CDC Global Travel
Overview
CDC Global Travel is an application that facilitates the organization’s international travel operation. It assists with the booking of flights, obtaining passports, visas, security clearances, and many other logistics required for CDC personnel to travel and fight infectious diseases worldwide.
My Role
Lead User Experience Designer and Frontend Developer
As a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, I was first tasked with the user research and rapid low-fidelity prototyping involved in the app’s conception. Once this preliminary work was completed, I developed the high-fidelity prototypes and front-end framework.
Research
Qualitative Approach
Because this application was the first of its kind for the CDC, there was not much data or similar applications to reference. With this, my team and I applied a qualitative approach to gathering specifications and relevant insights. Fortunately, we were able to be embedded at the CDCs corporate offices, giving us close access to subject matter experts.
Shadowing Methodology
I made it a point to establish a consistent regiment of shadowing sessions, in addition to numerous focus groups and demonstrations. Doing so allowed me to examine relevant protocols firsthand and in-depth. I believe shadowing research techniques are a very effective way to analyze processes in their organic environment, yielding the most accurate findings.
UX in the Agile Workflow
It can be a little tricky to find the right place for UX in the Agile workflow. Designers often have to simultaneously assist with the completion of sprint objectives while keeping an eye on the larger picture. Focusing only on the requirements of a particular sprint can lead to short-sidedness and mistakes in the long run. Not focusing enough on sprint objectives can lead to a breakdown in the development process.
With this, I think it’s ideal for UX to be ahead of the development team by at least one sprint timeframe. This provides the time for UX designers to be comfortable with their sprint objectives and thoughtful about the overall vision of the project.
Frontend Framework
Requirments
CDC Global Travel is an application that has to work around the world, including developing nations with little internet connectivity. With this, there was great emphasis on the app being lightweight and mobile-optimized so it could perform well in low-broadband locations.
Solution
Because of this requirement, I thought we should consider other frameworks besides the very popular Bootstrap. After reviewing several lightweight options, I decided that Skeleton Responsive CSS Boilerplate seemed most ideal. The framework is self-described as “light as a feather” with only 400 lines of code and “built with mobile in mind.”
Results
This Skeleton framework, with some of my own additions, ended up being quite successful. It satisfied all of CDC Global Travel’s functional requirements, was easy to work with and was a fraction the size of many other frameworks.