Africa Settlement Futures Database

The Settlement Future Database is to provide a platform to integrate the research results and the ongoing study from the design studios while providing an opportunity for scholars who are interested in this project to connect with the research team. I led a team of three to develop the strategy of digitalizing the project and created the web database from scratch, and it was launched to the public in July 2021.

To determine what tools fit best for both the research team and students, we first studied the workflow of the researchers and the students. Considering the distinguishing difference of the method for collaboration, an all-in-one solution is not efficient enough for these two user groups. The final solution is a combination of two different platforms, a main website built by our team that allows the researchers to submit a pre-formatted form, and sub-sites linked to the main site so students could have full access to the studio content for collaboration.

The challenge of the project is not only to design and developed a website, but to design the relationship of the static pages, dynamic pages, and the database structure for data collection. I worked closely with the research team to make sure the backend data is clear enough for researchers to navigate and suits the need of the database website development. A detailed operation manual was gathered during the prototyping to share with the research team, and adjusted based on the feedback.

Base on the usability testing result, the user flow was adjusted to simplify the multi-window experience.
‍