Inclusive Product Design
The embedded Google Slides Document below provides a summary of each step in my design process as a Product Diversity Strategist at Lenovo. In this position I was responsible for qualitative and quantitative research, design methodology, design sprint facilitation, product management, and story development/artist management to convey impactful user stories to convey insight to pain points in 2-3 minutes for executive board review.
Product Design Goal:
To create a proof of concept around the theme of inclusive product design that would positively impact marginalized populations. Design 3-4 user stories for products that can be developed in the short-term (0.5 - 2 years). Achieve board approval for creating inclusively designed product for prototyping (this was achieved).
Design Process Presentation
Waynward_UXProcessMethodologySlides.pptxDetailed Design Process
Plan Timeline and Phases
Phase 1 & 2: Theme Exploration & Crowd Sourcing
Qualitative Analysis
Interviewed Executives, Subject Matter Experts, and members of Marginalized Communities to gain insight into user and business needs to determine Themes for crowdsourcing ideas internally.
Cluster Analysis Resulted in these 4 Themes: Visual Impairment (VI), Mental Health (MH), Quality of Life, and Ageing in Place.
Internal Survey, with open-ended questions, to capture greater insight related to themes
Quantitative Analysis
Internal Survey, with use of various data types: radio, text, textbox, required. Workflows associated with responses.
Secondary Literature and Professional Publication Reviews to provide greater insight to need, prevalence, market competition, market size, and growth potential.
Gained Executive Approval to move forward with ideation Phase.
Phase 3: Ideate & Converge
Ideation Goals & Tools
Goal:
Create 3-4 User Stories with a new inclusive product that addresses the next billion users.
Tools:
Excel & PowerPoint have robust accessibility (a11y) features that meet WCAG 2.2 standards so were used for all collaborative work. The offerings of collaborative tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Mural, Miro, Jam Board etc. were explored but failed all POUR tests.
Inclusive Design Process Methodology Approval
Developed Product Diversity Office Inclusive Design Methodology
Ensured all documentation and collaboration tools were accessible (WCAG 2.2 AA) for design team member with visual impairement and others.
Team | Trust | Focus
Assembled Diverse Team of 8 (size dictated by Executive).
Inclusive Design Team consisted of 6 individuals from marginalized groups and 1 with a Visual Impairment.
Required extensive persuasion of leadership to grant access to desired team members.
To build team trust I created & facilitated a Design / Creativity Workshop. to
Trained in methods to increase creativity and empathy through interactive examples and provision of ways to increase creativity (guardrails, add, subtract, multiply, dependency, multi-purpose, etc.).
Ideation
Excel was used as a repository to collect ideations from the survey and the team.
Affinity Clustering was utilized to select subthemes within themes.
Dot voting was conducted to select ideas from excel to then create user stories, journey maps. Impact & Difficulty were taken into consideration during voting
Deciding Part 1
I created crazy 8's, user stories, and detailed scripts to demonstrate pain points and further iterate.
Using PowerPoint, due to robust a11y, we then conducted dot voting on the best user stories, products, and features.
Phase 4: Develop & Show Concepts
I created user stories, audio files (for accessibility and timing), and storyboards for our illustrator and voice actor to utilize so they could perfect timing, cadence, and creative vision - ensuring captivating stories.
Managed Creative Direction of Animatic and provided feedback regularly.
Advocated frequently for creative team so reasonable expectations of them were set by executive team.
Sourced voice actor from voice.com
ScreenplayAndStoryBoard_forVoiceActor&Illustrator.pptx
Phase 5: Validate
Consulting ended prior to presenting final results to Executive Board. However, continuation of the Inclusive Design Sprint Methodologies and 2 of its products were approved to move forward to user research and prototyping
Prior to leaving I created paper prototypes of products and a Research plan to be utilized for the UX Research Team
