Work Summary at Ontario Digital Service
A rewarding journey that reaffirmed my passion and capability in UX research and design.
Timeline:
January - May 2023
Team:
XD Lab at Ontario Digital Service (ODS)
Tools:
Miro, Figma, Sharepoint, Microsoft Office Suite
Led the user research project with Archives of Ontario
Planned the projects roadmap and helped created service blueprints
Facilitated stakeholders workshops and usability testing sessions
Conducted quantitative and qualitative data synthesis
Supported user research sessions
My Role:
The Projects
I had the privilege to participate in 4 projects. The projects mainly focused on the discovery phase / user research of the product. I have partnered with clients from MCU, AGCO, MAG, MECP, MOF, and MPBSD (different ministries in the government).
The Outcome
Presented the 2 user research findings and 30+ design recommendations to the clients and received recognitions and a great amount of compliments across the ministry.
My Contributions
30
usability testing sessions
3
user research plans
10
ideation workshop facilitated
2
service blueprints
16
weekly meetings held
I also:
Helped organize interview notes, synthesize qualitative data and generate findings.
Translated over 500 findings to major design principles, design requirements and insights for the team.
The Recognitions
Even now I am still feeling grateful about all the compliments and recognitions that I received from the partners and the co-workers.
Our work was presented to our partners and all I received was “thank you”. I could tell that my presence was their hopes —the hope for changes, innovation and a better service.
The Challenges
Like all the other projects, I have experienced challenges that provided me as an opportunity to grow and reflect.
1
Manage the time
I had multiple projects on the plate, so I needed to learn how to prioritize activities, set aside my own focus time, and how to make every minute count.
2
Identify the root causes
Some products were so outdated with various usability issues that we had a hard time identifying where to start with
3
Learn different knowledges
I got put on projects across ministries and fields, so I needed to pick up all the context quickly and learn the background knowledge fast
Lessons Learned
When you lead a team, be clear what your expectations and goals are and be direct about what you want your team members to accomplish by the end of each phase.
User recruitment is a study– the quality of the users decides the quality of the insights.
Sharing is learning. I was amazed by my co-workers about how passionate they were with their work and how often people were eager to get together to share the projects on hands and UX-related insights. I learned a person that is able to share the knowledge, findings and skills with others can go further in the journey.
