Alaska History Day
Our client, the Alaska Historical Society, tasked us with designing a website for Alaska History Day, a K-12 state competition. Addressing an additional challenge, we had to ensure the website caters to rural students who often lack reliable internet access.
My Role
Though I participated in every stage of the project, my primary areas of contribution were in the development of the lo-fi and hi-fi versions of the mobile prototype.
| Scope | Mini-Client Capstone |
| My Role | User Research, Info. Architecture, Prototyping, Presentation |
| Duration | 6 Weeks |
| Tags | Website design, Education, Mobile-first Design, Function-based Design, Not-for-profit |
The Problem
User Problem
How can we develop an inclusive website that is accessible to everyone, not only for students in major centers like Anchorage and Fairbanks, who have traditionally been the main participants in the contest, but also for rural students who often rely on cell internet connections and can only handle low file sizes?
Client Opportunity
Providing an inclusive website solution to the Alaska Historical Society would broaden the diversity of voices in both Alaska History Day project submissions and those advancing to the national competition.
Stakeholder Overview
The Client – Alaska Historical Society
The Alaska Historical Society currently operates the Alaska History Day contest, which is affiliated with the University of Alaska and is a part of the National History Day program.
The User – Alaskan Students & Teachers
Students, either individually or in small teams, develop projects with winners progressing to the National History Day contest. History teachers guide the students, while volunteers contribute by judging the competition.
Design Process
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed the National History Day website, a benchmark for state history day contest sites, to gather ideas that could help us create a maximally inclusive website for Alaska students and teachers. We adopted the following features:
- The project category section features many SVG graphics instead of bandwidth-intensive images.
- The annual theme is showcased on the homepage, eliminating the need for users to load page after page searching for it.
User Research
Our interviews with Alaska History teachers uncovered key design opportunities:
- Pursuing mobile-first design (prioritizing development of the mobile version of the website), will cater to the rural students who do much of their internet browsing from mobile devices.
- Consolidating research resources into a single location will reduce research time for rural contest participants with weak internet.
- Showcasing previous contest winners, particularly those from rural areas, will inspire future participants with similar backgrounds.
Wireframing & Usability Testing
We engaged in A/B testing of two low-fidelity prototype versions with Alaska History Day teachers to decide on the preferable site architecture model.
A/B Testing Site Models
- Function-based: This architecture focuses on facilitating user completion of contest-related tasks.
- Identity-based: This architecture centers on the identities of users, such as students, teachers and judges.
Usability Testing Outcome
Participants preferred the Function-based version, as it made tasks like selecting project categories and finding research resources easier. Simplifying task completion for users with weak internet connections will likely increase rural engagement in the contest.
Final Recommendation
In concluding our project, we delivered a prototype that addresses the challenges of our diverse user base, particularly rural students with limited internet access. Our recommendations, derived from our comprehensive design process, focus on enhancing accessibility and navigation efficiency, especially for mobile users. Key features include:
- Include a ‘Build Your Project’ link on the homepage so students don’t have to click through pages to discover how to start.
- Adding breadcrumbs to improve navigation will be especially helpful for rural students where every page load is bandwidth intensive.
- Avoid JPEGs, PNGs or auto-play videos in favor of SVGs because they retain their crispness when scaled down on mobile screens which are common with rural contestants.
