This graduation project took place after the AIM – Space Challenge game I worked on. I did not really know a lot about space before that project. After that project I knew I wanted more.
I thought I had learned quite a bit about space — and I probably did — but the work of EJR-Quartz opened my eyes in many other ways. I really had a lot more to learn about space and science communication.
The website of EJR-Quartz was not the best at communicating what they did. The quality of content was great, but the right info was not in the right spot.
I thought it would be a good idea to make this into a UX research project, hopefully resulting in something more fitting for a new or updated website. Questions like "What is their target group and what would they want to see first?" or "What did EJR-Quartz think was most important?" come to mind.
After some interviews and sessions it became clear, they didn't really know either. They started out small and just kept growing into this great company. Not everyone was pointing the same direction however and that made this project with tight deadline really hard to finish on time.
I knew I couldn't really continue like this, I had to change course. Now this wasn't an easy thing to do, I had already used up some weeks of my graduation time. But to better help with their brand, I'd have to figure out what made EJR-Quartz tick. I decided to leave my initial project idea behind for now to help figuring out the basics, just.. from a different perspective. A design perspective.
I wasn't taught how to tackle a brand identity project. I had seen it once up close for a bit. I only knew how to figure out stuff as a designer and how to get to the core, the intrinsic values, through design methods. So, that's what I decided to do.
I used different methods in multiple sessions with the EJR-Quartz team, local and through Skype, to find out what they thought was important. This also helped them talk about it out loud with colleagues, something that had not really happened for a long time. Slowly they started facing the same direction. They found out what their mutual goals are and what the reason is that they chose to work in this industry. There was a new found mutual understanding. I facilitated, they figured it out together. It was really cool to see them so passionate about what they do.
I stuck sticky notes to the glass walls and wrote stuff on the whiteboard close to the coffee corner, just so they could read the progress so far. That sparked conversations even outside of the sessions, something I didn't see coming. They kept on thinking about it, came with some new ideas out of the blue, sent me emails with all sorts of information, it was great. We ended up with clear company values, a vision and a mission all through design methods. That was all the information I needed to go to the next step.
So we figured out what EJR-Quartz stands for, but what do the website visitors expect? What are they looking for and who are they? No one really knew, so I took a dive into the website analytics. There was a lot (A LOT) of information there. I drew all the useful information on a large whiteboard and discussed it with the team. We figured out who most of the visitors were based on location data and what they were reading. How did they get there and where do they leave?
With all that info, I started sketching new designs to match the supposed goals of the visitors and the goals of the EJR-Quartz team. Those were discussed, reiterated on, discussed some more and finally ended up with a couple of hi-fi prototypes. I also took the time to refresh the branding and make a logo to match the company and the goals.
The team was quite happy with the results and I even got to share it with the whole company during the bi-yearly company meet-up. There were many fun and happy responses to my research.
If you've read all of this, I think it's probably nice to know that I also graduated on this project. 😉
