D.I.S.C.O. Design Jam

A semester-long internship completed at the University of Pittsburgh in the Spring of 2025.

What is D.I.S.C.O.?

The D.I.S.C.O. is an acronym referencing the purpose of the design jam, our toolkit aims to help people experience. D.I.S.C.O. stands for:

Design an

Inclusive

Spaceship

Collaborative

Operation

The workshop was originally inspired by the "Design a Spaceship" essay from Uncanny Magazine. It is a project co-created by Dr. Jessica FitzPatrick and DNID alum Lynn Priestley and backed by the University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Narrative and Interactive Design program and Digital Media Lab.

My Role

My role on this team was the web developer. In this position, I built a website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript based on a prototype that I co-created with the team’s accessibility coordinator, Julie McGaughey, using Figma. Based on this prototype, I conducted user research to make necessary edits to the prototype and build from that to create the website. The website was built to provide a digital space for anyone looking to host or participate in the workshop virtually, with the digital content needed to do so.

Skills

  • Web Development

  • UX Design

  • UX Research

  • Prototyping

  • HTML/CSS

  • JavaScript

  • Figma

Toolkit

Phase I: Prototyping

Color Palette

Before the development of the website, I assisted our accessibility coordinator in creating our prototype for the website for web, mobile, and tablet devices. Using the color palette created by our Print Layout and Design Editor, Karlynn Ricitelli, we prioritized creating an accessible visual experience for our visitors.

Prototype

Phase II: Usability Testing

Using Google Forms and usability testing methods such as the System Usability Scale (SUS), I conducted a usability testing session with 9 of my peers to understand where there were design flaws, how simple the design was to navigate, and where users were looking as they were navigating the website.

Feedback

Situational Questions

For the most part, the design was easy to follow. Before the usability testing, a change was made to the name of a page. The “Leaders” page was previously named “Facilitators”. Users found this name to be misleading about what the content on the page and that it was unnecessarily long and could use a name such as “Leaders”.

Design Questions

In this section of the form, I was primarily looking for design feedback. I was looking to gauge any design flaws/inconsistencies and emotions of what users felt when looking at the site.

Users expressed that margins were inconsistent, and image layouts could be more consistent. Using this feedback, I applied the appropriate margins and created a more visually appealing image layout as well.

System Usability Scale (SUS)

Using five questions from the System Usability Scale, I wanted to understand what users were feeling while navigating through the prototype to create a simpler and more user-friendly experience for users. The scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)

Phase III: Website Development

After tweaks were made to the high-fidelity prototype, I began the development of the D.I.S.C.O. Design a Spaceship website using HTML/CSS and a bit of JavaScript.

The website is live at: https://discodesignjam.com/

Limitations & Key Takeaways

  • Conducting user research was tough, trying to find an appropriate time for myself and participants due to conflicting schedules within a week-long period.

  • Feedback given by users opened up my perspective to show how certain language can affect the user’s experience.

  • Iterating with users showed that less can be more.