Orbit
A career tracking & workload management tool for the University of Maryland, College of Information Faculty
12 WEEKS / MAR - JUN 2025
Project: Academic Project
Team: Saumya Verma, Hitarthi Bhinde, Mansi Srivastava, Pradeep Yellapu, Hansika Murugu
Tools
Figma
Figma Make
Miro
Skills
UX Research
Product Design
OVERVIEW
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Problem
Teaching
Service
Research
Process
My Contribution
During the research phase, I led three interviews and 2 participatory design sessions with faculty members to better understand their workload management and promotion planning strategies. During the ideation phase, three of my ideas were modified and developed into our five design visions. I then advocated for listing the advantages and disadvantages of each vision, which helped us narrow our ideas down. I solely led the information architecture design and was responsible for creating the wireframes. I independently led the creation of the user flow of the tool and an interactive prototype using Figma Make.
We designed a web-based tool that helps faculty track their workload, understand when to say yes to new commitments, and better balance teaching, service, and research. The platform streamlines previously manual tasks through AI-assisted activity logging and generates an editable, AI-powered year-end report.
Helping faculty better balance their teaching, service, and research responsibilities, and supporting them in making informed decisions about which commitments to take on.
Add activities from the mobile app or web, sync your connected sources, and let AI suggest items to include, then choose what goes into your final report.
Automating the time-consuming and repetitive task of creating a year-end report, crucial for evaluations during promotions.
EMPATHIZE
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Research Goals
GOAL 1
Understand how faculty manages their workload and plans for promotions
GOAL 2
Identify critical sources of frustration with the current processes
GOAL 3
Discover what users expect from a digital platform to help them succeed
Methods
8
in-depth faculty interviews
5
participatory design sessions
1
identity model + journey map
Interviews
We structured our contextual interview guide around four major themes:
a. Daily Tasks
b. Tools Used to Manage Workload
c. Personal and Professional Goals
d. Documentation & Promotion Preparation
Each section had open-ended questions and optional observational prompts, such as reviewing planners or calendars, observing workspace setups, or discussing templates used in promotions. These helped us gain a deeper understanding of how faculty organize their responsibilities.
On the right: Distribution of interviewed faculty members
Participatory Design
Participants mapped out a typical work week and annotated moments that felt particularly chaotic or organized. They shared emotional responses to specific tasks and tools, helping us uncover pain points, support gaps, and mismatches between their workflows and current systems.
Participants created low-fidelity prototypes of a tool they wished existed. By arranging interface elements and explaining their choices, they articulated what functionalities, forms of recognition, and organisational structures would help them feel in control of their workload.
DEFINE
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Understanding the Data
Together as a team, we analysed the data we collected with our Qualitative Research Methods.
Key Findings
User Journey Map
Walk Walk
The Wall Walk generated a wealth of innovative ideas that guided our visioning session. Our Wall Walk surfaced many key insights: a personalized tool can drive continuous self-improvement; need for a tool that can adapt to each user’s broader life context; and tools that effortlessly capture their achievements on the go.
IDEATE
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Design Goals
Decision Clarity
How might we help faculty decide which tasks to say “yes” to - and when?
Balanced Commitments
How might we help faculty better balance teaching, service, and research?
Streamlined Updates
How might we make the CV and Faculty Success update less time-consuming?
Honouring Personal Life
How might we make personal life commitments valued in faculty reviews?
Peer Learning and Comparison
How might we foster shared learning?
Career Growth
How might we better support faculty in advancing their careers?
Ideation
Vision 1: Annual Review Task Dashboard
A single dashboard aggregates teaching, research, and administrative activities drawn from existing tools (Canvas, Outlook, Faculty Success, etc.). At year-end, the professor can export a promotion-ready report.
Vision 2: Micro Diary Logger
A “diary” widget lets faculty jot quick notes about fragmented tasks (advising emails, committee work) throughout the day to make them easier to document for year-end reviews.
Vision 3: GenAI Assistant
An AI side-panel feature on Orbit that pulls data from various platforms used by faculty and drafts evidence statements, structures accomplishments, and suggests missing items.
Vision 4: Personality-Tuned Home Page
A configurable landing page adapts to the faculty member’s stated preferences. They can choose to include personal life as an element in the dashboard to discuss during year-end reviews.
Vision 5: Peer Discussion Board
The system gives faculty a lightweight place to share timely, career-relevant content (conferences, teaching hacks, service opportunities) with peers in similar roles.
Design Alternatives
We began by sketching our five ideas on paper and used AI to generate quick prototypes. Then we evaluated each concept against our design goals and selected the one to take forward.
Vision 4: Personality-Tuned Home Page
The scan generates draft evidence statements with badges for Teaching, Research, and Service.
The Suggestions tab lists what’s missing and shows a Structure preview of report completeness.
Vision 5: Peer Discussion Board
The scan generates draft evidence statements with badges for Teaching, Research, and Service.
The Suggestions tab lists what’s missing and shows a Structure preview of report completeness.
Design Decisions
For the final design vision, we prioritized four MVP features:
Workload Dashboard
Gen-AI for Orbit
Diary Log
Discussion Board
We chose these because they most directly meet the core goals of decision clarity, workload balance, faster reporting, and peer learning while remaining technically feasible to ship in one term. Each choice scored high on meeting core design goals, technical feasibility, and privacy. We explicitly excluded the Personal aspect (personal-life bar) from MVP due to privacy and equity risks: potential admin visibility ambiguity, bias or stigma from sensitive disclosures, and social pressure to share context, none of which are necessary to achieve the core outcomes.
Information Architecture
I led the creation of the following Information Architecture:
PROTOTYPE
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Workload Balance Dashboard
View workload balance summary and progress bars
Filter by day, week, semester, or year
Error notifications when the workload goes above the set target
Edit Targets
Target Setting
Set targets for the semester
Tailored Recommendations and Tips
All Activities
AI Assistant suggests activities to log based on connected sources
Manually add activities via web tool or mobile application
Filter to view activities and select which ones to add in the final report
Add Activities to Report
Select key activities to add to the final report
Reports
The AI generated Annual Report based on selected activities
Add or remove activities from the "Evidence Library" to tailor the report in real time.