Design: WHO IBP Portal
Summary: Conceptual design of an online knowledge-sharing and community application, delivered to the Implementing Best Practices in Reproductive Health group, an umbrella organization for international reproductive health professionals managed out of the World Health Organization in Geneva.
Problem context: The IBP group is an international network of women's health professionals. These individuals previously communicated via phone and email which, given the group's geographically dispersed nature, lead to inefficiency, duplicated effort, and information being lost.
Project goal: Enable IBP professionals to communicate with each other more effectively through the IBP portal. Most importantly, the application would contain both a global community for all IBP members, and special-interest communities. Among the other functions the portal needed to perform: allowing members post announcements and respond to announcements and discussions; allowing members to post documents into an online library; allowing members simple check-in/check-out and commenting abilities for documents in the library; allowing members to schedule and hold virtual meetings through the IBP interface. The IBP portal also needed to allow the arbitrary creation of new interest-group communities, to allow for delegation of community leadership, and allow for administration both at the community and global application level.
Target audience: Health professionals scattered around the world, some on old machines and slow connections, and none with a lot of time to spend online.
My role: Worked with a WHO product manager to plan use sequences and construct a comprehensive HTML prototype of all application functionality. Presented prototype functionality to technical audiences in Geneva and health professionals in Baltimore. Worked with WHO to produce refined visual design for approved prototype. Created all use sequences, HTML, graphics files, sitemaps, and self-managed all work in Pittsburgh while working with team in Geneva.
myIBP
Upon logging in, a user sees the myIBP page, which contains announcements and other information for the entire IBP community, as well as listing this member's assigned communities on the right.
myIBP, Coordinator View
Super-users with the ability to add and delete communities, and add and delete members, are called IBP Coordinators. For these few users, the interface changes to reflect their additional privileges.
Community Home
From the myIBP page, users may access the special-interest communities in which they are members. Communities contain a range of functions and content, allowing members to communicate with each other around this special interest.
Library, Hierarchy View
Community members may create categories and post documents into an online Library, to be accessed by other members.
Library, View Knowledge
Members may view meta data and comments associated with an uploaded document, and also download it for themselves.
Library, View Knowledge Version History
Simple check-in/check-out functions and version tracking are included in the library.
Library, Contribute Knowledge
Members may load documents into the library, and attach meta data as they wish. All "member-contribution" functionality across the site users a consistent color marker (yellow) to differentiate it from navigating through and viewing content.
Library, Approve Knowledge
Community Leaders, who have multiple administrative functions over a community, may approve or reject knowledge contributions from other communities.
Discussions, Home
Community members may view and contribute to discussions taking place in the community.
Discussions, View
Members may view, respond to, and forward discussions. Members may also attach documents to a discussion. Documents attached to a discussion are automatically retained in the Library.
Announcements, Home
Community leaders may post announcements for view by community members.
Announcements, View
The view of a particular announcement. The leader has the ability to delete an announcement or forward it to other communities.
Announcements, Create
Community leaders create announcements for view by the community.
Contacts, Home
Contacts retains information on all community members. Community leaders may also create new categories of contacts, and add people to those categories as contacts.
Contacts, Home w. Feedback
Here, a community leader has created a new category of contacts.
Contacts, Display Category
The list of contacts in a certain category is displayed.
Calendar, Home
A calendar allows community members to schedule and view meetings, events, and tasks.
Calendar, View Details
Members may view the details of, and edit the characteristics of, and upcoming meeting.
Member Views Own Profile
Members may view, and make changes to, their online profile.
Member Views Other Member's Profile
Members may also view basic information on other members in the IBP Global Community.
Administration: View Communities
The IBP Coordinator may view a list of communities for editing or removal.
Administration: View Community Characteristics
The IBP Coordinator may view, and then edit, the settings, members, and leaders of a selected community.
Administration: Edit Community Settings
The IBP Coordinator may edit the settings of a selected community.
Administration: View Member
The IBP Coordinator may create new members and add them to one or more communities.