Developed an auditing app to support FamilySearch’s efforts preserving and verifying oral genealogy records

summary

• The oral genealogy project aims to gather family names from people who have oral genealogy traditions
• Contractors are paid per name, so there is a high possibility of fraud
• Audit contractors are employed to ensure data quality
• Existing audit app had not been designed with usability in mind
• I redid the app, drastically improving aesthetics and usability

Project requirements

The oral genealogy project is a unique and amazing project where local contractors are paid to gather family names from people in cultures that have oral genealogy traditions. This project has a high degree of urgency, because once an elder of a village dies, their family history dies with them.

Along with this urgency, there is a high potential for fraud. A separate set of contractors is employed to make sure the data collected is high-quality. FamilySearch needed a complete redesign of their app used to audit name collection contractors.

Specifics:

• The app already existed, but the product manager did not want me to be anchored to it
• The current app was made quickly and had not been evaluated for usability or designed with usability in mind
• The app needed to meet the needs of the operations team, who need certain data in order to evaluate contractors

design process

iteration 1: initial interviews and wireframes

Method

• Conducted user interviews with 5 field auditors to assess problems with current app
• Created grayscale wireframes to implement changes based on user feedback

Feedback implemented

• Streamlined audio recording experience–current experience was confusing and led to anxiety and uncertainty
• Improved app logic–current app often asked irrelevant questions

iteration 2: round 2 interviews and high-fidelity prototypes

Method

• Conducted 5 more user interviews to collect feedback on wireframes
• Spoke with design leadership to make sure my designs were on-brand
• Gathered components and created hi-fi prototypes

Feedback implemented

• Needed to make sure my designs fit user needs while still using approved components
• Users were excited that wireframes included features that met their needs

Iteration 3: Vibe-coded interactive prototypes and usability tests

Method

• Used Claude and GitHub Copilot to create interactive prototypes of new app
• Plan to conduct 5 usability tests to make sure users can perform core functions of the app

Feedback implemented

• Design leadership liked the visual design of the hi-fi prototypes
• They wanted more interactive prototypes for in-depth testing
• I used “vibe coding” to create prototypes with AI without writing or understanding underlying code