Reflecting on the Process

Artifacts: Along the journey of creating a prototype of Docs as Abode, I created many artifacts. Most of them, I created in Google Slides. (This was mostly in the interest of time because the assignments were complex, large, and required time to understand before undertaking. ) Also, Slides allowed me to think visually, which was helpful. However, I also created images, written documents, notes, and drawings. You can see many of these things by touring the different stages from the home page.
Notable insights into the problem: I think the biggest insight into my problem was learning that I was in truly uncharted territory. The technical aspects of API documentation are discussed frequently in the industry, but not many people focus on what it's like to learn it (or the feelings of those people as they learn.) Therefore, I learned that user experience research in this territory might be a very powerful resource if I were to continue to conduct it.
Moments of Clarity: This project was a true challenge. There were many times I felt lost. However, there were two times I felt things were coming together. One was when I revised my user research and interviewed a professional technical writer involved in the training of Junior technical writers as they learned to write API documentation for the first time, and the other was during the creation of a prototype. These acts made the reality of the situation much clearer to me than when I started.
The Challenges and How I got through Them: Other than the time commitment, the biggest challenge of this assignment was to take a step back and think in terms of "user experience". It is too easy to think that you might know what people want. It is very different to instead test those assumptions in the real world. For example, when I created my first wireframe, I thought it was self-explanatory. However, after watching real people click through it, there were lots of things that were not clear, such as what the first call-to-action a user should take from the homepage.
Influences: My interviewees, testers, and the professor all gave me feedback that influenced my design. Most of it had to do with functionality and getting rid of ambiguity. I was also influenced by other people in the class and their assignments. We conducted critiques of each other's work which was helpful.
A tale of revisions: Another challenge I had was making a few assumptions at the beginning of the project that ended of taking me off course. This resulted in me revising most of the steps in my project. However, in the end, it paid off. I went from a design that was built on some shaky assumptions and turned it into a real user tested design that I could trust.