PROCESS

I led a team of three designers, including myself, for the client project, following the outlined process.

CLIENT’S BRIEF

Elevate Resiliency is a Toronto-based non-profit organization that fosters a safe and inclusive community for Black and minority women who have faced gender-based violence or sexual trauma. The organization aims to create an environment where affected individuals feel safe, supported, and empowered to make mindful choices.

Elevate Resiliency heavily relies on word-of-mouth to attract new members to their services and programs. They implemented a new website and social media platforms to broaden their reach. However, the website did not achieve the anticipated level of interest and engagement.

SOLUTION

My team and I, decided to redesign the home page with major focus on

• Hierarchy

• Navigation

• Use of Colors

  The goal is to effectively communicate the value proposition and prioritize the "Contact Us" feature on the website. Customers should easily understand the services and benefits of joining the programs. With our redesigned version that is easily digestible, customers will be more convinced to explore Elevate Resilience programs and contact their team for inquiries or enrollment.

PRE-CLIENT TEAM MEETING

We discussed the client's project brief and objectives, which the client emailed us. After that, we decided to take the following actions to prepare for the strategy session during our first meeting with the client.

During our initial meeting, the client provided additional details regarding the issues they wanted our assistance with, explicitly concerning their homepage. We took the opportunity to present our findings from the competitive analysis and UX audit, and it was a reassuring moment as everyone involved agreed on the identified concerns and areas for improvement. This alignment allowed us to move forward with a shared understanding, setting a solid foundation for collaborative efforts.

UX audit identified several concerns with home page:

1. The call-to-action (CTA) buttons lack consistency.

2. The header section lacks value proposition communication.

3. High cognitive load and the use of complex terms.

We further delved into analyzing three other websites that exist in a similar competitive landscape and identified a few very prominent patterns that could enhance user engagement and streamline navigation for our client's website.

1. Progressive information disclosure: These websites offered a high-level overview of their organization's activities on the Home page and provided more detailed information on dedicated pages.

2. Clear calls to action (CTAs): The websites used prominent and easily understandable CTAs to guide visitors towards desired actions.

3. Distinct sections for services: Each organization had separate areas dedicated to showcasing its various services, making it easy for users to navigate and find the services they were interested in.

FIRST CLIENT MEETING / STRATEGY SESSION

These are the specific tasks me and my team agreed on with the client to reach their goal

USABILITY TEST OF THE CURRENT HOMEPAGE AND KEY INSIGHTS

To identify pain points and assess areas for improvement, we carried out usability tests with five users, using the current design as a basis.

A primary concern that arose was that none of the users could understand the current offerings of Elevate Resiliency easily. The content on the Home page could have been more straightforward and more manageable for all users.

We identified the following key theme based on the notes that we made during the usability test

DEFINING THE MENTAL MODEL

This helped us think from the user's perspective and set the tasks more clearly :

• The user doesn't engage in this frequently and is currently vulnerable, requiring additional guidance and a sense of security.

• The user is likely aiming to seek help, which may involve disclosing personal information. Therefore, they will exercise caution and be extra careful with their decisions.

PERSONA

We then proceeded to map the insights into the persona that encapsulated the traits of the target users.

HOW MIGHT WE STATEMENT ENCAPSULATING ALL FINDINGS

Now it's time to synthesize everything we've learned during the research process and define it as a "How Might We" (HMW) statement. We'll use this statement to anchor building design concepts and ideas.

“How might we achieve an optimal arrangement of the home page to enable easy user orientation, smooth navigation, and ultimately boost the conversion rate of users?”

USER FLOWS

Considering the 'How Might We' statement, we defined two red routes to explore for this project :

• User's path to explore and discover relevant content.

• User path to click "Contact Us" to contact the client for assistance.

SKETCHES

FINAL SCREENS

LESSONS LEARNT + NEXT STEPS

This project exposed me to working in a team environment and with an actual client. Here are a few key learnings from this experience:

At the beginning of the project, dealing with team members in 4 different time zones and needing access to actual users for usability testing posed challenges. However, we successfully found workarounds and are proud of our collaborative achievements.

Another valuable learning experience was understanding how diverse ideas within a team can converge to achieve excellent results.

Good communication skills are crucial when presenting design ideas to the team. It's also essential to be cohesive while giving feedback on other team members' work and not take the feedback personally.

Below are the next step recommendations that we provided to Elevate Resiliency.

Work with developers to implement the designs

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY

The project aimed to create an enhanced user experience for the "Home" and "Contact Us" pages. If I had more time, I would have conducted card sorting for the home page with the client. Understanding the content categorization as must-have, good to have, or deleted is an excellent exercise. Additionally, it's a great way to keep the client in the loop, ensuring everyone is on the same page.