Melissa is an expert at creating personas and user scenarios to gain a concrete understanding of the target population. By uncovering and identifying detailed audience characteristics, Melissa’s designs better serve the needs of the end user.
Melissa uses diverse materials and software programs to develop paper prototypes and UI wireframes early in the design process. Prototypes are invaluable for communicating the iterative design (and design process) for internal team discussions; additionally, rapid prototypes allow for early user/customer feedback in order improve the final design.
Melissa believes that staying organized is the easiest way to have effective, consistent, and successful usability tests. She finds it helpful to define the tasks of the tests in three segments: administration, conducting the tests, and data analysis. The administration segment includes tasks such as identifying appropriate users, preparing the questionnaires and consent forms, identifying acceptable incentives (if necessary), and setting up the test lab. The set up can be as simple and quick as using her laptop with video/screen recording software, or it can be as in depth as selecting the set up of multiple cameras and lighting. Conducting the tests include running the screen recording software, gathering task performance data, administering the questionnaires, and probing for additional satisfaction data. Upon completing the study, Melissa kicks off the data analysis segment by creating a user test matrix to compare and evaluate the data from the questionnaires. This matrix is helpful for prioritizing changes to the prototype, as well as comparing the data to the results of the survey and video files.
Melissa has completed observational research, usability studies, and user interface design for M&I Bank, JCPenney, and Manpower International.
Preceding her career in usability and user-centered design, Melissa was a Marketing Information Analyst for Miller Brewing Company.
Melissa earned a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction from the School of Information at the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor.
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