I've worked on a lot of UX projects over the years. Some had better metrics. Some had bigger budgets.
But one project has stayed with me more than any other—not because of the website we built, but because I was allowed to do what I love most: investigate.
It started as a website redesign for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. Like most UX projects, I interviewed users, conducted usability testing, talked with stakeholders, and analyzed survey results. But as the research progressed, I kept noticing something that didn't fit.
Workers weren't just struggling to find information. Many were struggling to understand it.
Customer service representatives described workers calling because they couldn't understand letters they had received. During usability testing I heard similar frustrations. Employers shared comparable experiences. Survey comments pointed in the same direction.
Each piece of research became another clue.
As I uncovered new findings, I shared them with my manager and asked if I could continue investigating. He approved every step, which allowed the project to grow well beyond the original website redesign.
While researching readability, I came across a study describing how misunderstandings of written instructions can have serious real-world consequences. It completely changed how I thought about readability. That's when I realized readability wasn't just about making content easier to read. It was about making sure people could actually understand it.
The more I learned, the more convinced I became that readability deserved its own research. So I designed a dedicated readability study.
When I began investigating, parts of the current website measured at a PhD reading level. I recommended aiming for approximately a 5th-grade reading level because that is similar to the reading level used by many newspapers. By the final assessment I conducted, the website's readability had improved to about a 10th-grade reading level. There was still work to do, but it was a significant improvement.
What surprised me most wasn't the research itself. It was the response.
The customer support supervisors and managers immediately understood why the work mattered. They talked with workers every day. They heard the questions, the confusion, and the frustration. They appreciated that someone was investigating a problem they had been seeing for years.
During my final week on the project, I wanted to leave them with something practical. Because many workers primarily accessed the website on their phones and often didn't have another computer at home, I put together a list of mobile accessibility and reading tools that customer service representatives could recommend to callers who were struggling to read website content. I emailed it to all of the customer support supervisors and managers. It wasn't part of my assignment. It simply felt like the right thing to do.
It reminded me that some of the best UX research doesn't begin with the question you planned to answer. It begins by paying attention to what users are telling you and following the evidence. That's still my favorite project.
Open to contract UX research opportunities.
Email: theresaw@columbus.rr.com
LinkedIn: theresa-wilkinson