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Redesigning for usability
Timeline
April, 2021
3 Week Sprint
This was a client case with Eastern Queens Alliance, a community sustainability organization located in Queens, New York.
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My team and I were provided a long list of problems to tackle for the redesign of the outdated website to improve its usability and effectiveness.
Role
UX Designer in team of 3
Lead Prototyper
What's the problem?
We broke down the long list of problems and summarized them into 3 main ones.
The site does not accurately communicate EQA's credibility as an organization
The site has not been updated since 2013
Site does not look like a reliable source of information
There are many missing essential pieces
Design is outdated
Current design looks old
Poor use of images and color
Current information architecture makes it difficult to navigate site
Navigating the site isn't intuitive (i.e. it's difficult to find where to donate or how to get involved)
Comparative analysis with inspirations
Our POC gave us several "competitors" to take a look at for inspiration so we started feature analysis between those "competitors", EQA, and some other organizations we found through research.
FEATURES
EQA
RISE
ALLEY POND
CHCF
Credibility
Events Calendar
Programs List
Social Media
Commenting
Mobile Friendly
Get Involved
Our Supporters
In-site Donation
NC
Search
Difference We Make
Contact
Covid Response
Newsletter
Success Stories
What's New?
Translate
Timeline
= No
= Yes
Interviews with real and potential users
We interviewed actual users from a list of contacts from our POC and potential users from surveys.
We organized our data into three categories to focus on:
Ways I stay updated
Reason for involvement
"I like to stay updated through online means like the website and social media"
"I like to stay updated through emails or the newsletter"
"I’m involved because I care about what the organization is striving to achieve"
"I want to know the purpose of the organization"
"I want to see the progress made by the organization"
"I feel a need to give back"
How I'm involved
"I like to be involved by attending events (i.e. galas, park clean ups, etc.)"
"I often donate via credit card, payment apps, and check"
"I attend both virtual and in-person events"
Our personas
Our research concluded that we could have 3 potential users: community adult, student/youth, and government official. We were not able to get any interview data on the government official.
COMMUNITY ADULT
Scenario: Charles wants to help his community grow and prosper by donating to EQA so that his kids can live good lives. He usually donates by check monthly but would like to find an easier way to donate online to save time. And he would like to know where that money is being used.
Need
1. Looks on website to find how to donate online​.
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2. Not able to find the donation part right away.
Browse
3. Finally finds the donation section at the bottom.
Find
4. Is taken off site to gofundme
Donation
5. Gets confused with the one option to pay only monthly, and the tip for the use of the platform.
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3
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2
5
STUDENT/YOUTH
Scenario: Isabella has free time on the weekends and would like to spend it volunteering or attending events. She wants to look online to find information about upcoming opportunities.
Need
1. Looks for volunteer opportunities on the website.
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2. Can't find them immediately, starts to browse through the main navigation tabs.
Browse
3. Can find past events, but no current events on the outdated website.
Search
4. Decides to look for EQA social media for information
Find
5. She’s only able to find Facebook from EQA website
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6. She’s able to find some upcoming events on facebook and can share them with her friends
6
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2
3
4
5
Defining the problem
"
Those looking to get involved in their community need a clear attractive website for reference so that they can easily find the information they need to do things like volunteer, donate, and attend events.
"
Reorganization of site
We conducted a closed card sort to reorganize the information on the website.
Wireframe usability testing
Tasks:
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Sign up for the Newsletter
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Make a donation
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Find and share an event to facebook
Quantitive Data:
Success Rate: All 6 participants completed the tasks​
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Average Task Time:
Newsletter ~ 46 sec
Donation ~ 35 sec
Event Share ~ 42 sec
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Qualitative Data:
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Dialogue:
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“I like how clean and quick the donation form is”
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“I want to know more about the company before I donate”
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“If I was interested in an event, I would totally share it or email it”
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Likes: Donation anonymity option, the ease of donating and sharing an event, information about EQA on the home page (in the overlays)
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Dislikes: The processing fee for donations, not knowing what the donations contribute to​
High-fidelity prototype
We did not build out the full website, we were mainly focusing on areas that best show the difference and improvements from the current status.
Home/Landing: More visually appealing web design with clear CTA's and better organization.
Contact/Footer: All contact options and all socials available now; now has footer as well with contact and newsletter sign up.
Donation: Shows clearly what donations are going to with and easy to fill out form.
Events: List of events is easy to read with options for spreading word about each event.
High-fidelity usability testing
Tasks:
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Sign up for the Newsletter
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Make a donation
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Find and share an event to facebook
Quantitive Data:
Success Rate: All 6 participants completed the tasks​
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Average Task Time:
Newsletter ~ 15 sec
Donation ~ 25 sec
Event Share ~ 18 sec
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Qualitative Data:
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Dialogue:
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“I like what I’m seeing, there’s a good balance between pictures and information”
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“I love the data here, it makes me feel comfortable about donating.” (metrics in donation)
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Likes: “I really like the disclaimer at the bottom”, She likes the check boxes, really liked the thank you note after donating.
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Dislikes: Images didn’t seem specifically related to the information in the About Us, adding captions could be useful.​
After thoughts
As my first real world client project, it was very insightful to see the difficulties that can arise between designers and stakeholders. Communication between designers and stakeholders can already be difficult, but take into account of the client being across the country and also our point of contact being a middle man between us and the client. However, although we had these issues, I felt that we had a smooth process with what we were able to accomplish. But I feel that these problems would have been more severe if we had continued past the given project time.