Michael Beasley

In 2008, I worked on a project for a non-profit consumer credit counseling service. I redesigned the information architecture of their site to make it easier for visitors to find content and at align the site with the client's goals. This project involved meeting with stakeholders and front-line customer service representatives to solicit project goals and learn about the client's cusotmers. I created wireframes for sample pages and described the new information architecture through diagrams and scenarios.

Anonymized work samples from this project are available upon request.

In 2008, I redesigned the information architecture for a large-scale industrial contractor's website as a part of an overal evaluation of the usability and efficacy of the website as a lead generation tool. I performed a competitive evaluation and developed a new information architecture as well as content recommendations.

Anonymized work samples from this project are available upon request.

I redesigned the information architecture of a site that sells pre-finished cedar products. I interviewed stakeholders to determine how one differentiates their products from competitor products and to learn about their sales process and customers. I developed page diagrams and wireframes to explain the information architecture and page-level specifications for the development team.

Anonymized work samples from this project are available upon request.

I managed a team of students that assessed the state of the information architecture on Internet2's website in order to form a set of recommendations. Internet2 has a large website maintained by dozens of teams and individuals and was interested in providing casual visitors with a more coherent and informative experience. We performed an heuristic evaluation, usability tests, card sorting experiements, and interviews. We presented our recommendations to Internet2 through a presentation and report.

• Recommendations Report for Internet2

Compuware's TestPartner 6.0, a tool for automated QA testing, introduced new functionality to make its functionality more accessible to novice users. I moderated two separate rounds of usability testing, analyzed the results, and compiled the findings into presentations which I helped deliver. I then produced redesigns for specific areas where we located usability problems.

Due to the confidential nature of the documentation that we produced, I am unable to provide samples of this work.

I was project manager for a team that developed recommendations to improve the usability of the Canton Public Library's Internet Branch. After meeting with library to gather requirements for project, I developed, performed, and analyzed the results of usability tests, conducted an heuristic evaluation, developed a survey, and conducted a competitive analysis. Reported findings to the library through a series of formal reports and a presentation to stakeholders featuring video clips and a question and answer session.

• Competitive Analysis
• Survey Analysis
• Heuristic Evaluation
• User Testing Report
• Vocabulary Analysis

I managed another intern while spending a week at the Queens Borough Public Library, conducting a usability test of the AquaBrowser search engine, which the library was considering purchasing. On the first day, we met with our supervisor to learn about the requirements of the project, on the second day, we planned our testing, and we spent Wednesday and Thursday testing users and writing up our results. We conducted a series of tests on the AquaBrowser product and on the library's current OPAC, InfoLinQ, in order to uncover usability issues and user preferences.

• Report on Usability Testing of AquaBrowser and InfoLinQ

Compuware's QAHiperstation 7.7, a mainframe application for automated QA testing and security auditing, introduced a GUI component with the goal of making some of the product's functionality accessible to users unfamiliar with the mainframe environment. I performed a user and task analysis and produced design specifications after an iterative design process, using Microsoft Visio, Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft Visual Studio to create the mockups.

Work samples from this project are available upon request.

CTools, the University of Michigan's implementation of the Sakai Project, was interested in redesigning its discussion board feature to incorporate a more useful and informative information visualization. My team performed an evaluation of the current tool, a competitive evaluation of other discussion tools, researched literature on the visualization of discussions and users' use of discussion tools, and interviewed and observed users. We turned our research into models to describe user behavior and designed a suite of visualization designs based on these models, ranging from easily approachable to information rich and intended for experts.

• Final Report

My team designed the appearance and interface of an online e-mail client over the course of the semester. Final deliverable was a report detailing target platform and audience, business and user goals, usability objectives, the design process from thumbnail sketches to final mockup, analysis of competing products, etc. The entire report is available upon request.

• First 8 pages of the report, including the contents and objectives
• Pages 23-32 including the requirement specifications
• Pages 33-36: Content inventory
• Pages 54-56: Final layout

I managed a redesign of the website of Peace Neighborhood, a non-profit organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that provides programming for "children, families and individuals who are impacted by social and economic problems." We have studied the organization and the content of the website, constructed a new Information Architecture, and are working on building a new site for them. In addition, we will be delivering recommendations for their decision on a content management system.

Developed a set of recommendations for a local school to improve its communication flow and ease the implementation of a new online collaborative system. Performed research on online resources and competing products, interviewed staff and parents, and studied document from the school. Formed models to represent the communication patterns. Used contextual design to arrive at recommendations. Due to IRB guidelines, I am unable to make the reports from this project available.