My initial efforts were focused on improving the existing platforms (public website and intranet – built in Microsoft SharePoint). In this sense, I translated the concerns of the different ISPA structures into solutions for the portals. Most of my work resulted in improving the information architecture and, in terms of interaction design, trying to enhance the usability of the existing pages.

After some research with students, staff, and management, I eventually managed to improve the public site by introducing navigation elements (built in ActionScript 2.0) that were placed on different pages of the public site.

ISPA’s management decided to create a new portal, in order to support a new institutional identity, give autonomy to the different entities of the institute for managing their areas, and modernize its entire digital structure to achieve a solution that would serve as a collaboration platform between staff (faculty and employees), students, and external individuals.

For faculty and staff, the existing solution did not meet their needs. Processes were all very manual, which resulted in slower procedures and more errors. For students, it was very complicated to communicate with faculty or the administration, often having to go physically to the facilities to carry out simple procedures.

One of the advantages of working in a university context is the ease of recruiting participants for the entire process (user research, usability testing). Through guerrilla testing and more structured interviews with students, faculty, and staff who were willing to help, it was relatively easy to gather data that allowed us to begin translating the corporate strategy into more tangible outputs.

In order to gain external insights, two companies were hired — one for development and another for marketing. I was also involved in the decision-making process regarding the selection of the companies that would work with ISPA.

Later on, I ended up acting as a “bridge” between the different structures, gathering and translating all the necessary information (such as ways of working, flow analysis, organization and structuring of that information, in order to create the new information architecture of the portal) with the goal of ensuring a smooth transition from what we were used to.

Um dos motivos que mais agradou à comunidade foi que as candidaturas ao ISPA passaram a ser feitas online, coisa que até então não acontecia. Acabámos por desenvolver:

• Online store;
• E-learning platform and student portal (developed on the Moodle platform);
• Virtual administrative office;
• Application site;
• Internal site for staff;
• Alumni site (currently the job portal);
• Specific site for the advanced training department;
• Specific site for the documentation center;
• Virtual tour;
• 11 microsites for specific entities (including the university clinic).

• Competitive analysis;
• Heuristic evaluation of the existing site content;
• Translation of the corporate strategy into portal requirements;
• High- and low-fidelity prototyping (wireframes);
• Coordination and communication with the companies (design and development) involved in building the various platforms;
• User interface design, interaction design, and XHTML and CSS development (for specific portal pages);
• Usability testing and writing of error reports to propose improvements to implemented solutions;
• Google Analytics management to analyze user behavior and make informed decisions regarding new improvement proposals for the portal;
• Internal trainer for different entities on how to use the management consoles associated with the various sites.

One of the biggest challenges I faced in this project was working within an organization where the maturity level regarding the user experience discipline was low. Working in this context was interesting because it allowed me to grow professionally by having to internally translate the best practices brought by the external companies hired to support us.

Managing the priorities of different departments (such as wanting visibility on the homepage) in relation to the ongoing work was particularly interesting, as it taught me how to handle conflicting opinions.

My entry into the startup served to provide the missing contribution to the initial team, which lacked design skills (one developer and one person with business knowledge).

At the start of my work, I developed the company’s brand image (as well as the website and all associated communication) and conducted desk research in the area of clinical trials. The first phase was to understand the context in which I would be working, and the second phase was to begin developing mockups to test concepts.

At the same time, I worked on parallel tasks in the company’s service area (such as websites for specific projects, portals where clinical studies could be conducted, and development of communication materials) to ensure the company’s sustainability.

As the team grew, I began using the company’s internal knowledge to develop the initial proposals for the software we intended to create.

From the knowledge acquired during the market analysis of clinical trials, it was possible to identify gaps and entry points that indicated the possibility of developing software suited to this market; there were several entry points and niches to explore. Existing software was expensive, which prevented small companies from acquiring it. The freemium or open source alternatives were not easy to use.

The biggest problems found with the software used were related to:

• Usability
  • Difficult to use
  • Not intuitive
  • Poor performance in daily tasks
  • Long learning curve
• Functionality
  • Missing (considered) main features
  • Did not adapt to the needs of most clients the company worked with (market niche)
• Cost
  • The cost of software considered adequate for managing clinical trials (in the market niche we planned to enter) was prohibitive.

However, much information was not accessible to me (due to rules and regulations), namely proprietary software used to manage some trials, and study content where the company worked.

As new resources joined the company, I used the training sessions given to them to also learn about the whole ecosystem surrounding the world of clinical trials. Having privileged access to clients and colleagues working in the services area, I was able to develop workshops and other research activities (such as interviews, direct observation…) to understand their goals and motivations, their pains and difficulties, as well as the tasks they performed daily. This allowed me to begin understanding the work context in this area, gather some materials used, and create documents based on the insights I collected (such as personas, user type definitions, workflows…).

