Zach Albright is a UX design graduate from Michigan State University's Experience Architecture program.⁽²⁰²⁰⁾ You can find his design work here:

^a.Study Buddy
^b.Our Michigan Avenue
^c.MSU Libraries
^d.Ligature Study
^e.Technical Writings

Study Buddy

For Design for America & YMCA of the USA

Skills

Product Design, Visual Design, Design Thinking Facilitation

Tools

Illustrator

The YMCA of the USA challenged DFA to help them create changemakers within a young adult age range.

Our team interviewed leadership at our local Y and a diverse selection of 14 - 24 year olds. Through research, we found that college students were disproportionately facing a disconnect with the Y’s of Lansing. To bolster the Y’s reach, Study Buddy was developed.

Study Buddy is a program that matches verified college students with high school students in need of tutoring, both online and in person at area Y’s.

Two browser windows: one showing low-fidelity app mockups and the other slide from a presentation deck that says making change with Study Buddy.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Study Buddy was not abandoned, but rather we doubled down on the program’s ability to operate in socially distanced spaces.

DFA National Write-Up

Study Buddy One-Pager

Our Michigan Ave. Documentation

For Design for America & Dr. John Monberg

Skills

Information Architecture, Visual Design

Tools

Illustrator, Sticky Notes, Google Suite

Dr. Monberg came to DFA asking for help in any shape we could provide for his Civic Development intiative, Our Michigan Ave. Utilizing the Design process of immerse, reframe, ideate, build and test stages.

The Design Process: Identify, Immerse, Reframe, Ideate, Build, and Test. A group of MSU DFA students.

Our team started by immersing itself into the mindset of OMA and identifying with four major groups for the Greater Lansing Area: Students, Government Officials, Young Professionals and Local Businesses. All these groups need to have a say in the future of their city. Our job was to find a way to use information design to make each group and relationship clear, especially when Dr. Monberg's classes were sent out to research and design.

a collection of desktop windows demonstrating the process of document design for OMA

I especially focused on the art direction of the project. The design was influenced by bold magazine layouts. Colors referenced the hustle and bustle surrounding Michigan Avenue and it's various street signs. The converging viewpoints of designers like me tackling the bigger challenge of information structure gave some fresh perspectives to the project. I took away valuable lessons on team coordination.

Navigation Optimization

For MSU Libraries

Skills

Research, Information Architecture

Tools

Optimal Workshop, Pen and Paper

View of final presentation for Proposal.

Problem

MSU Libraries tasked me with developing a plan to make the site more usable. Library website has a huge user base from staff and faculty to students.

Process

Interviewed staff and faculty members to reveal pain points on the website. A card sort brought student perspective to design. Pain points: Search bar usability, Main nav organization, quicklink visibility, site accessibility. “Fewest Clicks possible”

Solution

The solution included minor changes that have small positive gains for a large quantity of users.

Updated Navigation - new sort
“Quick”-er Links
Re-Optimized Search Bar
Accessible Carousel

Ligature Study

Personal Project

Skills

Visual Design, Typography

Tools

Illustrator, Paper and Pencil

This was an intensive project that began with creation of an entire set of letterforms and culminated with a final ligature. Throughout the process I was attentive to creating a distinct type identity as I went from sketch to computer (and sometimes back again).