THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
As UX and Design Manager I led design while supporting, developing, and guiding user research, design thinking, and iterative design in all Museum experiences. In addition to those responsibilities, I was heavily involved in institutional planning through the development of roadmaps, budgets, and—in collaboration with the Deputy Director—advising on supporting a healthier and more productive culture within the division.
I managed an internal team of six; two UX designers, two application developers, and two exhibition designers, as well as a handful of outside vendors. My goal upon arriving was to discover the greatest needs within our branch, division, and the Institution, and then begin the process of implementing improvements.
Discovery and Onboarding
The process began by talking with my team, colleagues and internal partners to determine what made them happy, frustrated, where they perceived things going well, and where they saw opportunities for improvement. I met with product owners and colleagues from across the Museum in order to really understand the institution—how and why things functioned as they did. During these early conversations and experiences it became apparent that process refinements, new design tools and standards, and improved communications were needed in order to create a more aligned, healthier and productive work environment where everyone felt informed, respected, and equipped to do their work.
PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS
Goal: Increase Focus and Reduce Fragmentation
I focused on improving communication streams while identifying and helping team members recognize fragmentation caused by “invisible” work. I established a shared vision regarding current conditions, issues, goals, and quantifiable measures of success. Coaching efforts focused on developing and supporting best practices for our Kanban boards. In order to further focus efforts across digital, I proposed, planned and led quarterly maintenance sprints to educe the impact maintenance tasks were having on application developers and UX designers on a daily and weekly basis. I identified gaps in team formation, assisted in the hiring and coaching of new internal team members and the management of external partners, and worked with project managers to refine our project and maintenance sprint processes in response to lessons learned—setting the stage for continual improvements across teams and projects.
On the physical side I worked with team members and colleagues to evolve the existing maintenance and project based processes to one more aligned with the digital side.
Goal: Raise Design Standards, Consistency, and Improve Communication
To address issues related to inconsistency in design patterns, elements, interactions, and standards across digital platforms, and to improve communication between designers and developers I identified a gap in the team’s toolbox—the need to develop and implement a design system. I supported the work to develop a problem statement and ensured it was included as a key deliverable in the next major project—the CMS replacement for the main USHMM site. In addition to introducing this new tool, we identified process-related challenges to delivering products to standard, and implemented improvements.
Goal: Improve Accessibility as part of our DEAI Initiative
Upon arrival it was clear that some of the Museum’s digital properties were lagging in areas related to accessibility. Resolving color contrast issues, ensuring keyboard navigation, consistent use of alt-text, and header tags was prioritized. The implementation of our maintenance sprints enabled additional accessibility concerns to be addressed, and in collaboration with members of my team we proposed a project to address additional accessibility issues that would otherwise not be addressed in a timely fashion. In addition, I facilitated and supported a series of visual description-focused accessibility workshops. The result, a visual descriptions style guide for all of our Museum properties. Over time this will guide implementation of more accessible digital products and visitor experiences.
Goal: Ensure a Shared Clarity of Purpose and Path
When I joined, UX and Design had been without a design lead for a couple of years. Design reviews were not occurring regularly, and a shared vision didn’t exist. The benefits of the multi-perspectivity within our team were not being realized. Identifying a productive way to lead design reviews and bring the team together, became one of my focuses. Off-sites were planned and arranged, and a vision statement was developed with the team. A successful hybrid approach to reviews was arrived at that involved facilitated digital and physical reviews with regular sharing out among the entire team. The next step, as processes continue to align, and the experiences we deliver to visitors more regularly become a combination of physical and digital, will be a move toward increased frequency of group reviews that benefit from, and are worthwhile for all participants.
PROJECT LEADERSHIP AND DESIGN
In addition to managing the UX and Design team, I apply my design expertise to lead product and exhibition design.
Highlighted below are some of the projects we worked on.