I ended up installing open source software, often used in this market, to start understanding the features of this type of software as well as the terminology and workflows, having developed some fictitious clinical studies to understand the type of work associated with this world.

I ended up producing documentation that helped (and guided) the software development process. Since the area is very complex and highly regulated, I focused more on understanding the social context, the interactions between different stakeholders, the general types of tasks that were supposed to be done for each type of work, and the type of outputs each person was expected to deliver.
I also analyzed possible software (open source), gathering information from those who worked with them.

• Task analysis and definition;
• Market research and competitive analysis;
• User research and definition;
• Creation of personas;
• Conducting surveys and workshops for defining functional requirements;
• Research and definition of roles (work roles);
• Creation of social models (ecosystems);
• Definition of information architecture;
• Creation of wireframes and flows (task analysis);
• User interface design, interaction design, and XHTML and CSS programming.

The need to raise funding for day-to-day operations often distracted me from the initial objective, working on short-term projects considered more urgent/important because they financed the company. After some time, the focus on services grew enormously, and it no longer made sense for me to stay in the company (much to my regret) with a promise to develop software that would hardly come to fruition.

I often like to work as a freelancer on short- or medium-term projects. It was through a contact to see if it was possible to restructure the site that, after some initial conversations, we realized that B.Time could develop a value-added proposition for its clients.

Thus, I suggested an option that involved the company I worked for (Scientific ToolBox Consulting) in this work, and instead of just making a website to refresh the image, it was possible to think of a project for a portal where clients had immediate access to all their accounting information, in real time, in order to have more transparency about the services provided by the company.

We were also told that an appealing website could be a competitive advantage compared to competitor sites. There was also a desire for the site to be made as quickly as possible to carry out a “campaign” to attract new clients since the company was growing.

It was also necessary for the portal to be able to show the tax information of client companies in real time. From B.Time’s point of view, this fact was considered crucial as it would be a way to maintain the company’s credibility with its clients.

I explained that a new website, if developed without reviewing the content, would be useless, just a prettier face for an outdated portal. Therefore, I conducted workshops with B.Time’s management to determine the information architecture (card sorting), the functionalities to include on the site, and the type of content to place on each page. I also requested access to the company to observe how they worked, the processes used to update the current site, and to understand how B.Time communicated with its clients. Additionally, I requested access to some clients to understand what would be important to them in an ideal accounting portal.

From conversations with some of B.Time’s clients and potential clients of accounting firms, it was indicated that one of the key reasons they would choose such a company, if they didn’t have one, would be the portfolio of services and verified client testimonials. These insights set the tone for the website’s design. Interviews with clients also revealed functionalities that were not initially considered by B.Time, leading us to revise our initial proposals.

Since there were two phases for development, some wireframes were created to suggest a site structure and a design concept. After choosing the winning concept, to reduce costs in the proposal, we suggested that B.Time select a WordPress template that could be adapted, and we presented two options.

All the content for each page was also developed. At this stage, we were also asked to create an image gallery. Since I have photography skills, we agreed to handle everything—from taking photos of the office and team to editing the images for use on the portal. The idea behind the photos was to show that the company was growing and to highlight the new office. There were some platforms that could connect to the site; however, after consideration, Liferay was chosen due to technical constraints (it integrated with B.Time’s internal management system and allowed data visualization from databases in graphs, which B.Time appreciated).

The client area was designed to be simple, with only one navigation level offering two options (document management or management information). To facilitate report viewing, a specific HTML and CSS page was created (compatible with most browsers and devices) so that everything the client needed would appear on the screen. Information placement studies were conducted to decide the best way to visualize data, and several tests were performed, revealing some issues (in report viewing) that were subsequently fixed.

My role in this project phase was mainly related to interface development and its implementation in HTML and CSS, as well as adapting and creating some of the portal elements.

• Task analysis and definition;
• Market research and competitive analysis;
• Conducting surveys and workshops to define functional requirements;
• Definition of information architecture;
• Creation of wireframes;
• User interface design, interaction design, and XHTML and CSS programming.

Building good relationships with clients is essential for projects to succeed. In this experience, I realized that when we involve the client in the creation / execution process of the product, it is easier for them to understand our challenges and be more open to accepting changes due to unforeseen impacts early in the project.

Managing their expectations regarding requests not included in the initial scope, or explaining our decisions at every step, is extremely important (instead of presenting a finished solution for validation).