Hello!

My name is alyssa

ux/ui designer & researcher

User Interface Mini-cases

A series of miscellaneous UI tweaks to beloved video games. The goal is to improve the player's accessibility to important menus. Aiding in shortening time spent in aforementioned menus so that the player may spend more time in game.

Repairing Sea of thieves

With all of the new [2022] re-works done to Sea of Thieves, important information and statistics
are getting drowned in an ocean of screens.

Filtering Star Stable

With all of the new [2022] re-works done to Sea of Thieves, important information and statistics
are getting drowned in an ocean of screens.

Hey!

Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate it. I hope I was able to show you a look into my design process. If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback about myself or my work, please contact me through any of the means below! Happy scrolling.

I love working with groups to create new ideas for products. My favorite part of my design process is idea generation!In my free time, I love to read and write. My favorite genre is all things fantasy. I also love illustration and will often be found drawing other people's video game characters or original characters.

Summary

Duration: August 2021 - May 2022

Tools: Google Forms, Figma, Keynote,
Adobe Photoshop

Team: Solo project guided by professor

Agile UX Process

Surveys, Interviews, Task Walkthroughs, Journey Mapping, Empathy Mapping, Storyboarding, Interaction Modeling, Sketching, Low-Hi Fidelity Prototypes

Goals

Our goal for this project is to create a way that can aid the user in the event planning process, while also avoiding time conflicts, reducing stress levels, and bringing a sense of community to a group of like-minded peers.

Solution

Moodswings is an app paired with a physical artifact that helps group organizers communicate, plan, and host events effectively while minimizing key stressors like deadlines, scheduling conflicts, lack of communication, and time management.

PROBLEM STATMENT

WHAT'S THE PROB?

The event planning process for college students typically leads to higher stress levels, due to poor time management, scheduling conflicts, and lack of communication.

Interviews & Task Walkthroughs

I began with interviews. I knew that as a sister myself, I had a lot of personal experience with stressful planning but I wanted to ask others from greek organizations and clubs on the Farmingdale Campus. I performed 24 interviews with students on campus and 4 task walkthroughs.

Survey

The goal of our survey was to understand the primary stressors of college students who were planning in large organizations like sororities, fraternities, and clubs. With a sample size of 50, we surveyed college students who participated in club or greek organizational activities on college campuses. Through our survey, we found that a majority of college planners use outside resources while planning, like to plan in groups, and experience higher levels of stress while planning an event rather than attending.

The Solution

Moodswings is an app paired with a physical artifact that helps group organizers communicate, plan, and host events effectively while minimizing key stressors like deadlines, scheduling conflicts, lack of communication, and time management.

UI DESIGN

Project Timeline

Coming back from break, I dove right back into Moodswings. Admittedly, this project became more of a passion project rather than a school project. I really wanted to build Moodswings as much as I could during the semester.

System Requirements

Summary


Duration: January 2022 - May 2022

Tools: Google Forms, Google Spreadsheets, Figma, Keynote

Team: Alyssa Brites, Carol Sung, Michael Morra, and Steven Rodriguez

Agile UX Process

Observations, Surveys, Journey Mapping, Storyboarding, Mind Mapping, Sketching, Low-Hi Fidelity Prototypes

Goals

Our goal for this project is to understand the negative experiences of TikTok, a short-form video platform. We plan to introduce a way to break up users' feeds to lessen the impact of unfavorable social comparisons.

Solution

Kudos are randomly planned events within Tiktok's algorithm designed to break up your feed and provide you with a positive message or challenge.

PROBLEM STATMENT

WHAT'S THE PROB?

Users who spend time on social media can face negative experiences such as social comparisons with their life and appearance, doom scrolling, and poor mental health. Studies have found that spending more time on social media causes increased risks of developing a poor mental health or a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts.

SO WHY TIKTOK?

As of January 2022,

TikTok ranked 6th among the most popular social media networks.

— statista.com

OUR ETHIC

WHY DO WE CARE?

After tracking our screen time, our group spent over 12 hours a day scrolling through video after video. And that was only on TikTok!We knew we needed a change...

RESEARCH SCOPE & DESIGN PROCESS

USER RESEARCH

80

VIDEOS
ANALYZED

46

SURVEY
RESPONDANTS

OBSERVATIONS

Each member of our group would conduct 4 observations. We asked our participants to view 5 videos from their feeds. During that time, we recorded the type of video, the duration viewed, the interactions made with the video, and their thoughts afterward.

We found that many users liked watching “funny” videos because they made them feel entertained and happy.

SURVEY

After observations, our group began a survey. In order to reach our target audience, we attempted to post our first Tiktok. Unfortunately, we failed with our video only reaching 33 views and 0 survey additions.Based on the rest of the data collected from these six survey questions, we asked users how they felt based on different categories, we found out that most users felt negative after comparing themselves to others’ body types and appearance. The second-highest category where we found users felt the most negative after making comparisons was lifestyle, fitness, and health. Finally, we found that the number of users with a negative mood and low self-esteem has dramatically increased after using TikTok.

JOURNEY MAP

STORYBOARD

Carol and I created a storyboard during this time. We wanted to tell the story of Gabby, who is viewing TikToks in bed. The colors used in the storyboard go from light to dark, a reflection of her mood decreasing the longer she views videos.

MIND MAPPING

Being able to facilitate our group's mind mapping was my favorite part of this project.Our goal during this stage was to compile all of our ideas into groups that best fit the user's needs. We started by writing ideas on sticky notes, and then took turns sorting the sticky notes into groups that worked the best together. In the end, we split our ideas into three groups: the "Spotify" potato, an easter egg message, and "this is a sandwich".

SKETCHES

Expanding upon our easter egg message, our group began sketching different integrations for Tiktok's current platform.

Summary

Duration: September 2022 - November 2022

Tools: Figma, Keynote

Team: Solo project

Agile UX Process

Interviews, Task Walkthroughs, Persona Creation, Interaction Modeling, Sketching, Low-Hi Fidelity Prototypes

Goals

With the impact of Covid-19, as well as long-distance, the goal of this project was to create a way for families to share a unique connection through their meals.

Solution

Using one of my families' catchphrases, what's cookin' is an app dedicated to helping long distance families keep in touch through their love of food.

BACKSTORY

IN MY FAMILY...

cooking, sharing meals, and celebrating food with family is a must. Every night, it is tradition to sit down and share a meal while re-connecting about everyone's day.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

what's the prob?

cooking, sharing meals, and celebrating food with family is a must. Every night, it is tradition to sit down and share a meal while re-connecting about everyone's day.