i'm anthony maocheia-ricci, a third year undergrad student at the university of waterloo. i'm studying human-computer interaction (under computer science) and psychology, and i've been spending my elective time in rhetoric and semiotic courses.
my interests mainly lie in user experience design and human-computer interaction & social computing research. i also have interests in design for accessibility, ethical uses of AI, and sociolingusitics.
i'm currently an undergraduate research assistant in prof. edith law's augmented intelligence lab, researching social computing technologies for equalizing power imbalances in group tasks and technologies that support well-being, have previous industry experience working as a ux designer at arctic wolf and WSIB innovation labs, and in development and instructional design at the university of waterloo's library. i also have experience with run-off sentences.
website made with <3 by me, anthony
how might we centralize information in a complex system?
in progress - check back later for updates!
how might we improve efficiency with limited screen real estate?
throughout my work term at arctic wolf, i was tasked with a large UX research project regarding UI real estate and customization for an internal triaging tool. this project included preliminary research and designs, followed by semi-structured interviews and usability tests, and an iterative design process.
to gain an understanding of the tool before entering the interview process with users, i had went through previous interviews and training recordings. from these, i made both low- and high-fidelity mockups on figma in order to gain a deeper understanding of what issues existed and where changes can be made β this lead to the discovery that different users would all have slightly different issues depending on monitor size, position at the company, or general workflow.
these designs were focused on three areas that were known to be pain points: layout organization options, filters, and the analyst notes pane.
through the interviewing process, i learned about many pain points that users had within the interface and was able to discover new issues to work into my general solutions. these mainly revolved around poor use of space for smaller fields, and a poor UX with scrollable elements throughout the interface. meeting these users proved to be extremely useful, as they were able to help through continued contact within the iterative design phase.
in addition to the project, the company was also engaged in the UX strategy program offered by centre center. in discussion of UX outcomes after research had been underway, an experience vision was created for the general outcome of this project: if we do a great job with reorgnization options, we will improve the users' lives by tailoring the layout to their workflow so that they can triage more efficiently.
after the main research and design iterations were completed, finalized designs were handed off to developers β but an additional part to the project was added. within interviews, issues were brought up about using this triaging interface for deeper investigations and the real estate issues were further stressed. along with findings from previous UXR projects, an ideation and early design phase was started for a new "investigations" interface, with low-fidelity sketches and high-fidelity wireframes created using miro and figma.
how might we organize our ideas to better solve problems?
scatternote is a proof of concept design for a notes app that helps organize your ideas automatically. this was done as a first attempt of a "case study" before my first experience in ux.
throughout university, i've found myself to be the type of person who loves to write my thoughts down when i feel i'm overwhelmed with life. even in discussion with friends, we all tend to write about our feelings in some sort of way; some friends prefer to use a physical journal, some have a never-ending notes file, some use specialized notes apps, and others use a private or spam social media account.
in my personal experiences trying various options, i've made note of various pros and cons; from the full customization of a physical journal being inaccessible in the dark and requiring stationary to use, to a classic notes file having little customization options but easy accessibility, to the questionable privacy of a venting account.
from the discussions and my own personal experiece, i was able to group the main types of notes into the categories of needs, wants, or general thoughts. however - sometimes we don't know how to group our thoughts categorically (leading to the never-ending notes file). this lead to the idea that the software would categorize it automatically for you into those groupings, regardless of the style of input (a long-winded paragraph or short three-line memos).
this proof of concept was created with material you (material ui 3) guidelines in mind, inspired by the interface on my phone! this design language is a delight to use on a daily basis, where you'll notice various ways the colours change in applications based on your phone's theme, adding a touch of personality to your personal notes app.
the frames can be seen here, or on the original figma file.
how might we design online courseware to effectively teach information literacy?
at my work term with the university of waterloo library, i had partially worked with the instructional design team in order to develop and aid in the design of a set of online learning modules. my tasks were split between interface development using H5P, a javascript based open education resource framework, and instructional design for the layout and flow of the modules.
using H5P, i was tasked to create many interface elements for instructional designers to use within each module. within the 'interactive book' type, necessary functions such as tab groups and having images and text adjacent to one another were not possible. i had both designed and developed these interface elements for use in modules in which i would be filling.
as these modules would be used by students of all abilities, many forms of accessibility testing were undertaken, from colour contrast testing to meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards, to keyboard navigation and screen reader testing with both free options such as ChromeVox and full solutions (on library harware) with JAWS.
after adequate elements were created and accessible, i completed the storyboarding process for the flow of each module in the information literacy course, using figma designs from my development stage to support the documents with visuals.
links to the modules can be found on the university of waterloo's OLOR by searching for my name.
how did i learn about design and development?
before entering the field of UX, i had done smaller projects in UI and game development, as well as graphic design.
an app that helps you sort your waste in the correct bins with the help of AI. personally designed and developed the prototype, and mainly worked on the UI implementation
an idea for a messaging client centred around the popular music streaming service, spotify. designed the prototype.
a simple arcade shooter / zone defense game. play here.
a "janky" fighting game for two players. personally worked on all of the character designs, and implemented various features and menus. play here
an infographic made to simplify a mathematical research project for the average student's consumption. personally made all designs and customized the layout using figma. read here.
an instructional video made to relate a statistical concect to popular media forms in order to make learning and understanding easier. made a portion of the drawings and designs for the video. watch here.
recently i've been reading books in a wide range of subjects, from ux design, to digital culture, to technology and how to (not) use it as much, and more. my current have read list is:
my in-progress list is:
as well, my to read list consists of:
i was (graciously) lended the first three books about ux design and research from my supervisor at my first co-op job with the university of waterloo's library after showing interest in ux work. other books are either ones i've caught on the shelf of indigo, or got reccomended to me by happenstance or the algorithm.
i listen to a lot of music. as in over 75k minutes in 2022 on spotify. you can see my current obsessions below:
i have a strong personal belief that tech can be used as a tool for social good if those behind it care deeply enough about the users β and most importantly, remember that they are human. i recognize that i'm still super new to the field of ux, the tech world, and the studies of human interactions with computers and software and everything else that runs our digital worlds, but from what i've learned and personally experienced, we can use these devices to make positive change in the world; socially, environmentally, whatever.
"You and I,... everyone on this planet, we live in data, but we have not, as of yet, figured out how to be citizens of it. To not only inhabit data, but also to participate in it, to find agency, to actively engage and meaningfully resist." βJer Thorp, Living in Data
the font used on this page is atkinson hyperlegible, a font that is more readable for people with low vision. it's free to use with google fonts and it looks pretty. i'd recommend it.
you can find me pretty much anywhere, but mainly on: