Menlo Innovations Website
Contextual Inquiry, Personas, Architecture, Prototyping & Design
Menlo Innovations is a software design and development company in Ann Arbor. As a High-Tech Anthropologist® at Menlo during the summer of 2009, I redesigned the Menlo website. The design process is highlighted below. If you would like to learn more about my experiences at Menlo Innovations, check out these blog entries.
Design completed August 2009
Special Thanks
Teammates Lisa Ho, Ryan Pletzke & Ryan Sloan
Menlo Innovations | website in development
Design Process
Contextual Inquiry
Interviews with past clients, project stakeholders and potential website visitors were conducted to gather information about their unique experiences with Menlo. The following "mind maps" were created to visualize two such interviews.
Comparative Analysis
A comparative analysis was conducted to better understand Menlo's competitive landscape as well as the companies they wish to emulate. The first two artifacts show an analysis of the competition, and the components of their websites that either hinder or invite engagement. The last two artifacts outline how Menlo aligns itself with the competition and other "small giants" who they respect.
Personas, Scenarios & Persona Mapping
Using the data obtained from interviews and the comparative analysis, personas were created that represented the various types of people who would visit the Menlo website.
Dan Lemon
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
34 years old
"I want to create the dream team."
Background
Dan is finishing up a post-doctoral research position at the University of Michigan, which lead to the conception of a start-up business. This start-up company requires a software development partner. Networking in his department and in the technology community has helped him find a few business partners, but a software development component has yet to be determined. Through his interactions at Spark, he was pointed to Menlo Innovations. Dan has heard very positive things about Menlo and he is excited to see what makes Menlo unique. Dan is constantly on his new iPhone, making potential business connections and monitoring his Fantasy baseball team. He is interested in business and wonders if this start-up will propel him to new opportunities in the future.
Goals
- To find a software development partner who can share his passion for the business and who will create easy-to-use, high-quality software within his time and budget constraints.
- To build a team of professionals who will learn from each other and challenge the status-quo in technology and biomedical engineering.
Following the development of twenty five personas, a "Persona Mapping Game" was played with project stakeholders to determine the primary, secondary and tertiary personas for the project. This decision influenced the rest of the design and would be referenced when questioning project scope.
Site Architecture
Usability tests were conducted to help determine site architecture. The left image shows the "Site Navigation Game" that was played with users. The goals of the primary, secondary and tertiary personas were written on yellow cards, and users were then asked where they would go first to accomplish these goals. The right image shows the final site navigation after multiple rounds of this usability test.
Lo-Fidelity Prototyping
The above research was then translated into sound design decisions. The following paper prototypes were created for usability tests with potential users of Menlo's website.
