We invite you on a journey of reinvention: starting with a first pass at a microcredentialing application that is narrow in vision, we examine what is possible when you can step back and begin anew with a more user-centric approach. By exploring user journeys and discovering a scalable, flexible approach, a set of processes that helped us to find our vision and reclaim the territory of our passion to create some of the most ambitious web applications in higher education. This is our (small team) story — what we've learned by looking at the good, the bad, the wrong turns, the course corrections, the user testing, and where we're going next, while we create a badging platform with unlimited potential.

1. MAKINGTOGETHER
THE MERGING JOURNEYS OF UX, DESIGN &
DEVELOPMENT
#gogetdirty
Robin Smail
@robin2go
Bevin Hernandez
@bevinhernandez
#psuweb

2. WHAT DOES IT MEANTO
DESIGN/REDESIGN A WEB
APPLICATION?

3. WHAT DOES IT MEANTO
DESIGN/REDESIGN A WEB
APPLICATION?
really

9. PARALLEL LINES NEVER
CONVERGE

10. HOW DO DESIGN AND
DEVELOPMENT INTERACT?

11. OUR STORY

12. –What Counts As Learning
“The chance to rethink what counts as learning, how
to recognize and make visible the learning
that takes place anywhere, anytime, on any device”
THE OPPORTUNITY

13. –Bevin Hernandez & Robin Smail
“For anyone.”

14. amesphotos.com

15. To take a project that had been considered
reasonably successful, and add a bunch of
features….
With a brand new project team
Who were brand new to the
language
In 3 months

16. “Oh shit.”

17. USER STORIES AREN’T JUST
FOR UX

18. THE IMPORTANCE
OF STORYTELLING

19. THE IMPORTANCE OF
STORYTELLING

20. THE IMPORTANCE
OF STORYTELLING

21. THE IMPORTANCE
OF STORYTELLING

22. THE IMPORTANCE
OF STORYTELLING

23. THE IMPORTANCE OF
STORYTELLING

24. We are doing user stories; we just know these people.

25. OK, SO WHAT DOESTHE
RESEARCH SAY?

26. INITIAL FACULTY RESEARCH
“The content should all be in the system”
“This shouldn’t be an LMS”
“I want to embed this into Moodle”
“I don’t want the students to have to come to the system”
“I want the students to be able to do it all in the system”
“The students care about the badge graphics”
“I don’t want to have to design badge graphics - students won’t care“
“I want to be sure the badges have rigor and individual feedback“
“I don’t want to have to evaluate these badges, can we add automated quizzing“
“This needs to integrate with ANGEL”
“People need to access it who aren’t at Penn State”
**All actual statements from consultations

27. TRADITIONALISTS
• They save and believe in
delayed reward
• They adhere to the rules
• They feel contributing to the
collective good is important
• They don’t question
authority
• They are loyal
• They believe in duty before
pleasure
• They work hard to earn the
American dream
• They are disciplined and
responsible

28. GENERATION Z:
THE RE-GENERATION
• They save and are reluctant
to incur debt
• They are more likely to rent
• They recycle, share, trade
and barter
• They are authorized
• They are normal, not
exceptional, users of
technology
• They don’t schedule
• They improvise
• They compromise
–Tammy Erickson, Harvard Business Review (Jan 2014)

29. Only 12%strongly agree that a nice
home is an important status symbol;
–Tammy Erickson, Harvard Business Review (Jan 2014)
only 9%strongly agree that a nice car is
an important status symbol

30. Only 44%say they are likely or very likely to
ever have a mortgage
–Tammy Erickson, Harvard Business Review (Jan 2014)

31. 37%believe they learn more outside the
classroom than they do in school
–Tammy Erickson, Harvard Business Review (Jan 2014)

32. The #1thing they wish they were learning
in school is how to get a job
–Tammy Erickson, Harvard Business Review (Jan 2014)

33. THE CHALLENGE
Create a competency-based microcredentialing
system that incorporates multiple use cases with very
diverse learning goals, use of technology and needs.

34. VERSION 1.0

37. RECOGNIZED NEEDS
• break up the badge creation process into manageable
pieces
• organize content, have a strategy
• create group functionality
• lower barriers to entry with a better user experience

38. VERSION 2.0

43. RECOGNIZED NEEDS
• this thing was starting to get huge; needed to
rethink in terms of scalability and navigation
• begin user testing on workable prototypes
• move from website feel to application feel
• HAD to work on mobile; HAD to be accessible

44. VERSION 3.0

49. NAVIGATABLE ACCESSIBLE

51. We envision a world where everyone has access to education
regardless of:
Values
Age
Money
Race
Ability
Time
Location

52. 3 CRITICAL PIECES
Team
Vision
Empathy

53. Don’t be afraid to get dirty
Free your team from processes designed to divide
Believe in the vision
Find your stories
SIMPLE LESSONS LEARNED

54. less of this.

55. –Johnny Appleseed
“Type a quote here.”

56. PARALLEL LINES NEVER
CONVERGE

57. OR RATHER - PARALLEL LINES
CONVERGE AT INFINITY

58. INFINITY IS WAYTOO
FREAKING LATE FORTHIS
PROJECT.

59. MAKINGTOGETHER
THE MERGING JOURNEYS OF UX, DESIGN &
DEVELOPMENT
#gogetdirty
Robin Smail
@robin2go
Bevin Hernandez
@bevinhernandez
#psuweb