I am a Packaging/Graphic Designer by trade and am currently an online college professor. My ultimate goal is to do and learn whatever it takes to become a UX/UI designer. For the 1st assignment, I created a quick video to share and was interrupted by a chatty bird. Clearly she wanted to be heard in this class as well. I also started this wonderful learning journal and I'm looking forward to documenting my work here.

Two of my most favorite artists are Shepard Fairey and Bansky. I get so much INSPIRATION from other creatives.

What USER EXPERIENCE Means To Me:

​CLASS 1: Choose a Problem to solve

For this class I have chosen to solve a problem that I recently experienced personally. We moved to a new area and need a Vet for our special needs dog. While you can indeed Google to find Vets in the area, and then go to their website, there is very little information that really addresses the personal concerns of the pet owner. Rarely are there filters, criteria and/or reviews available. I found a couple of reviews on Yelp, but they didn't address my specific concerns.

I really enjoyed creating Personas for this assignment and I created 2, one in Illustrator and the other in Xd. It was fun to get my feet wet and practice with the software. While I do feel that Xd is a bit limited as a design tool, I can see how it could be used for a quick visual representation.

CLASS 2

This class was both interesting and challenging. I was in unchartered territory as I have never created personas, done card sorting or created a sitemap. The videos were really helpful and offered a simple guide that I followed to the letter. That being said, I didn't get super creative with the layout, as I was more focused on learning the content and software. But, I am looking forward to the next and subsequent times to get a both more creative and explore varied layouts. I am particularly excited that I was able to design the sitemap in Xd and the pages are connected, and it works! Very Cool!

CLASS 3

This class started out great, so much fun. I organized and reorganized my sticky notes based on the feedback I received, I sketched paper prototypes and created videos of the user experience and then transferred this information to Adobe Comp. I really enjoyed using Adobe Comp and spent hours learning the software and creating a 7 page wireframe only to learn that when transferred to Adobe Illustrator, you can locate the project under mobile devices, but you can only open one page at a time. Again, I spent a couple of hours reading through Adobe blogs and Googling to find the solution, but I never found it. If only I could save my Adobe Comp creation as a multipage PDF, then I could open anywhere I choose. What sense does it make to only be able to save ONE page of the project at a time as a PDF. Marks video did not explain what to do if you have created more than one page in Adobe Comp, only ONE PAGE. Help, please tell me how to work around this issue. I still don't know what to do or how to share my Adobe Comp wireframe assignment here, therefore I will share one page only :(

Here is my Vimeo Video PASSWORD wendy_test

https://vimeo.com/206515399

CLASS 4

Class 4 was fun, interesting and at times, frustrating, but learning a new skill typically is. It’s the AHA! Moments that really keep you going. When you struggle trying to understand some new concept, or software, watch the video 5 times, cry, Google it, meltdown and then finally succeed that you know you learned something FANTASTIC! I really like creating the mood board, that was a lot of fun! I understand the idea of the Style Tile sheet, but I struggled a bit with the template. I’m not nearly as competent with Photoshop as I am with Illustrator (I need to work on that), therefore I created my Screen Layout in Illustrator.

I designed a quick logo and feel that this web design solution works as a rough layout. I would love to take the design further if time allowed, but again, I learned so much throughout the process and that was my goal! I welcome any and all feedback!

CLASS 5

Hello Fellow UX/UI learners! Class 5 was FUN. I am a graphic designer by trade and while I do enjoy learning new skills and techniques, I find it difficult to be creative while I am learning said skill/technique. But, with most of the planning and experimenting with new skills and techniques behind me, I was able to spend a bit of time getting CREATIVE. While I realize that I can take the “design” much further, I am thrilled with the way it turned out. Plus, it was so much fun to create the prototype in XD and see my website concept in action. Fantastic! I thoroughly enjoyed the class and the process! Adobe ROCKS!

Here is a video tour of my website. https://vimeo.com/207958881

Here is a link to my website prototype. Try it out! https://xd.adobe.com/view/7c7e9f89-11fb-4c16-bca7-5018753fcdad/