarchy
My core intent is always to visually translate solutions based on what I’ve learned from my conversations and other insights. Hearing what others had to say helped my decision making and my creative process.
Visual Style
Yellows, purples, and blues inspire calm and relaxation
My ideas around coping cards, breathing, and external validation felt like different possibilities for different sections of the app. Translating them into tasks associated with emotions helped me define the finer points.
Components
Having a component sheet was necessary for the large amount of illustrations and buttons
There were so many different components to keep track of, and there were a lot of duplicates across the board. Being able to edit a main component to change the rest was a huge game changer.
Final Deliverables
Boost sets itself apart by giving exercises for positively shaping thinking patterns, and helping you respond to your inner voice.
My final deliverables included an onboarding process, daily check-ins, exercises, guided breathing, a profile page, a compliments page, and check-in tracking.
Onboarding
that sets the tone in how we confront
our inner voice and negative self-talk
Coping Cards
to shift thought patterns
in a positive way
Just Breathe
when you don't have the energy
to do any exercises
Daily Check-In
to help guide you to positive
thinking patters
Check-in Tracking
to show you how much you
are growing and learning
Reflection
Completing this project means so much to me in my journey to find confidence
Obviously I still don’t have all the answers in terms of my own confidence, but I hope someone seeing a project like this might be inspired! I’d love to develop it further with code or an accelerator program.
Lesson Learned
The chance to share my work with professional designers is a big measure of success
I am extremely lucky to be part of an accepting community, where I can befriend designers who are willing to give advice to a student. These are the people who gave me in-progress feedback, so shout out to them!
Lesson Learned
You can always find inspiration, even if you’re not looking for it
I had a lot of user interviews to gather insights for this project. Some of them were just casual conversations with friends, and I expected nothing out of them. But it was those conversations that led me to my greatest findings.
