Project Context

Scope of Work

The Food Systems Leadership Network (FSLN) is a community of practice designed to connect food systems professionals in a space where they can ask questions, collaborate, network and access helpful resources.

My role in this project was to design and conduct a UX research strategy and manage the development of a new online community platform for FSLN.

REsponsibilities

My main responsibilities included:

UX Research
Strategy

UX design &
development strategy

3rd party developer
communication liason

Additional responsibilities I took on along the way:

WordPress
Development

Contract & SOW
negotiation with developers

These additional responsibilities helped reduce the cost of the project by 40% and helped the external developers focus their hours on high priority custom work.

UX Research Strategy

Product research

Market Research

SME Interviews

Content Inventory

user research

User Behavior
Observations

User Surveys

User Interviews

Research Insights + Impact

Sustainability & Activity Rhythm

Description

After speaking with community of practice SME’s and doing my own research, it became apparent that the self-sustaining quality of the CoP’s is imperative to it’s success.

Users need a variety of communication channels and the ability to filter through hundreds of resources confidently and with high levels of success.

Design Impact:

Niche forums and support groups
Development of FSLN Resource Databases (organized paper resources, courses) Webinar database development with custom search and filters.

User equity in resource offerings & organization

Description

Users should have the resources to grow their perspective through critical analysis of writings and group conversations.

The digital platform should allow users from different backgrounds to find opportunities and relevant resources.

Design Impact:

Impacted website copy and resource curation and organization.
Influenced and informed the organization-to-user support strategy.
Development of a skill-focused course feature with support for users from a variety of backgrounds.

Information Architecture

I had the opportunity to design a unique deliverable that communicated the information architecture of site and provided a preview of page structure to determine what WordPress plugins were needed and where on the site.

This deliverable was effective in having the whole team understand what components were being developed and what was needed as custom work.

Debrief

Food Systems Leadership Network was publicly released in 2021. +2000 users were transferred and onboarded to the new platform. the Wallace Center now has multiple community platforms that were designed based on the insights found during the initial FSLN project.