Marcus Saucier UX and Product Design Portfolio

view online at MarcusSaucier.com

Event Space

Event Space

Wedding Wire has an all-in-one experience for finding vendors and for managing their laundry

list of to-do items to make their wedding the wedding of their dreams.

Unfortunately, that concept has yet to be practiced for other types of events. This is my story about how Event Space has hoped to

change that.

OverviewThis mobile app solution would target and help people who are new to

event planning or those that have limited experience with planning events. For the younger event planner who's assumed to use a

smartphone for nearly every other life task, creating an app that allows them to book event space and manage their to-do list associated with

that event, would be valuable to their effort and time planning their events.

My RoleI am responsible for the contract writing, scoping, competitive research,

interaction design, visual design, and coordination with mobile developers.

Project DurationThe Analysis and Design portion of this project took place from May 2015 until July 2015. We are in the process of finding developers to build the

app for a target release date of December 2015.

How I Approached this Challenge

I started by listing a rough process flow of what I thought the user would interact with this app. This got me in the right mindset of what I thought how users would work. I examined and compared what potential competitors are doing as well as

what I thought they did well and what they weren't so good at.

My next step was to go talk to potential users. The interviews I conducted included experienced event planners, more novice event planners, and even

someone in the process of planning a wedding. When I analyzed my interviews I was able to use common themes I found from their answers and I created a

Persona. I used this to test my original process flow and determine what are the users' key goals they hope to accomplish with this app.

my approach, continued…

I determined that the two main goals of the user were to find venues that met the needs of the person searching for those venues and to use mobile

technology to manage event logistics. I then felt comfortable designing how the app would interact and how it would look.

I started my designs with pen and paper sketches and low fidelity mockups in Sketch 3. These served as drafts and guides to my final designs, also in

Sketch 3. Once my designs were complete, I reviewed them with the client and made any changes we agreed to.

Discovery

The persona I created outlines the major points I found from interviewing potential users of this app. The goals called out in the Persona led to the two main user stories that needed to be created. I was also able to clearly list out the user's process flow

for each of these seperate stories.

I also needed to account for how the owners or the managers of the event spaces available to users would upload and manage the profiles of their venues. Not trying to

reinvent the wheel, I imitated how competitors managed this process.

Initial DesignsI started with sketching using pen and paper. This allowed me to quickly draft

many designs and compare them if I needed to. I also took these through some light user testing with a friend to see if the flows of the screens worked correctly.

I took these designs to Sketch 3 and created quick wireframes that represented the general user process flow. This made it easier to see what I wanted to design and for

me to ultimately make the final designs.

Once I had my wireframes in place and reviewed by the client, it was time to get into the final designs. I kept to a simple flat design focusing on the flows I came up backed by the research I conducted. Please note that I've excluded many screens

to protect the client and my agreement and to keep my designs for this page concise.

This first set of screens show the search for event space flow. Once a user has selected their Venue Type and entered in their Zip code or has it set by GPS, then they can tap Go and see results. From the results screen, they can quickly access their favorite Venue Spaces. When the User taps an event space they can view the venue's profile, see pictures, contact the venue's manager, get directions, visit the

website, bookmark it, and write and read reviews.

Along with the "Find Event Space" screen, "Planning Tools" and the "Log In or Sign Up" screen are the first screens accessible from the home screen. The planning tools menu lets you navigate to your various event management flows. From the login/signup screen you can login, create a profile, and manage/create a venue

profile if you are a venue manager or owner.

The screens above show some of the event management flows found in "Planning Tools". The Checklist screen lets you manage your entire end-to-end to do list of

things to make your event a success. The budget flow allows you to set a numerical budget from the beginning which automatically updates whenever you update and

pay budget items (Example: this user started with a $1500 budget, they paid their DJ $278.53, so their budget counter auto-updates to $1221.47).

The final set of screens I've included show the venue manager or owner's functionality to manage their venue. They'd start by creating the venue's profile, adding pictures of that venue. Next, but not pictured, is where they'd create their personal profile and their pricing package. Once they've created everything they are taken to the Venue Management screen where they can edit information and pictures. They can access this menu at anytime from their Event Space manager

profile.

What's Next?

The client and I are currently in the process of finding mobile and database developers. We are looking at small business grants and loans so that we can afford their services.

