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Automation Playground is a research subgroup of UC San Diego's Design Lab.
Helped to spearhead a web design project to showcase the research group for the former founder.
Automation Playground is a research group within the Design Lab at University of California - San Diego, centered around research efforts in transportation, autonomous vehicles and systems, and healthcare to name a few.
The former founder wanted me and a couple of students to develop a WordPress website dedicated to showcasing the research group's work and research philosophy.
I created a Google Doc and a spreadsheet to explain to prospective members of the research group the following: project background, current tasks, roles, and responsibilities.
Initially, a slide deck was used for communicating updates to the founder in a digestible manner.
Led meetings with team members and/or co-founders to address project topics, document changed priorities, and review action items via Google Docs and Asana.
Early draft of the website's information architecture informed what aspects of the research group can be showcased, as well as what kind of interfaces should be experimented.
Initial website prototypes had visual style guides and interface components inspired by the Design Lab website.
Spearheaded the interface design and website implementation for all website prototypes.
Students and I learned and applied Wordpress plugins from the admin dashboard to develop the website (content, layout, etc.).
Screenshots, annotations, and analysis of online inspirations informed organization and structure of website in later prototypes and versions. Documentation done in Figma.
Although my other group members ideated a different color scheme to improve website aesthetics, the founder preferred use of blue and a simple visual design implementation. The founder's additional feedback and suggested changes informed future website iterations and priorities.
To better templatize interface components for faster web development, an updated visual style guide was implemented as a private page within a WordPress plugin called Elementor.
Long after official project handoff, I resolved an issue with Silas on the website's Wordpress theme crashing and made more changes to the spacing issues and layout components for the website pages.
Added a 404 error page.
Each project has: title, tagline, description, call-to-action button to read more, and image.
Explaining Automation Playground's background and projects approaches from design and research perspectives.
Gallery of people, each with defined roles, involvement, disciplines, and background.
Contact form for potential followups from visitors to the research group.
Two posters and one paper of research group's case studies.
Should an error occur, there is a button to the landing page, a helpful message, and links to other website pages.
The founder reviewed and approved two slides decks that one student member and I made. I provided a majority of the content, images, and hyperlinks.
I learned about how important a visual style guide was and how simplifying content and layout requirements eased the project difficulty and testability of assumptions for the founder's requirements and preferences.
The following explains next steps if there was more time, attention, and resources:
I facilitated clearer communication and development of research-oriented hearing aid software across various projects among engineers and software developers.
An exercise mat for people with Parkinson's to train their gait and stride length. This was created during the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Design Competition.
This video showcases student projects within Triton Television (TTV), a film and media production student organization at University of California - San Diego.
A rap-themed video that demonstrates how kids within an affordable housing community showcase their activities in their afterschool program.