Hi, my name is Curtis Richins
I’m a UX/UI Designer. Check out what I’ve been working on.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Work History:
For the past five years I have had the opportunity to work as the principal user-experience designer and front-end developer of the in-house application used by the Art/Creative Department at Hobby Lobby, Inc. This application is called MARVIN. I have also administered countless usability tests, user surveys and various other methods of user communication to gain insight into how the application is used.
In addition, I have been responsible for developing and administering training materials, facilitating inter-department communication, and technical support. This includes cross-platform testing and training for the graphic designers on the Apple platform, and the Buyers Group on the Windows platform.
Due to the sensitive nature of the application I have broken down this case study into approved, relevant sections below:
Technologies Utilized:
Design:
The initial design for MARVIN was handled by a single developer tasked to the project. It was initially meant to be a report generation tool, but soon grew massively in scope and purpose. The developer assigned to the project was not a designer and simply solved front-end problems programmatically, with little regard to aesthetics, ease-of-use, or even user-intention.
I was hired for the MARVIN team to bring the user experience in line with other major Fortune 500 companies, with an emphasis on usability, accessibility, and continuity. The original design for MARVIN from 5 years ago was an amalgamation of competing web technologies and frameworks; different user demands yielded reactive design decisions as opposed to proactive – this led to fragmentation within the frameworks used.
My first step was to bring the front-end into cohesion with a framework that was considered a standard. I introduced the usage of Bootstrap for the styling framework. The current MARVIN that replaced legacy MARVIN was solely designed by me, with extensive user feedback from both the MARVIN team and the department as a whole. This, coupled with jQuery and careful consideration of user requests helped lead us to the current solution.
MARVIN is a living application, and as such is in a state of constant of improvement. Thankfully, I was able to work with our sole developer and build a solid foundation for which we could easily iterate upon.
Impacts of Changes:
This is the main dashboard a user is presented with when logging into MARVIN. Each row item is color-coded to its job type and each table is tailored to the user. Team Leads can adjust the status of their jobs directly from this table – a feature we implemented shortly after I was hired.
An example of a summary page for jobs and batch collections, housed in MARVIN. Data is entered into hundreds of these kinds of screens every day.
These screens showcase an example of what we call image editing. Finished files are linked here, and then references are linked to those finished files. MARVIN facilitates this seamlessly for the user.
Data Visualization:
MARVIN was initially designed to be a reporting tool. Prior to my hiring, the reports were generated as Excel spreadsheets and served in large batches. Different reports were created for one-off scenarios which led to bloat within the reports themselves.
My goal for reports was to provide not only actionable data, but to present it clearly and beautifully. This has led to extensive discussion about a report generation tool, but it has not been able to added onto our current development schedule – as such, I either hand-build, or have built templates to provide the department with the various reports they pull throughout the year. I have also worked with our Department Head in determining what is considered actionable data, and what can be safely archived and put aside.
One of my goals in this module will be a fully realized report generation tool, where users can determine the type of data they want, how they want to display it both digitally and in print, and how often they would want that information updated. In addition to the reports, MARVIN also generates detailed information sheets that I redesigned for clarity.
Training:
The MARVIN application services graphic designers, team leads, production artists, legal facilitators, buying groups, and various administrative staff. With varying levels of computer expertise, training is a necessary first step for new hires. When additional new features are introduced into MARVIN, training may be required.
In my capacity as MARVIN Coordinator I provide the necessary training for new modules, as well as design and produce any reference material. This includes face-to-face visits, mentoring, and follow-up to make sure users feel at ease, as well as to glean new features they may have insight into or want to see implemented.
MARVIN Usage Stats:
