<aside> <img src="/icons/meeting_purple.svg" alt="/icons/meeting_purple.svg" width="40px" /> UX Researcher at the Support San Francisco United School District (SFUSD) Project at San Francisco Civic Tech (formerly Code for San Francisco).

Main Team (excl. myself): Product Manager: Julia Gitis UX Researchers: Emi Fogg (Portfolio), Kira Bronston, Julia Cesana Product Designers: Jesse Wang and James Davis Engineering Lead: Brandon Cruz-Youll, Iryna Trush

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Overview

1. Background

2. Impact

3. Tools and Methods

4. Discover and Define

5. Early Generation: Lo-fi Prototypes Testing

   1. concept testing (IA), mockup testing, generative user interviews, affinity mapping, analysis, persona definition

6. Evaluative Testing

   1. UserInterviews recruiting, Maze Usability testing, affinity mapping and Maze data analysis

7. MVP and Evaluative Testing

   1. Moderated usability testing, full user flow, persona adaption

8. Current State and Future

9. Takeaways

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While the case study is updated, this project is still in progress. Keep checking in for updates!

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This past fall (2024), we’ve just launched our MVP - check out the beta here: supportsfschools.org

Background

San Francisco Civic Tech is a volunteering organization for people interested in participating in civic technology projects. Julia Gitis is the Product Manager and Project Lead for Project Support SFUSD or Support SF Schools colloquially. I joined the project early June 2023 and have been on since. The project had been underway for around 6 months prior to me joining. We meet weekly for an hour with additional hours during user testing stages.

Impact

<aside> <img src="/icons/bullseye_green.svg" alt="/icons/bullseye_green.svg" width="40px" /> 1. Saved 40+ hours for team by streamlining coding analysis for ~20 interviews amid research team turnover

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<aside> <img src="/icons/bullseye_green.svg" alt="/icons/bullseye_green.svg" width="40px" /> 2. Transformed user data into actionable insights, synthesizing user personas, and over 240 data points to facilitate cross-functional collaboration with a volunteer team of 10+ designers, product managers, and engineers

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<aside> <img src="/icons/bullseye_green.svg" alt="/icons/bullseye_green.svg" width="40px" /> 3. OVERALL: aim to drive increased volunteer support to SF school district through user-centered website development by leading recruitment, prototype and usability testing, and generative user interviews with 15 target users

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Tools and Methods

Affinity Mapping Analysis: FigJam

Project Management: Notion (repository, documentation, tracking) and Slack

Communication: Slack and Zoom

Interview Tools: User Interviews (recruiting), Maze (for heat maps and usability testing), Google Slides (concept testing)

Methods: Moderated user interviews, prototype tests, usability testing

Designs: Figma

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Discover and Define

When I came into the project, it was a different experience than my previous experiences because I was coming onto a project that had already begun to become established with market research by researchers like Bruna Lee, Emi Fogg, and Kimberly Kono.

There was a clearly defined problem and target user. In Julia’s words:

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Problem: people want to give back to schools but don’t have easy access to information on how to do it.

Solution: a user-friendly website that directs people on how to spend their time or money.

Goal: Increased philanthropy, increased volunteers, and increased attendance at SFUSD school events open to the public

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In my own words:

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San Francisco schools need volunteering and donations, and residents who are interested in either don’t know where to start.

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