We're also at the beginning stages of looking for funding from investors. We’re also thinking about Version 1.1 which would include a website for owners and managers to

manage their event spaces online.

Capital OneAs a relatively new Software Tester to a team that was in full-swing delivering on a major compliance reporting project, I had my fair share of trouble catching up and

figuring out where I could read important documents relevant to the work we're doing as well as meeting company standards for documentation and processes.

The Objective

The newly formed Risk and Finance Technology team needed a location for agile team structures, document templates, how-to's for testing and scrum processes

and reporting, as well as any news coming from the Senior Director, the lead for the entire group of 60+ employees.

Emails were regularly used for things like news or the general dissemination of information required for the job. This works for this group for the most part, but there were times when older documents and sources of information were lost due to them

being buried by other more urgent emails or erased due to enterprise-wide email management standards.

My IdeaI utilized the company's online portal site, Pulse, as the location for our team's

important documents, processes, and diagrams. I got a list of important documents and links throughout the rest of the company's portal from people I worked with. I

also got team structure information from admin's of directors within the group. I also coordinated with the admins responsible for any team events or happenings.

Project DurationI was tasked in January 2015 with delivering the first iteration of this site for a go-live of April 2015. I was able to deliver the first iteration on time and I continued to

improve it until I left Capital One in June 2015.

My RoleI dubbed myself the UX Designer for this self-initiated project. I would get a list of important documents to match the theme of what was needed, handed down from my manager (who I dubbed the Product Manager). I was also the HTML and CSS

developer and Visual Designer when I needed to jump into the code or create some visuals to echo the objective of the site.

The Discoveries I Made

After playing with the capabilities of the company's portal, I concluded that unless I knew a whole lot of JavaScript, which I didn't at the time, I would have to keep our site with a simple and straightforward design. Capital One markets itself as a tech-thinking financial institution, which, to customer facing applications is true in an industry with a lot of regulations that can slow technological progress, but isn’t the case for employee and more back-end technologies. The infrastructure supporting the portal was pretty

dated so I opted for a more flat and simple design.

We also realized that metrics weren't as integral a part of how we work as many senior level management were led to believe. Many employees did not have access to

metrics portals supporting our functions. They were seen during quarterly reports, but not consistently like they should have been. I decided to include a section for these

metrics within our team's site.

My personal favorite discovery was that people wanted a place to blog about their experience as a Scrum Master and connect with other scrum masters across the

company. I created a space for where our scrum masters could blog and researched how these blogs could be broadcast to a wider audience at Capital One.

One of the original mockups of the portal's overview page. The second row of navigation was kept, but the difficult to follow application diagram was moved and

placed within another group of flow diagrams. This mockup was created in Powerpoint.

A mockup of what a Page for one of the core business functions our team supported. The platform for our internal site organized sites by actual pages online.

Impact

Once the site was live, our scrum masters began to blog and reach not only our smaller team, but other scrum masters in the company looking

for advice or an active community of scrum masters looking to network.

Two of our bloggers got their blog posts published to the Company portals' first page and averaged nearly 80 viewers on average.

After a few weeks we had 28 followers of the site outside of the group and 70+ out of nearly 100 Risk and Finance Technology members who followed

the site.

We were also able to house all upcoming event information on our homepage for quick and easy access. This eased the "oops I forgot about it"

moments, paired with consistent reminders, that happen when its buried in emails.

For a company and team that mainly focuses on the core day-to-day work and to have as many people look up from time to time to see what the group's up

to on the internal site, I'd say that this initiative was a definite success.

An actual page for our Agile Delivery links. All of these links are corporate standard tools for performing as a Scrum Master. This was the first time they've ever been

organized for all to see in one place, together.

*Please note: I've omitted several final screens due to the confidential nature of this group's business functions. Our team supported all of technology compliance for

Capital One.

Ideation Playbook iPad AppJohnson & Johnson's Digital Marketing team has been a high performing group and

was often recognized for those merits, but also had a steep curve for new associates & new clients--realized by that year's digital marketing interns. My fellow digital marketing interns and I decided to take action to make this learning process

easier.

Our ObjectiveThere were many things that went into managing brainstorm sessions at Johnson & Johnson. This included the actual brainstorming methods and rules as well as logistical things like following up with the client, tech support for brainstorm area equipment, catering, etc. We wanted to organize this all together in one location

in a digital solution that would be user friendly.

