Senior UX Strategist at Throughline
October 2021–May 2022
The Expert Press is a news media and analytics company that specializes in connecting writers with news outlets and publishers. They identified a need for a tool to better coordinate internally and not rely so heavily on email to collaborate with one another, as well as coordinate with customers. There were also a lot of efficiencies to be gained from automating parts of their process as well.
This tool sought to solve the following issues:
• Create a localized area for employees and subject matter experts to coordinate information
• Create an area for clients and subject matter experts to have better clarity on the status of work
• Better define the user flow and overall business process
To start, the team reviewed The Expert Press’s internal process map. We pulled out the main actors for this part of the process and aligned them with major actions they perform. From those actions we created user flows that would inform the wireframing process.
After we had a good idea of the process, we developed some basic wireframes to block out content areas and show basic architecture. Once validated by the client, we moved into creating mock ups in Figma.
Once we had a good idea of user roles and user flows, we started to build out wireframes. These were vetted by the client and refined to inform full pages. We went through sprint cycles to develop parts of the system based on user flows. These flows would be carried over to show different users relevant parts, as well as incrementally improving the system overall.
I developed a working sitemap that aligned with permissions and roles to better describe how everything connected, and who sees what pages. After iterating functionality and styles, we arrived at a workable set of pages that could be tested for usability.
This project was my first time leading, so I learned a lot about driving a project forward and organization. Establishing good organization was a big thing for me too. As this project got more complex and started to be designed in a high fidelity manner, I put together a Jira board to keep track of big changes and improvements that were either required or identified by someone on the team.
Another big lesson was guiding clients through the UX process. I have been a part of the process, but never managing it. This gave me a space where I could improve things that I felt like I could do better from previous projects.
Overall this was a big step for me, I'm grateful to have learned a lot in multiple areas and grow as a professional.