Staff Journal: Layout Design
Youth Unlimited is an organization designing a revised version of their yearly staff journal
Context
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I had been hired in 2019 to lead a design a team of three in the production of a 200+ page staff journal, being distributed to approximately 80 staff members
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The end product was well received, and client returned in 2020 with an updated list of requirements for a new version of the journal to be produced
Scope & Challenge
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Client completed internal research on the original version of the journal and I joined the process after this phase
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A team was assembled with myself leading two staff members through the process from July-September 2020
The original staff journal created in 2019
Key Roles & Skills
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Layout Design: managing the user experience of each page
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Project Management: communicating lead times to team
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Design Ideation: leading meetings to develop affordances
Tools Used
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Adobe Illustrator: wireframing and graphic element creation
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Adobe InDesign: layout design ideation and final export
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Google Sheets: formatting data for personalized content
Process
Client Internal Reanalysis
Defining Deliverables
Design Ideation
Launch & Accomplishments
Client Internal Reanalysis
-Journal user feedback
-New journal decided upon
-Unpacking client research
-Aligning to define problem
-Iterative mockup creation
-Team brainstorm sessions
-Print production handoff
-Client satisfaction
-User feedback collected
-Potential 2021 version
Accomplishments
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The new version of the journal was successfully produced & well received by staff
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All of the client’s desired revisions to the original were able to be implemented
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New journal is approximately half the size in terms of dimensions, weight and
New version of the journal (inside)
Journal cover and booklets laid out
Defining Deliverables
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Time to align with the client on defining key problems before potential solutions are developed in the ideation stage
Client Research
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The client organization has completed an internal reanalysis of the first version of the journal
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They have also informed me of their user research and feedback to incorporate into the updated version
User Feedback
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Users reported the first version of the journal as being comprehensive, but a little too large to navigate as quickly as they would have preferred
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Prominent reflection section can be made more concise if the user records their answer in an external notebook
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New version of the journal will have all pages reformatted for a smaller overall size, as well as a modular concept with several separate booklets
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This section will have its user experience/layout reassessed to accommodate for the removal of interactive white space
Major Changes
Finalizing Technical Specifications
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Client provides a table of contents for each modular booklet; this information is confirmed via Google Sheets
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New page dimensions for the booklets must be sent to the printer, as we need to confirm these technical constraints
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Before we can move to the ideation process, we must finalize the grid for the journal’s two-page spread
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Red area denotes an exclusion zone that will be free of graphics, as per the client's production requirements
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Blue area has been provided by the printer as the recommended exclusion zone to avoid the booklet seam
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Green area is the safe space where we will be able to work within during the upcoming design ideation phase
Design Ideation
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I guided the design team through an agile, iterative process to revise each separate booklet within the new staff journal
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Below is an example of the decision making process, taking an in-depth look at the redesign of a weekly reflection page
Original (2019) Reflection Page Design
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This is the original version of this section: one of several two-page spreads for six unique weekly reflection pages (we are looking at just one here)
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Users were meant to write their responses to questions in the blank areas between questions
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This spread is not to scale with the following new versions, and sports a more elongated aspect ratio
Preliminary (2020) Mockup
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The new form factor is smaller overall, and most importantly it features a much stockier aspect ratio
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Major change on these pages is the removal of the write-in space for responses, so that only one copy of each of these reflection pages would be necessary
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The questions are thusly redesigned to be more "self-contained", and this is further reinforced by the iconography watermark filling in the white space
First Mockup Revision
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The iconography watermark was removed as its function was deemed to be redundant, given that it is already clear that the user is not to write within the notebook itself
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The exclusion zone for graphical elements around the border of the page also made the element look awkward
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A cleaner look also reinforces a focus on the content of the page, as there are less distracting superfluous elements
Second Mockup Revision
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Identified that users may need a reference for which question is being answered in order for them to keep track of responses in the external notebook
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Questions were therefore given numbers at this stage, and the layout shifts ever-so-slightly to accommodate for this
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The client also requested a label for the week number, as these pages are one of six distinct weekly reflections
Third Mockup Revision (Final Version)
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Week number label was modified to enhance usability by increasing visibility
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Question numbers are made more prominent by removing "reflection" label text
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Colour for this page slightly altered as it previously was harder to distinguish from week 4 (shown below)
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Responsive layout developed across all six weeks, as a variable amount of content needed to be considered (two examples shown below)
Launch & Results
Accomplishments
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The new version of the journal was successfully produced & well received by staff
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All of the client’s desired revisions to the original were able to be implemented
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New journal is approximately half the size of the original in terms of page count, dimensions and weight
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Received a personal copy of the journal as a token of appreciation by the client
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Client returned with very positive user feedback in 2021 and they intend to develop an updated version
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I participated in the initial stages of development 2021 journal to help onboard the client's new team to the project
A printed weekly reflection page
