Interactivism

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the science lead of a science products nonprofit. Our organization is chartered to make the science products of NASA's infrared and submillimeter missions accessible to the public.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Interactivism to accomplish for Caltech/IPAC-IRSA?

We wanted Interactivism to update our UI to look more modern and be easier to use without sacrificing functionality.

SOLUTION

Can you describe the scope of work Interactivism handled for this project at Caltech/IPAC-IRSA?

Interactivism conducted activities related to understanding and defining our issues, including internal stakeholder interviews, first-party user research, heuristic usability evaluation, user journey assumptions, archetype user personas, current-state user journey mapping, and future-state user journey mapping. The team also conducted activities related to UX/UI concepts and design, including defining information architecture, visual style boards, wireframe flows, user testing, and high-fidelity mock-ups of UI design.

Interactivism focused on the most troubling aspects of our very complicated UI tool that we were having trouble managing ourselves. We carried over their visual suggestions to other areas of our tool.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–5 teammates from Interactivism.

How did you come to work with Interactivism?

We found Interactivism through a referral. We chose them over other options because during their interview they seemed like they could handle the complexity of our user interface (which is technical and not as simple as a website where you buy things), and because they offered good value for the cost.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Interactivism from August 2022–August 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It was very obvious when we released a new product based on Interactivism's suggestions that things were much better. We received very positive user feedback regarding the new modern look. Our user panel, which meets twice a year, responded positively to the great step forward in look and feel, and well as organization of information.

How did Interactivism perform from a project management standpoint?

Interactivism was great on communication and delivered what they promised on time. We primarily communicated via virtual meetings and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Interactivism was good at listening to all stakeholders. One of our problems was the disagreement between stakeholders. Everyone thought they were an artist. Interactivism was very diplomatic and made everyone feel heard. Also, our GUI is aimed at experts in a technical field, is very complicated with lots of funcationality, and takes a lot of domain expertise to really understand. Our main worry was that a UI expert wouldn't be able to come up to speed on the domain knowledge to help us make good decisions. But they were very good about walking us through a process that led to understanding the core user workflows.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were extremely happy with the outcome.