Greenforum

A community for sustainability-minded people.

This project was completed by Helen Quach in DGT HUM 110 Fall 2022. The goal of this project is to provide people with the resources to learn about one of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. The website features a News page, where users can easily access the latest relevant news regarding environmental sustainability, and a Community page, where users can interact with one another in a forum and ask questions about living a sustainable lifestyle, read reviews of local businesses, and recommend tips for other members of the community. The website is called Greenforum (stylized "greenforum") to emphasize the intersection between community and sustainability.

Research

Heuristic Evaluation

I conducted heuristic evaluation for websites The Global Goals and The World Bank to understand the current UX issues for websites about the topic.

Usability Testing

I conducted a pilot usability test on the Global Goals website and asked a participant to complete tasks in order to evaluate its usability.

User Research

I asked a participant in my target audience what they would like to see in a website about sustainability and learned some of today's issues for sustainability-minded people.

Design

UX Storytelling

I created two user personas and corresponding usage scenarios for different kinds of users who have different needs.

Low-Fidelity Prototype

I created wireframes and wireflows that supported two tasks: 1) reading a news article and sharing it to social media and 2) posting to a community forum.

Design System

I experimented with different graphic design element variations and developed a graphic design system for the website with both light mode and dark mode.

High-Fidelity Prototype

Evaluation

Impression Test

I asked a participant to look at the website for 5 seconds and state what they remembered. The impression test helped me understand what a user sees at first glance when they open the website.

Cognitive Walkthrough

I conducted a cognitive walkthrough on my high-fidelity prototype and received two responses that helped me make improvements to the website.

Usability Testing

I asked a participant to complete the two tasks supported by the high-fidelity prototype and learned how a user might interact with the website.

Pitch Video

Conclusion

Throughout this project, I learned just how much effort and thought goes into designing a user interface, from research to design to evaluation and revision. I also learned about important things to keep in mind when designing a user application, such as accessibility. It was very satisfying to go through each step of the design process and create a polished product at the end. If there was something that I would do differently, I think that I would develop a mobile application with a more singular focus rather than a desktop website with two different functions. Overall, I was very satisfied with how this project turned out, and I hope to use the knowledge that I gained from this project in future designs.