The IdeaAfter deliberating during our own brainstorming sessions we decided on

creating an iPad app and dubbing it a "Playbook" since it was a non-linear walkthrough of how to organize a brainstorm or ideation session. The brainstorm

session area was stocked full of iPads, so we decided to put these to use.

My RoleI was a UX Designer on this project, responsible for communicating the ideation planning & delivery process to new employees through content-centered design

and user research.

Design for ContextJohnson & Johnson's Digital Marketing team was very different from other

technology groups at the company. They operated in a much more fast-paced environment with rarely any senior associate downtime to help assist junior

associates or interns. Digital Marketing's area also was more wide open and included iPads for anyone on the team to use when they weren’t being used during

ideation sessions.

This opened an opportunity for us to leverage the hardware provided to us and create something that wouldn't require a lot of time from senior associates. Our

playbook would walk a new associate through each aspect of planning an ideation session.

The ImpactThe Ideation Playbook decreased ideation complexity and overall ramp speed for new employees. It also increased overall team efficiency since senior associates wouldn't have to disengage from higher priority work to assist junior associates with

ideation planning.

iStar

Inventory Sales Tracking and ReportingBoston Scientific was phasing out its Medical Device sales and inventory Windows

Mobile app. They wanted to gain a competitive advantage by leveraging a new platform, in the form of iOS, to more efficiently track and manage inventory and

sales.

iStar's login screen. I designed iStar's logo. It's a representation of the "Star" branding and has a briefcase with a scanner to represent sales and its connection with

managing inventory.

The ObjectiveSales and Marketing wanted increased efficiency from its sales teams and to be brought into the future, technologically, moving from Windows to iOS and with the

further use of SAP. Boston Scientific had committed itself to technological innovation not only in the medical device realm, but in its support for core business

functionality, seen by its many other iPad apps supporting Sales and Marketing.

My RoleAs the team's technology intern, I was brought in to support the Business Analysis

team. iStar was constructed through Waterfall and I had arrived during the User Test phase. I assisted with the UX and UI testing. I also designed iStar's logo and

secondary icons used throughout the app.

People Really Love iPadsIn 2011, iPads were relatively new when in use with large and highly regulated

corporations. But they were the hottest toy on the market and people could barely contain their excitement for being able to use iPads while in the field for sales

meetings (and probably for personal use =)). iPads also worked better with the bluetooth device scanners than the Windows Mobile devices.

iStar's Home screen for sales reps. I user tested a lot of these key functionalities.

The ImpactiSTAR improved productivity with a nearly 50% reduction in transaction time.

iSTAR also increased efficiency with data handling by reducing system response time to less than 3 seconds.

And a quote from the CIO:"This is truly an outstanding accomplishment. iSTAR marks a key step for our

transition to our iPAD as a platform for sales apps, a major step forward for our company and for field sales. iSTAR realizes /embodies our mission of bringing

competitive advantage to our company through innovation!!"

- Rich Adduci, Boston Scientific Chief Info Officer

iStar's Account Info and Order Request form. I was also involved in executing user tests for these core functions.

Contact

Marcus Saucier msaucier12@gmail.com

301.257.6297 https://www.linkedin.com/pub/marcus-saucier/24/26a/361

Twitter: @MarcusofTroy

Hello everyone!

I'm excited to introduce myself to you and show you my User Experience abilities. I've been a designer since my teenage years--I've created my own and friends' profile designs on MySpace, created cities and houses with SimCity and the Sims, and pretended to be a print advertisement designer for my favorite sports heroes.

I am a Howard University alum with a lof of school pride, especially in the fall. I am also a huge sports fan (Washington pro football team, Wizards, Capitals, Nationals, Georgetown/Maryland basketball, USC & Miami College Football :) ). In my free time I can be found working out, reading comic books, revolutionary fiction, or psychological thrillers (or watching their film adaptations), cooking, or hanging out with friends.

I am currently freelancing as a UX Designer and Creative Director. I specialize in designing in Sketch 3 and with pen and paper. I am also a part of a small and novice creative collective. I enjoy most of what I do in these capacities.

I'd also be open to the right full-time, part-time, or contract UX/Product Design job opportunity.

Thanks for taking the time to visit! Please let me know what you think.

- Marcus