The following are a mixture of professional and acadmic projects.
Tūtville: A Photoshop tutorial bookmarking extension
Challenge: to design and build an application to make Photoshop more 'social' for an Advanced Project and Social Computing Design course.
Methods: Contextual inquiry, low- and high-fidelity mock-ups, web development, graphic design, business & sustainability plan
My Role: Team members participated in all phases of the project, but I created early flow and architecture diagrams, led the low-fidlity prototype testing and assisted with database administration and PHP development.
Outcome: Tūtville is a system built for Adobe Photoshop CS5 that helps people bookmark, share and search for tutorials right inside the Photoshop workspace. The Tūtville system uses a Photoshop extension and browser bookmarklet to enable users to bookmark tutorials and see others’ bookmarks; it also allows users to favorite, comment on, and tag tutorials. Find more information on our project blog 
and see our demonstration:
Spring 2010
mibo: A Mobile Application to Encourage Walking
A mibo walking animation and walking summary
Testing our mibo prototype on the phone | project website
Challenge: to design an interface or system that encourages users to walk.
Methods: contextual inquiry, personas & scenarios, low-fidelity prototype and testing, high-fidelity prototype and testing
My Role: All team members participated in each phase of the project; I served as project manager and led our team through each project milestone.
Summary: Our research revealed that users walk to feel healthy, refreshed and less stressed, so we designed a mobile application that associates increased walking with better health. We used a combination of theory, design, and observation to influence people to increase the time they spend walking, linking their effort to the health of a visually appealing robot avatar (based on the Google Android logo) that we named mibo. The users we tested found the mibo character endearing, and multiple users stated they hoped we would develop the application.
CHI 2010 conference: we participated in the semi-finals of the CHI student design competition in Atlanta in April 2010. Our paper was published in the conference proceedings: Gupta, M., McCurdy, K., Potvin, H., Song, E., Zhang, X. mibo: A Mobile Application to Encourage Walking. Extended abstracts of CHI 20010 (student design competition), Atlanta, GA, April 2010.
Fall 2009
Graphic Design: favorite books timeline infographic
Challenge: to design a timeline to show my fifteen favorite books and author lifespans. This was a mid-term project for my graphic design class alt="external link" />.
Process: I aimed to create a unique timeline that would visually connect authors and books. I first sketched ideas, then created the final version in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
The timeline: Each band of color on the timeline represents an author's lifespan. The author's image and birthdate appear on the left side of the band, and the author's book or books branch off from the main band on the year the book was published. The band ends with the author's life, or stops at the present day if the author is still alive.
More graphic design
See my graphic design gallery for more examples of my graphic design work.
Fall 2009
VMware Mobile Application Design
Project images are not publicly available
Challenge: my summer internship involved designing, prototyping and testing a mobile application that enables IT administrators to manage their virtual machine deployment.
Methods: User interviews, personas & scenarios, architecture map, sketching and low-fidelity mock-ups and testing, high-fidelity prototype and remote usability testing.
My Role: I was solely responsible for this project; I was mentored by two designers and a User Experience manager.
Summary: My project was hugely successful in raising internal awareness of the need for mobile virtual machine administration; it also won me a 'best intern project' award and a free trip to the VMworld conference, where two of my mockups were shown during the keynote address. Project deliverables included a clickable prototype, a design specification document, and a research summary.
Summer 2009
Interactive prototype - also see project blog
Challenge: to work with our client at the City of Tacoma, Washington's Planning Office to create a web-based visualization for the city's crime.
Methods: User research, personas, low- and high-fidelity mock-ups, clickable prototype, usability testing
My Role: I served as project and information manager and client liaison during this project; I also led brainstorming sessions.
Outcome: We delivered a Flash-based visualization prototype that our client presented to city officials at a Summer 2009 conference. Find more information on our project blog . More images:
Spring 2009
Graphic Design Coursework
Challenge: to create quality graphic design using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
Process: For each project I sketched initial concepts and then created the final version using the appropriate software.
Mini-gallery:
Fall 2009
Page Element Viewer - Mozilla Design Challenge
Challenge: Mozilla's concept series spring design challenge charged entrants with creatively addressing the following question: What would a browser look like if the Web was all there was? No windows, no unnecessary trappings. Just the Web.
Methods: Sketching, wireframing, prototyping using jquery, HTML and CSS.
My role: This was an individual project.
Summary: I addressed the need for users to view portions of multiple websites at the same time. See my original mock-up 
submisison. Chosen contestants attended three weeks of Mozilla tutoring sessions on design and prototyping, and then submitted interactive prototypes. Read my blog post about my great experience with the Mozilla Design Challenge.
Links: mock-up | prototype | blog post | spring design challenge
Spring 2009
Helping OUT (Older Users Of Technology)
Our project blog documents our findings
Challenge: In an effort to improve the user experience and promote the use of the Internet for accessing health-related information, our team set out to learn more about the barriers that the older community faces when trying to find information online.
Process: Our team observed older computer users of varying ability levels as they searched for information online. We observed two users individually, two computing classes at a local senior center, and we facilitated a meeting with five instructors who teach computing to older users.
My Role: In addition to the group's work, I interviewed and observed one older user individually; I also observed the two computing classes.
Outcome: After our observation period, we documented our findings on our team blog . More images:
Spring 2009
nanoHUB.org Website Evaluation
nanoHUB's home page
Challenge: My project team evaluated the usability and navigation of nanohub.org, a nanotechnology website offering resources and community features.
Process: Our team used the following evaluation methods during the course of the semester: interaction mapping, user interviews, personas and scenarios, competitive evaluation, user surveying, heuristic evaluation, usability testing. For each method our team produced a comprehensive usability report outlining our procedure and key findings. Sample reports: heuristic evaluation (group work), personas and scenarios (my work).
My Role: While we worked as a team to jointly plan and conduct each usability method, I was one of the main writers and editors for our reports.
Outcome: Our team developed several key recommendations and shared them with our client, who praised our contributions as 'terrific feedback.'
Spring 2009
Wiki page template
Keeping inventory of page migration
Challenge: to reformat, organize, and move 4,000 pages of content from an existing mission-critical call center Intranet to a wiki.
Process: Our team's process included a product search, a content inventory, taxonomy redesign, 'Writing for the Web' trainings, page template creation, content 'migration' into the wiki, user testing, and user training.
My Role: I led many aspects of this project. I researched software solutions, managed our web content inventory, facilitated taxonomy creation and card-sorting sessions, managed SMEs and content population, performed load testing and tracked results, and trained 80 end users.
Outcome: We completed the project on-schedule and to fantastic user reception. The wiki remains in use today.
2006-2008
ANDOR Information Architecture
Challenge: to create an Information Architecture strategy for ANDOR, a fictional business that sells supremely-fitting, high-fashion shoes 'one at a time.'
Process: Our team researched the target audience and created personas, scenarios, and a mood board; we then brainstormed design solutions and created conceptual models and wireframes to communicate our ideas.
My Role: In addition to contributing to all aspects of this project, I was responsible for developing our strategy and a wireframe for the ANDOR's Community section; I also took a lead role in writing the final report.
Outcome: Our project enthusiastically received by a panel of Information Architecture professionals and our classmates. See our final IA strategy report. More images:
Fall 2008
Old eatingwell.com site
New site
Challenge: to lead a team in creating a new website taxonomy for eatingwell.com , after the site wireframes had been created.
Methods: As the leader of this phase of the redesign, I facilitated the following tasks:
- Persona Creation - obtained user data and created user personas based on that data
- Taxonomy Education - Introduced concepts of taxonomy to 2 groups, most non-web-savvy
- Topic Brainstorming - Led content brainstorming sessions to divorce from current taxonomy
- Card Sorting - Led card-sorting sessions to devise taxonomy for web
- Group Facilitation - Refined taxonomy through small group sessions
- SEO - Optimized taxonomy for SEO using Google keyword tool
- Competitive Analysis - Performed completitive analysis with other food websites
- Taxonomy Validation - Wrote and sent survey to representative users to test and validate taxonomy
- Presented Recommendations - Compiled results and made recommendations on problem areas to address | See recommendation brief (pdf)
My Role: I designed the taxonomy design process and with two coworkers led each phase; I created personas based on survey results, facilitated card sorting sessions, designed and sent a survey to users to validate the taxonomy, and wrote a recommendation brief for managers to review.
Outcome: Management approved our proposed taxonomy with minimal changes, and the site went live in 2009.
Spring 2008
Microsoft Groove Evaluation
One quiet group member found a voice in group
chat sessions by using large red font.
Research Question: Can student groups effectively plan and conduct meetings using the collaborative software product Microsoft Groove?
Methods:
- Contextual Inquiry
- Personas
- Scenarios
- Comparative Evaluation
- 6 Ethnographic Studies (2 student project groups)
- Pre- and Post-test questionnaires
- Debriefing Sessions
- Data Interpretation
- Recommendations
My Role: I participated in all aspects of the process, including observing users, designing surveys, creating personas, and crystallizing findings. In addition I served as project manager, main writer and editor, and findings presenter.
Outcome: Our team came up with some interesting findings, one of which was "Groove chat meetings gave a voice to marginalized team members and allowed for more egalitarian participation."
Fall 2008
Contextual Inquiry and the Inter-Cooperative Council
Affinity diagramming with the team.
Challenge: to analyze the Inter-Cooperative Council's internal election process using contextual inquiry methods and recommend improvements.
Process: Contextual inquiry: user interviews, interpretation sessions including process modeling and affinity note creation, affinity diagramming, solution-brainstorming sessions, presentation of recommendations.
My Role: Our group worked together on each phase of this project. My special additional roles were client liaison, writer/editor, and presenter.
Outcome: Our client stated "I am sure that we will incorporate much, if not all of your work to improve our election/communication process."
Fall 2008
Burlington Book Festival Website
Challenge: to create, populate, and maintain a new website for the 2007 Burlington Book Festival .
Work: I created the site using CSS positioning and HTML; I populated the site and made ongoing changes for 6 months prior to the festival. I populated much of the 2008 site prior leaving for graduate school.
Outcome: The festival director and participants were very pleased with the website, and I received many compliments. The design is still in use today.
2007-2008
Katie McCurdy Websites and Crafts
Challenge: While living in Burlington VT, I wanted to create a unique, quirky site to display my website development and crafting abilities.
Work: I used CSS to position all of the elements of the site, and I used CSS and Javascript to display all of my website development work on one page (using layers).
Outcome: The site was the first result in a google search for my name, but I decided to move to a website that was a more professional and easier to update. More images:
2007
Saucygoldfish Designs Website
Challenge: to replace my old, static HTML craft website with a dynamic, database-driven site.
Work: I designed and populated the MySQL database for the site, and designed the front end using CSS, HTML, and PHP.
Outcome: The site remains active today, although I have taken a hiaitus from crafting to attend to my studies. More photos:
2007