Design Fellow
User Research, Low Fidelity Wire-framing
June - August 2021
Zoom, Microsoft Office, Adobe XD
I had the amazing opportunity to be a Design Fellow for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences under the Program Analysis Branch (PAB) of Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT), where I worked on the FOA Tracker Resource Tool project. I mainly focused on conducting user research to understand the problems the division face regarding the current FOA planning and implementation process. Additionally, I created low fidelity wire-frames using Adobe XD to come up with initial design solutions to the existing problem.
When I was first introduced to the project, I wanted to learn more about important context to aid me in my understanding of the problem space. I asked some important questions to my main stakeholders.
<aside> ❓ What is a FOA? A FOA, or Funding Opportunity Announcement, is an announcement where folks can receive funding for certain research initiatives they want to partake in. The FOA goes through multiple stages from creation of the idea to when grants are awarded to applicants.
What is the FOA Tracker? The FOA Tracker is a multi phase web application to resolve the division's pain points and to create a more effective workflow. The tool will compile and visualize the FOA planning and implementation process and will display and clarify this process with the different business units.
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There are 4 main user groups who play vital parts into the FOA planning and implementation process and rely on one another to perform their duties such as talking about projected FOA timelines, getting approval of FOA plans and details, and asking FOA related questions.
<aside> 👥 Scientific Program Officer Develop FOA initiatives and manage programmatic, scientific, and technical aspects of FOAs.
Scientific Review Officer Assemble scientific panel and manage initial review for FOA grant applications.
Grants Management Specialist Negotiate, award, and obligate grant funds and keep track of NIEHS fiscal year budgets
DERT Leadership Committee Supervise all DERT related activities and oversee FOA planning and implementation process.
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I wanted to learn more about existing visualization software, especially ones that use timeline visualizations, so I identified 4 software solutions that provide me a start to thinking about designing solutions to user problems.
I conducted 10 interviews with all 4 main user groups with these research goals in mind: