American Folklore Society Conference Management Systems
End-to-end design, testing, and development
New system facilitates staff efficiency and positive user experiences across multiple platforms
Challenges
- Outdated, error-prone, spreadsheet-based management approach
- Negative user experiences
- Duplication of work across multiple processes
- Inconsistent output
- Little funding or support for change
My Role
As one of just 4 core staff members at the American Folklore Society, I played an active role in every step of the process. Initial research, ideation, and development were all mine, as were future iterations of research, design, and development. Other staff contributed to identifying needs, some user testing, and providing stakeholder feedback. Later, we worked with an outside agency for a major branding update, and I was responsible for providing feedback to that team and then deploying the new branding across our systems. Throughout the process, I provided training and technical support for staff and member users.
Discover, Empathize
Plan and Prioritize
Design, Develop
Test and Observe
Analyze and Adjust
Iterate
Achievements
- Â Year 1 – Submission & Review System
Improved submission and review process simplifies user experience, streamlines data, mitigates errors, and improves staff efficiency by approx. 25% - Year 2 – In-person Conference App
Platform replaces outsourced conference app, leading to annual cost savings of $2000+ - Year 3 – Improvements to Submissions & Conference App
Platform expanded to include new indexing and search features requested by users - Year 4 – 2020 Virtual ConferenceÂ
Online platform enables staff to pivot to remote work and collaborate on review and scheduling; data easily exported for use in 3rd-party virtual platform - Years 5 & 6Â – Hybrid Conference Platform
In-house development of virtual platform with Zoom integration enables hybrid conference experience and leads to annual cost savings of $30,000+
%
improvement to staff efficiency in year 1
%