Hey, I’m Jane Mengtian Zhang, a UX / interaction designer based in SF bay area. I strive to create effective and elegant designs.
I enjoy my daily doodles and mind-drifting in my design space, and perhaps a bit of coding, whenever necessary :) Feel free to check on my projects or drop me a message.
Thanks for stopping by!
In summer 2015, I worked at JSTOR Labs as UX and web developer intern on the new JSTOR Labs website. In three month’s time, I spearheaded in the research, design, development, and revision of the new website, bringing the website from the initial design to its fully functional form.
Design and code, going hand-in-hand
The new JSTOR Labs website aims to convey JSTOR Labs as an innovative and forward-thinking team. The design and implementation of the website took consideration in organization identity, visual consistence, usability and accessibility. The site itself went through several rounds of iteration and revision to provide a smooth, unique, and responsive user experience. A wide range of UX and web skills were utilized for this project:
Design
UX Methods
Developing
my first step was to implement the Pattern Library, which served as a style guide and reference tool in the later development process. Working with our visual designer, we envisioned the initial outline and interactive elements of the site. The pattern library gave us a common set of design language and facilitated communication in the following development process.
Based on the initial visual design and our agreements on the pattern library, we looked further into the specific interactions of website contents. By sketching out my ideas, I was able to communicate interaction alternatives to our team and further discuss the pros and cons of these designs.
Before stepping into the developing stage, we conducted a round of user testing on our design. This included 5-second testing on users' overall impression about the site design, as well as paper prototype testing, using paper and cardboards to simulate user interactions on digital devices. The testing showed positive results in overall usability in our interaction design, and also led us to improvements in branding, navigation, and overall site structure.
After the user testing, my project moved forward to implementation stage, which requires detailed considerations in usability, technical feasibility, branding and many other constraints. Building a fully functional backend CMS along with front-end templates posed a challenge even for a full-stack web designer, yet the process proved to be rewarding in many ways.
When playing around with spacing and distancing in jquery animation, I developed two alternative designs of visual interactions for our module system; one based on popup overlay, the other on content cards that expand and collapse in a flat surface. Both interaction alternatives were developed in fully responsive frameworks, and realized smooth animation effects.
After deploying a working version of the site, we carried out our second round of user testing. By allowing users freely explore the site and asking them to perform a series of tasks, we were able to see if the website was easy to learn and to use within a short amount of time. The testing also showed the pros and cons of our two implemented interactive alternatives and provided valuable information for the final development stage. We also came up with user testing formats such as using cupcakes and cookies as rewards for our participants.
The final step of development included cross-browser testing, re-examining accessibility and responsiveness issues, incorporating web analysis elements, etc. After three months' work, the new JSTOR Labs website finally comes to live, showcasing its new ideas and creations with a browsing experience that is both rich and unique.
