Banner Animation For My Portfolio - Iterations

I made my banner animation in After Effects to get more practice with using expressions.

This is where I started. Initially the animation did more of a pulsing motion and the lines and nodes were thicker. After seeing it implemented in the context of the banner I started thinking that it wasn't working visually since it expanded and retracted in the same spot and drew too much attention to itself. 

I wanted to try adding more nodes and lines to see if adding complexity to the shape would make it work better as the banner. I still wasn't satisfied.

I added more complexity to the shape here but still wasn't feeling it.

Here I decided to change the motion the shape made to help it blend in a bit more as a banner background. Here is the latest iteration:

Design Challenge - National Forestry Service

The UX process is often very messy! I wanted to pull back the curtain on this and show a bit of improvisational thinking and process in this design challenge I did today.

It was timeboxed at 45 minutes. The prompt was to simply build an app for the National Forestry Service. 

I was able to quickly fit in some online research (not totally kosher for design challenges, but for the purposes of this exercise it was allowed since there was no design team to answer questions) on https://www.fs.fed.us/ and came upon a quote from a Fire Manager about forest fires:

“It’s hard to marry a lot of databases and systems together, but doing so is essential for the agency to understand what we’re doing and why.”

I immediately took this concept and ran with it, jumping straight into a matrix which identified my assumptions, constraints, user needs and user goals. 

Whiteboard challenge overview: exploring assumptions and constraints, user needs, user goals, task flows, sketches, and feature prioritization.

Whiteboard challenge overview: exploring assumptions and constraints, user needs, user goals, task flows, sketches, and feature prioritization.

Digitization of user needs, goals, constraints, assumptions matrix

Digitization of user needs, goals, constraints, assumptions matrix

I then made a quick task flow to map out my assumptive persona based on this quick matrix I had put together: a fire manager working for the National Forestry Service.

Task flow based on assumptive persona. Given the time constraints this is very simplified.I would iterate on this with more research if I were to take this project further.

Task flow based on assumptive persona. Given the time constraints this is very simplified.

I would iterate on this with more research if I were to take this project further.

From this point I devised problem and solution statements:

Problem and Solution Statements.png
I sketched key screens for the MVP, aiming for a high-level, ideal experience

I sketched key screens for the MVP, aiming for a high-level, ideal experience

Feature List:

•Profile

•Ability to upload data

•Ability to search and browse data

•Communication platform

•Map that takes in aggregated data and pinpoints high-risk areas to watch

In Conclusion

This was great practice for zipping through the most important basics of the UX Process. I found myself continually wanting to research and validate all these assumptions, but sometimes it's important to practice this quick, high-level thinking so you don't get stuck going down a rabbit hole. It's important to keep both the macro and micro in mind while designing.