Holocaust Encyclopedia Timeline
In 2022 the Holocaust Encyclopedia hosted more than 25 million visitors from 200+ countries in 20 languages. I supported the work of my team (Han, Lynne, John, and Will) as we improved the experience for visitors. Regular maintenance work was planned to address performance issues, accessibility issues, and address bugs. Project based work resulted in implementation of new templates, features, and improvements. Highlights included the newly redesigned Holocaust Encyclopedia Timeline, which moved an existing timeline out of the main site in anticipation of the soon to be deprecated content management system, and new templates for delivering Ukrainian content to visitors.
Lessons Learned: Tools for Atrocity Prevention
The Atrocity Prevention tool is a faceted search project that kicked off in late 2021 and launched in mid-2022. I supported the work of our senior UX researcher, an outside application developer, and as Stakeholder on the project coordinated with colleagues within the Simon Skjodt Center in order to understand their goals, ensure the product met our core audiences’ needs, and met the Museum’s design standards. The project was a success in large part due to the efforts of our UX designer, Lynne Venart, who conducted performance, usability and comprehension testing, and managed two roles (UX designer and project manager). This project helped us identify the need to focus on, and advocate for process and project team composition improvements within the organization. Following this project the organization committed to ensuring each project was adequately staffed with a project manager, and quality control was allocated an appropriate amount of time, making this project both a successful launch and a valuable learning experience.
Online Exhibitions
Many online exhibitions at the Museum had been long neglected, built using outdated technology, and not designed mobile first. This created performance, security, and reliability issues that required moving them onto a new platform. The first two that moved were Burma’s Path to Genocide and Americans and the Holocaust (both launched prior to my arrival). I supported Han Xie, a member of my team in the redesign of State of Deception and Some Were Neighbors which were intended to test the flexibility and viability of the new CMS. Each was staffed differently, and with that came the opportunity to compare and contrast two different approaches. The redesign of State of Deception was an opportunity to see how far the existing CMS could be pushed with minimal developer intervention, whereas Some Were Neighbors provided the opportunity to look into the future to identify elements that would be valuable for other online exhibitions. As Stakeholder for both projects I provided support and feedback.
Remember the Children End Experience
Daniel’s Story: Remember the Children is a special exhibition that presents a composite of children’s stories through the eyes of one boy (Daniel) as he experiences growing up in pre-war Germany through his time in a concentration camp. It has become something closer to a permanent exhibition, and is the second most visited experience in the Museum. What was originally intended to be a multi-year exhibition has become an enduring 30 year fixture in the Museum.
In 2021, leadership recognized the need to replace the penultimate room due to failing technology. The original problem statement envisioned a rethinking of the delivery mechanisms in the space, and the Museum engaged with an outside vendor to assist with discovery. I guided design thinking, audience research, and supported the project’s lead designer. The team arrived at the realization that an opportunity existed to reinforce the messages within Daniel’s Story, while also transitioning from composite story to the reality of the events depicted—the murder of 1.5 million children. I was tasked to lead the team and own implementation.
Working with an internal team and managing a collection of outside vendors, we solved many of the challenges inherent in a project as significant as this. Special recognition is deserved by our partners at Ars Formulae, CM Kling, and Hadley Exhibits. Thank you Dave, Mike, Tyler, Jeff, Brian, and Tom.
When complete, the penultimate room will memorialize the 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust. Visitors will experience a space where the scope and scale of that reality is felt. Each child will be represented by their own singular point of light. 1.5 Million points of light will surround and tower above visitors. The experience will be both visual, and tactile, providing a meaningful experience to all visitors (sighted and non-sighted). The space will then lead visitors into a modernized expression room, designed to elicit critical thought and meaningful responses within a space meeting ADA requirements and serving as broad an audience as possible in an equitable manner.
In addition to the above mentioned work, I am very proud to have played a role in leading the design of several other projects making a meaningful difference to visitors to the Permanent Exhibition. Among them, a redesign of the T4 segment (now know as “Healers and Protectors Become Mass Murderers”), a redesign of the Justice segment, Warsaw Uprising segment, Nazi Society and Police State segment, a redesign of the Group Reservations system, as well as—the tiniest of roles—identifying a suitable location for donor recognition that led directly to securing a $5 Million dollar gift to the Museum.